AEC definitions
Bid leveling is the comparison of quotes on a common scope. Exclusions are added back, missing items are filled with a plug number, and the adjusted totals are what the estimator compares. The lowest raw bid is often not the lowest complete bid.
Definition
Subcontractors exclude different things: permits, hoisting, controls, tax, a specification section they did not see. A leveling sheet lists the scope items down the side and the bidders across the top. Each cell is included, excluded, or qualified. Plugs are the estimator's allowance for an excluded item, taken from another bid or from a unit price, and they are labeled as plugs. After award, buyout repeats the exercise with the leverage of a signed prime contract. Leveling is not bid shopping. Shopping is sharing one bidder's number to push another down. Many public rules and many subcontract forms forbid it.
In depth
Start with the trade package: the sections, the alternates, the Division 01 items, and the known interfaces. Then post what each bidder included. If you start from the bidder's own outline, you will miss the item nobody mentioned.
Qualifications such as 'price valid for 15 days' or 'material escalation excluded' belong on the sheet. They change the number even when the scope matches.
A plug is not a quote. It is a placeholder so the totals are complete. Use another bidder's included price or a documented allowance, and say which. An unlabeled plug becomes a fake subcontract number.
Large plugs mean the package was unclear or the bidder did not understand it. That is a reason to ask a written question, not only to fill the cell.
You may ask a bidder to confirm whether an item is included. You may not hand them a competitor's price and ask them to beat it. That is shopping, and it is restricted on many public jobs and forbidden by some bid conditions.
If a bidder made an obvious math error, the instruction to bidders may allow withdrawal or correction. Inventing a correction to keep them low is not leveling.
Firestopping, controls, rigging, and dumpsters fall between packages. The leveling sheet for each trade should show who has them. An item excluded by everyone is unowned scope in the GC's number, or a future fight.
Write the subcontract scope from the leveled sheet, not from the low bidder's proposal. Otherwise you award their exclusions.
Bid day is chaotic. The sheet is how you explain the award a month later, and how you defend a number if a scope fight starts. Save the quotes, the plugs, and the version of the package you used.
When an addendum arrives late, note which bidders acknowledged it. Leveling a mix of pre-addendum and post-addendum prices compares different projects.
Examples
Three mechanical bids are leveled. The low raw bid excluded controls. A plug equal to the mid bidder's controls price makes it the high bid.
Every electrical bidder excluded temporary power. The GC carries that cost in general conditions instead of pretending a sub has it.
The subcontract exhibits the leveled scope, including the items the proposal had excluded and the GC required added before award.
FAQ
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