Construction
The bid is due Friday. Eleven sub quotes arrived Thursday night.
Assembling a general contracting proposal is not estimating, it is transcription: taking eleven subcontractor scopes written eleven different ways and turning them into one document with consistent allowances, clean exclusions and a schedule of values an owner can follow. That transcription is where the Thursday night goes. The Proposal Maker drafts it from the bids your firm has already assembled.
Where this fits
You already run Procore, Buildertrend, STACK or PlanSwift. This is not that.
The gap
The construction software stack is well served at both ends. Takeoff and estimating tools produce quantities and costs; project management platforms run the job after award. The gap is the week in between, when someone senior turns eleven sub quotes and a spreadsheet into a document an owner will read. That work is still done by hand, usually at night, usually by the person whose time is worth the most.
What this does not do
This does not perform takeoffs, hold your cost database, solicit or level sub bids, or manage a project after award. STACK, PlanSwift, Procore and Buildertrend keep doing all of that. This writes the proposal document from the numbers you have already assembled.
Scope
What a general contractor's proposal actually has to itemise
- Schedule of values by division or by phase, at the granularity the owner's lender expects
- Subcontractor scope roll-up, reconciled so two trades do not both exclude the same work
- Allowances for owner-selected items, each with the amount and what happens above or below it
- Alternates priced separately, so the owner can add or drop scope without a rebid
- Site work, utilities and permits, and which of them are excluded from the base number
- General conditions and general requirements, stated rather than buried in a markup percentage
- Schedule: duration, key milestones, and the assumptions the duration depends on
- Long-lead items identified, with the ordering decision date the schedule turns on
Pricing
How general contractors price the work
Stipulated sum
A fixed price against a defined set of documents, with the drawing and specification revision dates named so the basis of the bid is unambiguous.
Cost plus a fee
Actual cost with a stated fee, including what is defined as cost, what sits in general conditions, and how the books are opened.
Guaranteed maximum price
A ceiling with the contingency shown as its own line and the savings-sharing arrangement written down rather than assumed.
Unit prices
Stated rates for quantities that cannot be fixed at bid time, such as rock excavation, undercut or unsuitable soil removal.
The document
What comes out the other end
- 01Basis of bid: the drawings, specifications, addenda and revision dates the price responds to
- 02Scope of work summarised by division, in the owner's language rather than the estimator's
- 03Schedule of values, or a cost breakdown at the level the owner and lender require
- 04Allowances and alternates, each with the mechanism for adjusting the contract sum
- 05Clarifications and assumptions, which is where a careful GC protects the margin
- 06Exclusions, stated as a list rather than buried in prose
- 07Schedule and milestones, with the conditions the durations assume
- 08Payment terms: draw schedule, retainage percentage and release, and change order procedure
Compliance
The details that belong on the document, not in a follow-up email
- Contractor licence, classification and, on public work, the bonding and prequalification details the owner will verify
- Contract form the proposal anticipates, commonly an AIA A101 with A201 general conditions, since the terms differ materially between forms
- Insurance limits and additional-insured requirements, which owners and lenders check before award
- Lien rights and preliminary notice obligations, which are governed by state statute and have deadlines that start at first furnishing
- Prevailing wage or Davis-Bacon applicability on publicly funded work, stated where it affects the labour basis
- Retainage percentage and release conditions, which several states now cap by statute
General guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by state and jurisdiction — confirm yours with counsel or your licensing board.
Straight answers
The three things you are probably thinking
“We already run Procore and Buildertrend.”
Both are project management platforms and they take over once you have won the job. Neither assembles the bid narrative. The proposal that wins the work is produced before either of them has a project to manage.
“Our estimating is in spreadsheets and it works.”
The estimate is not what this touches. It takes your numbers and produces the document around them: the basis of bid, the clarifications, the exclusions, the schedule of values narrative.
“Every owner wants a different format.”
That is the argument for drafting from your own library rather than a template. Upload the bids you have submitted to different owner types and it matches the new one to the closest.
FAQ
General contracting proposals: common questions
Can it level subcontractor bids?
No. Levelling is judgement work and stays with your estimator. Once you have decided the scope, it writes the roll-up, the clarifications and the exclusions.
Does it produce a schedule of values?
It produces the narrative and the breakdown structure from your past bids. The values are yours — it does not generate costs.
Can it read the sub quotes I upload?
Yes. Upload the quotes as PDFs or emails and it extracts scope, exclusions and pricing as editable fields you review before anything is drafted.
We bid public and private work. Do those come out differently?
They should, and they do if your library has both. Public bids carry different bonding, wage and procedural language, and it matches against the closest past submissions.
How does it handle our standard clarifications list?
It lifts it from your past proposals into your firm profile, so the clarifications you always include are on every bid without being retyped.
Related
Other trades we have written this up for
See what it writes from your last general contracting proposal.
Upload three or four you were happy to send. The next one drafts in the same voice.