Rate analysis format: how one BOQ rate is built, with tiling and PCC worked examples
Every rate in a BOQ, whether ₹1,611 per sqm of flooring or ₹5,466 per cum of concrete, should come from somewhere. That somewhere is the rate analysis: a one-page build-up of the material, wastage, labour, equipment and sundries it takes to do one unit of work, with water charges, overheads and profit added on top. Here's the working guide: the format CPWD uses in its Delhi Analysis of Rates, a vitrified-tile example priced from scratch, CPWD's own sheet for a cubic metre of PCC, and how the result becomes the rate column of your BOQ.
Boqos — Win more work. Stop the margin leaking.
Every BOQ has a rate column, and every number in it is a claim. ₹1,611 per square metre of flooring means you’ve worked out what one square metre actually costs you to lay, with a margin on top. When that number comes from memory, last year’s Excel file or a competitor’s quote, the BOQ can be perfectly laid out and still lose money. The document that backs a rate up is the rate analysis.
What rate analysis is
Rate analysis works out the unit rate of one item of work from the bottom up. Take a single unit (one sqm of tiling, one cum of concrete) and list everything it consumes: material with wastage, labour in days per unit, equipment hire, and sundries like carriage. Price each input at current rates, total them, then add water charges, overheads and profit. The result is the rate.
The central-government reference in India is the Central Public Works Department (CPWD); state PWDs publish their own schedules too. Alongside its Delhi Schedule of Rates (DSR), the list of item rates, CPWD publishes a Delhi Analysis of Rates (DAR) showing how each rate is built from materials, labour and machinery. CPWD first compiled it in 1950 and says other government departments, PSUs, private bodies and individuals may use it at their own discretion. For labour, BIS IS 7272 (Part 1): 1974 gives labour output constants for building work in the north zone (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan), worked out by CBRI Roorkee from observations on construction sites at Delhi and Roorkee.
The rate analysis format
CPWD’s item sheets follow one layout, and yours should too. The header names the item, its specification and the quantity analysed. The body is a six-column table:
| Code | Description | Unit | Quantity | Rate (₹) | Amount (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material (with wastage) | sqm / cum / kg | per unit | current price | qty × rate | |
| Labour | day | days per unit | day wage | qty × rate | |
| Equipment / T&P | day | hire-days per unit | hire charge | qty × rate | |
| Carriage, sundries | cum / tonne, or L.S. | per unit | carriage rate | qty × rate, or lump sum |
Below the table, a standard CPWD item analysis ends with the same summary block:
- Total: material + labour + equipment + sundries
- Add water charges @ 1%
- Add CPOH @ 15%: contractor’s profit and overheads, on the total including water
- Cost per unit, rounded (CPWD writes it as “Say ₹…”)
Those percentages are from the 2014 edition quoted throughout this guide, so check them against the edition you work from.
Worked example 1: vitrified tile flooring, per sqm
Item: 600×600 mm vitrified floor tiles laid on 20 mm thick cement mortar 1:4, joints grouted with white cement and pigment. The quantities below come from CPWD’s analysis of this exact item (DAR 2014, item 11.41.2). The prices are illustrative assumptions, so replace them with your own quotes and wages.
| Input | Quantity per sqm | Rate (₹, assumed) | Amount (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vitrified tile 600×600 (1.00 + 2.5% wastage) | 1.025 sqm | 800 / sqm | 820.00 |
| Cement mortar 1:4, 20 mm bed | 0.024 cum | 6,500 / cum | 156.00 |
| Cement slurry over bed | 3.3 kg | 8 / kg | 26.40 |
| White cement grout + pigment | L.S. | — | 15.00 |
| Material subtotal | 1,017.40 | ||
| Mason | 0.20 day | 1,000 / day | 200.00 |
| Helper | 0.20 day | 700 / day | 140.00 |
| Sundries, carriage | L.S. | — | 30.00 |
| Total | 1,387.40 | ||
| Add water charges @ 1% | 13.87 | ||
| Add CPOH @ 15% (on ₹1,401.27) | 210.19 | ||
| Rate per sqm | 1,611.46 → say ₹1,611 |
That’s about ₹150 per sq ft (1 sqm = 10.764 sq ft). The sheet shows two things a gut-feel rate hides. Material is nearly three-quarters of the direct cost, so a ₹100 rise in the tile price lifts your rate by more than ₹100 once wastage, water and CPOH sit on top. And tiles fixed on adhesive are a different item: CPWD prices adhesive fixing as its own item (11.43: 5 kg of polymer-modified tile adhesive per sqm at an average 3 mm thickness), with a separate deduction (11.42) for leaving out the mortar bed.
