Three contractor bids for the same job are often not three prices
Three contractors walk the same kitchen and hand you three numbers. It is tempting to circle the lowest one and move on — but comparing contractor bids means checking first whether those numbers are measuring the same job at all.
Say one quote leaves out the permit and the dumpster. Another carries a $4,000 tile allowance against the tile you have actually chosen, which costs $6,800. A third writes “as discussed” on half its line items. Ranking those three bottom lines rewards whoever left the most out.
The quoted numbers are the easy part to compare, so a comparison usually stops there. This workbook does the harder thing first: it levels the scope of every bid onto a common footing, and only then scores what is left.
What “comparable” actually means here
The Scope Ledger is the engine. It ships with 46 renovation scope lines across seven phases — before work starts, demolition, structure, systems, surfaces, fixtures, handover — and for every bid you mark each line one of five ways:
- Included — the bid’s price covers it.
- Excluded — it does not, so your own cost to buy that work gets added back.
- Allowance — a placeholder sum stands in for a choice you have not priced, so the shortfall against your real selection gets added back.
- Unclear — the quote does not say. This is an answer, not a blank, and it goes onto your questions list.
- n/a (not applicable) — not part of your job, so no bid should be pricing it.
Comparable Cost then does the arithmetic: headline price, plus excluded work at your cost, plus every allowance shortfall. That total is the first number in the whole process that is genuinely like for like — and it is not a number you type. Nothing on that tab is.
Why the comparable total reorders the bids
In the fictional worked example the file ships with, a bid quoted at $52,400 excludes $13,150 of work and falls $6,000 short on allowances. It compares at $71,550 — last of the four on cost. A bid quoted at $63,900 compares at $67,900, and is the cheapest job of the four once the scope is level. (Cheapest is not the same as the winner: on the full weighted scorecard a different bid — neither of those two — takes first place.)
The workbook says all of that in words, not just cells: it names which bid looked cheapest, which one actually is, and what choosing your best-scoring bid over the cheapest comparable one would cost you.
Then, and only then, the weighted scorecard
Price is one of nine weighted criteria, and it is the only row you do not rate by hand — Cost & Value is a formula that reads the comparable total. That single cross-tab link is the mechanism that stops the cheapest-looking quote winning by default.
The other eight are the reasons the cheapest job is not always the one you want: scope clarity, schedule and availability, licensing and insurance, references, warranty, communication, payment terms, and change-order posture. You set the weights before you look at which bid wins on them, which is what keeps a scorecard honest.
What is still unpriced: allowances and unclear lines
Two bids can land on the same comparable total and carry completely different amounts of unsettled money behind it. The exposure block counts the allowance dollars each bid is carrying and the lines it still leaves unclear, then gives you an exposed total — what that bid costs if every unclear line turns out to be excluded.
Take the questions back to them
The Gaps & Questions tab is generated from your ledger, not typed. Every line a bid excludes, carries as an allowance, or leaves unclear becomes a specific question written for you. Print it, work down it, and get the answers into the contract — getting those answers in writing is the point of the list.
There is also a printable Site-Visit Scope Checklist: all 46 lines, grouped by phase, with ruled boxes and circle-able marks, so you fill it in while you are standing in front of the work rather than reconstructing it from a quote three days later.
Only comparing two bids?
This workbook is built for the real case: three, four or five bids, 46 scope lines, and the eight non-price criteria that decide which job you actually want. If you have exactly two bids and only want the leveling arithmetic, the free Contractor Bid Comparison Worksheet is the same engine cut down to 16 scope lines, two bids and a comparable total. It stops there: no scorecard, no exposure block, no generated questions list.
Own it, don’t rent it
This is one file and it is yours. No seats, no renewals, and nothing stops working if you put the project down for six months. It works in Excel, in Google Sheets — as a native copy, one click, no import — and in LibreOffice. Copy it for the next job, and keep it with the contract as the record of why you chose who you chose.
If it is the contractors themselves you want to check rather than their bids, the Reference & Vetting Tracker is the companion file for reference calls and for measuring a license or a policy against the day your job actually finishes.
What this is, and what it is not
The four example bids, the company names, and every number in them are fictional and illustrative. They are there so the file opens on something worked through, not to tell you what work costs in your area.
This is a decision-making and planning template. It is not legal, financial, or construction advice, it does not verify anyone’s license or insurance for you, and it does not estimate what your project should cost.
Licensing rules and limits on what a contractor may take as a deposit vary by state, so check what applies where you live before you sign or pay anything. A weighted score is a tool for thinking, not a verdict you have to obey.
