BOQ format for interior design projects (with a free Excel template)

A bill of quantities is the difference between a quote a client can say yes to and a number they have to take on trust. Most disputes on an interior job start with a line nobody could point at afterwards — the wardrobe that was “included”, the ply grade nobody wrote down.

This is the structure most Indian studios settle on, and why each column earns its place.

The columns that matter

• Description — what it is, specifically. “Wardrobe” invites an argument; “Wardrobe — 18mm BWP ply carcass, 0.8mm laminate shutters, soft-close hinges” does not.
• Brand / make — the single most common source of disagreement. If the quote says Hettich and the site gets a local equivalent, that is now visible rather than arguable.
• Quantity and unit — sqft, rft, nos, lump sum. Mixing units inside one section is where arithmetic errors hide.
• Rate — per unit, exclusive of tax.
• GST % — per line, not once at the bottom. More on this below.
• Amount — quantity × rate, then tax shown separately.

Group by room, not by trade

Contractors think in trades — carpentry, electrical, painting. Clients think in rooms. A BOQ grouped “Kitchen, Master Bedroom, Living” gets read; one grouped “Carpentry, Electrical” gets forwarded to someone else to explain. You are writing for the person paying, so group by room and let the trades fall where they may.

GST belongs on the line

Interior work is rarely one rate. Materials and most services sit at 18%, but the mix on a single project can vary, and a client who is registered will want to see the split. Putting one tax figure at the bottom means every revision recalculates the whole document, and any line the client removes leaves the total subtly wrong.

Tax per line costs nothing to set up and means the number at the bottom is the number they pay. This is a GST question at heart, and the difference between a design fee and a works contract changes what belongs here. If you are unsure of the rate for a particular item, your CA is the right person to ask, not a template.

The quantity rules of thumb

These are the working multipliers most studios use when a measured drawing does not exist yet. They are for a first estimate, not a final bill:

If you want the arithmetic done rather than remembered, the kitchen, wardrobe and false ceiling calculators each print the full build-up — quantities, rates and GST, line by line — which is the same shape a BOQ line should take.

• Painting — wall and ceiling area is roughly 3.2× carpet area for a flat with normal ceilings.
• Wardrobes — about 42 sqft per bedroom (a 6ft × 7ft unit).
• Modular kitchen — carcass around 12 sqft per running foot counting base and wall units; shutter face about 7 sqft per rft.
• False ceiling — usually living and dining only, about 35% of carpet area.
• Tiles — add 5% for cutting and breakage.

Tune them to your own practice. A studio that always specifies floor-to -ceiling wardrobes will find 42 sqft low, and should say so in their own template rather than carrying someone else’s number.

The line most quotes are missing

Materials and labour are a cost sheet. A quote also carries your overhead and your margin. If you build a BOQ from supplier rates and hand it over untouched, you have quoted at cost — a mistake that is invisible until the project closes and the margin is four points lower than you thought.

Keep the version

Clients revise. Date every version and keep the old one — “the quote you approved on the 12th” is a much easier conversation than “the quote”.