Tender Pricing for NZ Trades — Drawings In, a Priced Tender Out

Steve Parker
Jun 10
5 min read

Updated: Jul 9

You price jobs at night after building all day, or you skip tenders because there is no time to measure them. Trueworks does the measurement and document work: send the drawings and tender documents, get back a priced takeoff with the risk lines flagged and the exclusions drafted — inside five business days.

By Steve Parker · Trueworks · NZ construction estimation · 4 min

What this service covers

A measured takeoff — quantities by trade, to the named drawing revision, wastage stated per line
Current pricing — materials at this month's supplier rates, labour structured from productivity
The document work — code citations, risk flags, and your exclusions list drafted ready to submit

Quick answer: Trueworks Tender Pricing turns your tender documents into a submission-ready pricing pack: a quantity takeoff measured off the named drawing revision, current NZ supplier pricing, labour structured by task, the trade-code citations that fix the installation standard you are pricing (MRM CoP, NZS 4229, NZS 3404/AS-NZS 5131, AS/NZS 3000, AS/NZS 3500, NZS 3604), the risk lines flagged — under-detailed junctions, spec drift, scope boundaries — and the exclusions drafted for your quote. Single-trade residential scopes turn around inside five business days. The pricing decision stays yours: you set the rates and the margin; we do the measurement and the document work that protects them.

What you get

Every Tender Pricing pack contains:

The takeoff — every material quantified, by trade: lineal metres by member and treatment class, m² with stated wastage factors, counts for penetrations, fixtures, and specials. Measured to the drawing revision named on the cover.
Pricing structure — quantities priced at current supplier rates, labour broken down by task so you can apply your own crew rates and margin with confidence.
The risk register — what the documents do not resolve: the undetailed junction, the consent condition with no owner, the engineer's schedule still outstanding, the spec drift between consent set and detail.
Your exclusions, drafted — the written lines that keep unpriced scope on the variation side: existing-fabric tie-ins, temporary works, engineer-instructed changes, validity period and re-pricing mechanism.
Code citations throughout — so the standard you priced is the standard you are held to.

Who it is for

Trades pricing head-contract work — roofers, electricians, plumbers and drainlayers, blocklayers, framers, steel fabricators. The per-trade quoting patterns we publish are the method; the service is us running it on your tender. See the guides: roofing, electrical, plumbing, blockwork, framing.
Builders pricing whole jobs — multi-trade takeoffs across the scope, with the trade-interface boundaries mapped so nothing falls between subcontract packages.
Builders and developers comparing tenders — the same measurement run in reverse: which bid is actually complete, where the low bid is thin, what returns as variations.

How it runs

Send the documents — drawings (with revision numbers), specification, tender conditions, and the dates: site visit if any, tender close, programme start.
We measure and flag — takeoff, pricing structure, risk register, exclusions. Questions come back to you once, batched, not as a drip.
You set the commercial layer — your labour rates, your margin, your appetite on the flagged risks. The pack is structured so that takes minutes, not evenings.
Submit — with a documented takeoff behind the number and the exclusions schedule attached.

Single-trade residential scopes: inside five business days. Multi-trade and larger scopes: scoped on receipt, timeline confirmed before we start.

What it costs

Project-scale engagements run as the Trueworks Per-Project pack — NZ$8,000-12,000 for the full estimation, risk register, contingencies table and pre-trade-start sheets across all major trades on a build. Single-trade tender packs are scoped well under that, sized to the documents — send the drawings and the quote for the work comes back with the scoping reply. No charge for your first packet, so the way to test the service is to send a live tender.

Why a service instead of software or late nights

Takeoff software measures what you click; it does not notice the engineer's revision changed the lintel schedule, and it does not draft your exclusions. Manual measurement works until the tenders stack up — and the hidden cost is the jobs you never priced. The service lane exists for exactly that: the measurement and document discipline of a full estimating function, bought per tender, with the commercial control staying entirely yours. The method is published across our pricing and takeoff guides — the service is that method, run for you, senior-checked, NZ-hosted.

FAQ — Trueworks tender pricing

Q1: Do you set my rates and margin? No — that is deliberately yours. The pack structures quantities and labour so applying your rates and margin takes minutes. Your number, our measurement.

Q2: What do you need from me to start? The drawings with revision numbers, the specification or tender documents, and the close date. On renovations, photos of the existing fabric help the risk register.

Q3: How fast is the turnaround? Single-trade residential scopes inside five business days. If the tender close is tighter, say so when you send it — short-fuse scopes are scoped on receipt.

Q4: Is my tender information confidential? Yes. NDA available on request, files NZ-hosted, deleted after 30 days unless you ask us to retain them. We do not price the same tender for competing bidders.

Q5: What if the documents are incomplete? That is most tenders. The pack prices what is drawn and converts what is not into your exclusions and tagged provisional sums — which is the defensible way to bid incomplete documents.

Send the next tender

Drawings + the tender documents + 5 business days = a priced, code-cited, exclusion-protected tender pack ready to submit.

No charge for your first packet. No commitment. NDA available. Files NZ-hosted, deleted after 30 days unless you ask us to retain them.

→ Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz

About Trueworks

Trueworks is built by Steve Parker — 20 years on the analytical side of NZ construction. Variation reviews, contract advisory, programme review, and AI-augmented document workflows. Trueworks is the productisation of that practice for builders: same defensible analysis, at a price and pace a NZ builder can actually use.

Every report is checked and signed off by me personally before it goes out. If you have a tender closing, the easiest way to find out if Trueworks is useful is to send it.

hello@trueworks.co.nz · trueworks.co.nz

Pricing a tender right now? Send the pack — take-off checked, rates benchmarked, risks flagged, in writing, within 24 hours. Send us the drawings and the quote, tender or variation. You get a written, code-cited check back within 24 hours. No charge for your first check. No card, no obligation. NDA available. → Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz