A bid with the conditions it depends on
A bid is a price plus the assumptions behind it. This one prices the scope line by line, carries contingency and overhead as visible percentages rather than buried loading, and gives exclusions their own section ahead of the schedule.
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Three steps to a working document
Price the scope, then load it visibly
Line items with quantity and rate, then contingency and overhead as percentages you can see and change. Loading them silently into the rates means you cannot answer the one question the client will ask.
Fill the exclusions properly
Seven of the usual suspects are pre-filled — permits, engineering, abatement, temporary heat, winter conditions, work outside the drawings, and price escalation after the validity date. Delete what does not apply and add what does.
Put a date on the validity
Material prices and subcontractor availability move. An undated bid is an open-ended commitment you did not intend to make, and the sheet defaults to thirty days.
A bid can become binding once accepted, and on tendered work the instructions to bidders usually govern what you may qualify and what invalidates a submission. This is a commercial working sheet, not legal advice — read the tender documents before you rely on an exclusion, because a qualification the tender did not permit can disqualify an otherwise winning price.
When the spreadsheet stops scaling
In BuildersBridge the bid starts from the estimate rather than a blank sheet, with the province's tax and your markup already applied, and an accepted bid becomes the job budget instead of a file somebody has to find again.
See how it works in BuildersBridgeCommon questions
What is the difference between a bid and an estimate?
An estimate is your assessment of what the work will cost and it can move. A bid is a price you are offering to do the work for, usually in competition and often binding once accepted. The estimate is the arithmetic; the bid is the commitment built on it.
What should a construction bid include?
Identification and a validity date, the priced scope, how contingency and overhead are treated, qualifications and exclusions, the proposed schedule, and whatever the tender asks for — bonding, insurance, WCB clearance. Missing an administrative requirement disqualifies good prices routinely.
Should I show my overhead and profit separately?
On a stipulated-price bid you usually do not have to, and many contractors prefer not to. The template keeps them visible to you as editable percentages regardless, because you should know your own number even when the client does not see it.
How long should a bid stay valid?
Thirty days is common and is the default here. On a tender the instructions to bidders normally set the acceptance period, and that period governs.