The language behind
your next project.
Plain-language definitions for bid management and electrical drafting. Understand the scope, compare supplier returns and keep your drawing deliverables clear.
20 terms
- Bid management
BAFO (best and final offer)
BAFO (best and final offer) is a buyer's request for shortlisted bidders to submit a final revised offer, usually after clarifications or negotiations. The invitation sets what may change, the deadline and how the final offers will be evaluated.
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Bid levelling
Bid levelling is the process of comparing supplier quotes against a common scope and commercial basis, so price differences can be assessed alongside exclusions, qualifications, lead times and missing items.
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BOQ vs schedule of rates vs lump sum
A lump sum is one price for a defined scope. A bill of quantities lists measured items and quantities to be priced line by line. A schedule of rates sets prices for defined units, with the total commonly determined from the quantities performed. The contract determines whether quantities are binding, remeasured or indicative and who carries the associated risk.
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Control schematic vs wiring diagram vs cable schedule
A control schematic shows how a circuit works, a wiring diagram shows where each conductor physically lands, and a cable schedule lists every cable between two pieces of equipment with its size, cores and length. All three describe the same installation at different levels of detail, and they sit below the single line diagram, which shows the system one line per circuit, and beside the general arrangement, which shows where the equipment physically goes.
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Drawing version vs issued revision
A working drawing version records an edit in progress. An issued revision identifies the drawing formally received or released for a stated purpose, such as review, approval or construction.
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DWG vs DXF vs PDF
DWG is the native file format of AutoCAD, DXF is the exchange format Autodesk publishes so that other CAD programs can read the same drawing, and PDF is a fixed picture of the drawing that anyone can open and nobody can edit as CAD. A quote usually carries the PDF as the record of what was offered, plus a DWG when the client's drafters need to place your equipment into their own layout.
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Early contractor involvement and two stage tendering
Early contractor involvement, usually shortened to ECI, is an arrangement where the contractor is engaged before the design is complete, normally for a fee, to contribute buildability, constructability and risk advice while the scope is still being shaped. Two stage tendering is the procurement structure that often carries it: stage one selects the contractor on capability, preliminaries and margin, and stage two fixes the price once the design has matured. For an estimator this changes what you are pricing. In stage one you are pricing a process and a relationship rather than a scope, and the commercial risk moves to the stage two conversion, where a price is agreed against a design you helped shape.
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Free issued equipment
Free issued equipment, also called Principal supplied or client supplied equipment, is plant or material that the client buys and provides for you to install. You don't price the supply, but you price everything around it, and the tender question is exactly where that boundary falls. Six things decide it: the delivery point, who unloads and stores it, who inspects it on receipt, who carries damage and when risk passes, whose warranty covers a defect found during commissioning, and what happens to your programme when it arrives late.
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General arrangement (GA)
A general arrangement drawing shows the physical layout of equipment or an assembly, including its main dimensions, locations, elevations, access and interfaces.
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ITP vs ITC
An inspection and test plan (ITP) defines the checks, acceptance criteria, hold or witness points and responsibilities for a scope of work. An inspection and test checklist (ITC), also called an inspection and test record (ITR), records the checks performed, their results, defects and sign-offs.
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PE stamp (professional engineer seal)
A PE stamp is the seal a licensed Professional Engineer applies to engineering work under the rules of the relevant US state or jurisdiction. Whether a particular deliverable needs a seal depends on the governing law, the submission authority, the type of work and any applicable exemption.
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Price book
A price book is a maintained library of unit rates an estimator prices from, holding a cost for each defined unit of work (and often the labor, material and equipment that make up that cost), so a new estimate is built by pulling proven rates rather than deriving every price from scratch. It is also called a rate library, cost library, pricing database or, in US construction, a unit price book (UPB). A price book can be a company's own rates distilled from past jobs, or a published commercial dataset such as RSMeans; either way it is the single source of truth for what a unit of work costs, kept current so every bid starts from the same trusted numbers.
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Provisional sums, PC items and contingency
A provisional sum is an allowance included in the contract sum for work that is not yet defined well enough to price, adjusted later against what the work actually costs. A prime cost item is an allowance for supplying an item that has not yet been selected, with your installation, attendance and margin priced separately. Contingency is different in kind: it is money set aside against risk, and depending on whose contingency it is, it may sit inside the contract sum, inside your margin, or in the client's own budget where you never see it.
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Returnable schedule
A returnable schedule is a structured form a buyer issues with a tender that the bidder must complete and return as part of their submission, capturing one part of the response (price, technical compliance, capability, or supporting evidence) in the exact format the buyer will evaluate.
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RFI vs clarification vs departure vs qualification
An RFI, a clarification, a departure and a qualification are four different exchanges in a tender, and they are not interchangeable. An RFI (request for information) is a question raised to close an information gap, either a buyer's pre-tender approach to the market or a bidder's formal query about the tender documents during the bid period. A clarification is an explanation of something already stated, given without changing the offer: the buyer's answer to bidders' questions, or the buyer's request that a bidder explain part of a submitted bid. A departure is a stated non-compliance against a specific clause or specification, recording exactly where your offer does not meet what was asked. A qualification is a condition you attach to your offer that changes the basis of your price, such as an exclusion, an assumption or a limit of liability. The short test: an RFI asks, a clarification explains, a departure declares non-compliance against a clause, and a qualification changes what your price actually covers.
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RPEQ sign-off
RPEQ sign-off records professional responsibility for work by a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland. Queensland law requires professional engineering services in or for Queensland to be provided by a practising RPEQ or under their direct supervision; a contract may separately require nominated deliverables to be certified.
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Scope of supply vs scope of works
Scope of supply is the equipment, materials and documents a party delivers. Scope of works is the labour and services on site that install, connect, test and commission them. A tender splits every item of plant between the two, often across different parties, and the equipment list with a column for each responsibility is where that split gets written down.
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SDRL (supplier data requirements list)
An SDRL (supplier data requirements list) is the buyer-issued list, attached to a tender or purchase order, of every document and data deliverable a supplier must produce alongside the physical scope, with each line carrying a title, a document-type code, the required format, the review class it needs, and the milestone or date it is due by. It is the contractual master checklist of a supplier's paperwork obligations; the same list is often written as a VDRL or VDR (vendor data requirements list), and the supplier's reply committing to deliver each item is the supplier document list (SDL).
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Single line diagram (SLD)
A single line diagram represents an electrical system using one line per circuit, showing how supplies, busbars, switchgear, protection and loads connect without drawing every conductor.
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Submittals
Submittals are documents a contractor provides for the design team to review during a project, proving that the materials, equipment and methods it will use comply with the contract: in US construction the term most precisely covers post-award shop drawings, product data and samples. At bid time, the forms a bidder must complete and return are usually called bid forms, proposal forms or exhibits, which are the US counterpart to what Australian and UK tenders call returnable schedules.
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From tender files to levelled bids.
AI reads tender documents, prepares supplier packages and compares returned quotes. Explore electrical drafting for single line diagrams, schematics and general arrangements.