The cheapest subcontract quote may cover a different job
One subcontract price makes your tender look competitive
Imagine three subcontract quotations arrive shortly before your tender is due. One is much lower, so you use it as the allowance. Later, you discover it excludes access equipment and a finishing stage included by the others.
Compare what each quote covers before treating the prices as alternatives for the same work. The apparent saving may leave a cost your own business must still allow for.
Use the same scope as the reference
Identify the drawing revision, specification, work boundaries and programme supplied to each bidder. Confirm that all received material changes. An answer based on an earlier scope cannot be compared fairly with one based on the final requirements.
Make a short comparison of included tasks, exclusions and qualifications. Ask specific questions where the quote is unclear rather than assuming silence means every required activity is included.
Identify costs left with your business
Check access, supervision, temporary works, handling, disposal, testing and return visits where relevant to the actual job. Establish who is responsible for each item and where its cost sits in the estimate.
business.gov.au recommends calculating the full cost of supplying the work. In this comparison, that means looking beyond the subcontractor's headline price to the obligations that remain with you.
Check timing and availability
Ask whether the quotation remains available for the required dates and whether its validity covers your expected acceptance timing. Record any capacity or lead-time qualification rather than assuming the bidder can mobilise whenever the main job starts.
If the preferred bidder cannot meet the programme, assess a supported alternative. Do not retain its lower price as the working cost while planning to use another subcontractor whose price is higher.
Resolve important qualifications before commitment
Confirm the agreed scope and terms through the appropriate contract process. Keep the written clarifications beside the quotation. Have significant contractual uncertainty reviewed before relying on the arrangement.
Do not assume your tender qualification automatically changes the main contract, or that your subcontractor has accepted obligations it never priced. The agreements on both sides need to support the intended allocation.
Carry the comparison into the job handover
Give the delivery team the selected quotation and resolved scope notes. Highlight the work your own team must still provide and the allowance for it. Otherwise the estimating comparison may be lost when the job begins.
If incomplete subcontract allowances keep turning winning bids into cash pressure, review the pattern with your accountant or adviser. CRP can discuss resulting business debts using the actual commitments and job figures, rather than an expected saving that never existed.