Quantity Surveying Services Pricing Guide

What a good one includes

• Tiered hourly rates reflecting different levels of seniority within your practice, from junior estimators to chartered directors.
• A percentage-of-construction-cost matrix aligned with project value brackets and complexity levels.
• Clearly defined fixed-fee milestone packages for standardized deliverables like initial cost plans, bills of quantities, and tender evaluations.
• A comprehensive list of reimbursable expenses and disbursement rates for site travel, printing, and specialized software access.
• Precise scope boundaries and explicit exclusions that define exactly when additional services trigger extra hourly billing.
• Standard payment terms, including retainer requirements, billing cycles, and interest penalties for late payments.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Offering flat percentage fees on highly volatile, complex projects without a minimum fee threshold to protect your baseline hours.
• Failing to define what constitutes a material change in project scope, leading to unpaid hours during prolonged design iterations.
• Underpricing initial feasibility studies and cost plans in the hope of securing post-contract administration work that may never materialize.
• Omitting explicit clauses about how site visit frequencies and travel times are calculated and billed to the client.

Frequently asked questions