A bill of quantities or contract bills is also a written document providing fundamental information about a proposed project, but varies from a specification in that it arranges the information into a form more suitable for direct pricing by a builder or contractor. Bills of quantities are used for larger and more complicated contracts, and are prepared within the organisation of a Design Team by a quantity surveyor using the information supplied by production drawings and specification notes. A currently acceptable method of presentation for bills of quantities consists of three main parts:
- Preliminaries: as described for specifications.
- Preambles to trades: a general specification and description of materials and standards of work.
- The quantities: a description of the individual items to be priced and also the numbers, amounts or quantities of each required for the project.