Worked example 2: PCC 1:2:4, per cum (CPWD’s own sheet)
Here’s CPWD’s own analysis of 1 cum of cement concrete 1:2:4 (20 mm graded aggregate, excluding centering and shuttering, up to plinth level), from DAR 2014 item 4.1.3:
| Input | CPWD quantity per cum | Amount at 2014 Delhi rates (₹) |
|---|---|---|
| Stone aggregate 20 mm | 0.670 cum | |
| Stone aggregate 10 mm | 0.220 cum | |
| Coarse sand (zone III) | 0.445 cum | |
| Cement | 0.320 tonne (6.4 bags of 50 kg) | |
| Material incl. carriage | 3,768.21 | |
| Mason / beldar / bhisti | 0.10 / 1.63 / 0.70 day | 832.07 |
| Concrete mixer / needle vibrator | 0.07 / 0.07 day | 80.50 |
| Sundries | L.S. | 25.45 |
| Total | 4,706.23 | |
| Add water charges @ 1% | 47.06 | |
| Add CPOH @ 15% | 712.99 | |
| Cost of 1 cum | say ₹5,466.30 |
The rupees are more than ten years old: that edition’s material prices were collected in Delhi in March–April 2014, with Delhi minimum wages from 1 April 2014, and CPWD has published newer editions since. The quantities are what last: 6.4 bags of cement, 0.89 cum of aggregate and 0.445 cum of sand per cum. Re-price them at this week’s rates in your city and you have a current, defensible PCC rate.
How the rate feeds the BOQ
The rate analysis is the working that sits behind one cell of the BOQ. The chain is:
- Rate analysis → ₹1,611 per sqm for 600×600 vitrified flooring
- BOQ line → 120 sqm × ₹1,611 = ₹1,93,320
- Quotation → the same line, presented commercially with scope, exclusions and validity
- RA bills → each bill values measured quantities at that same ₹1,611
If the rate is wrong, the error multiplies down that chain. A rate that’s ₹80 short per sqm is ₹9,600 lost on this one line, before a single variation.
Where rate analysis goes wrong
- Wastage guessed once and never revisited. CPWD allows 2.5% for vitrified floor tiles. A herringbone pattern or a small bathroom full of cuts wastes more, so match the allowance to the layout you’re pricing.
- Labour as a lump sum. “Tiling labour ₹40,000” doesn’t scale. Labour in days per unit (0.20 mason-day per sqm) does.
- Overheads charged twice, or not at all. If CPOH is already in every rate, an “overheads” line at the bottom of the BOQ double-charges the client. If it’s in neither place, your overheads come out of your profit. Pick one place.
- Stale prices. A rate is only as current as the prices in its sheet, which is why a quotation needs a validity period.
Keeping rates live
At one project a month, a folder of rate-analysis sheets works. Across several live jobs, the same tile rate can end up re-typed into five BOQs at three different prices. That’s the gap Boqos is built for: it generates BOQs from scope with AI-assisted rate build-up from India’s construction rate library, GST-aware and editable before you send. Every variation is priced and client-approved before work starts, and invoices are raised against approved milestones.
You don’t need software for your first rate analysis. You need the six-column sheet, honest quantities and this week’s prices.
The short version
A rate analysis builds one BOQ unit rate from the bottom: material with wastage, labour and equipment per unit, sundries, then 1% water and 15% CPOH in CPWD’s format. Borrow CPWD’s quantities, use your own prices, keep overheads in one place, and redo the sheet when prices move. Get the rate right and the BOQ, the quotation and every RA bill start from the right number.