Four subbie quotes, a tender closing Thursday, and no time to properly check any of them

Steve Parker
Jul 4
6 min read

Updated: Jul 9

The last subbie quote landed two days before your tender closes. You have read the total, skimmed the exclusions, and you are about to carry someone else's number into your own price. If there is a scope gap in that document, it becomes your variation to wear at week seven.

By Steve Parker · Trueworks · NZ construction estimation · 6 min

Quick answer: This page is for head contractors and busy builders who assemble tender prices and contract sums from subcontractor quotes and never get the time to check them properly. Trueworks takes your drawings and the subbie quotes, normalises every document into one structure per trade, and cross-checks the priced scope against what the documents actually require. Back comes a written, code-cited review packet per trade: a scope table showing what each quote covers, a gap register for items nobody has priced, a conflict register where trades overlap or exclusions collide, and flags on lines that look thin against market bands. Standard turnaround is within 24 hours per trade; tighter closes are scoped at intake. Your first packet is at no charge, and an NDA is available. You still decide which quotes to accept — you just decide knowing what is and is not in them.

If this is your week

Four trades are due into your tender and three of the quotes arrived in the last 48 hours.
Every document is a different shape — a lump sum with a two-line exclusions note, a rate schedule, an email that says "as per drawings" and nothing else.
You are checking totals against gut feel, because gut feel is all the programme allows.
The plumber's exclusions and the drainlayer's inclusions do not meet in the middle, and the trench between them currently belongs to you.
On the last job, a gap like that surfaced at week seven as a variation you could not pass up the chain.
The cheapest quote is cheapest for a reason, and you cannot see which line the reason is hiding in.
You know one bad accepted quote can eat the margin on the whole job, and you are accepting them on a skim.

What we actually do for you

You send the drawings, the specification, and the subbie quotes exactly as they arrived — tidy ones and two-line emails alike. Every quote goes into a single per-trade structure: same units, same line breakdown, same treatment of tags and exclusions. Then we cross-check that normalised scope against the documents. What do the drawings require that no quote has priced? What have two trades both priced? Which exclusions quietly hand work back to you that the head contract says you own?

Where a line looks underpriced, we flag it against a market band — not to reprice your subbie, but because the saving at acceptance is often the claim engine of the job. A subcontractor who has missed scope does not absorb the miss; they variation it, dispute it, or cut corners around it.

Everything comes back in writing and code-cited — referencing the relevant standards, contract clauses, and statutory thresholds where they bite — so the queries you send each subbie before acceptance carry weight. We never contact your subcontractors. The packet is yours; the relationships stay yours.

Got a quote or variation on your own build you want a straight answer on? Independent, written, plain English — first check free. Send us the drawings and the quote or tender pack. We return a code-cited review packet within 24 hours. No charge for your first packet. NDA available, NZ-hosted processing. → Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz

Try it on a live job

How it works

Send the pack. Drawings, specification, and the subbie quotes in whatever form they arrived — PDF, spreadsheet, email thread. Tell us the close date first.
We normalise and cross-check. Every quote goes into one per-trade structure and is checked line by line against the documents. If something blocks the review — a missing drawing, an unclear revision — you hear about it the same day.
You receive the packet. A written review per trade, within 24 hours as standard. If your close is tighter, say so up front and we scope what is achievable first.

What lands back on your desk

A normalised scope table per trade — every quote in the same structure and units, side by side
A gap register: items the documents require that no quote has priced
A conflict register: trade overlaps and inclusion–exclusion mismatches, with a note on who conventionally carries each
Underpricing flags: lines sitting below plausible market bands, with the range we benchmarked against
Suggested pre-acceptance queries per subcontractor, written to forward as they stand
Risk flags and suggested contingency ranges for anything that cannot be resolved before close

Where this catches real problems

A roofing quote we reviewed carried two conflicting materials lists in one quote — one in the body, one in the attachment, different quantities for the same roof. A head contractor accepting on the total alone would have owned the difference the day it surfaced.

Cheap is not a gift. A per-square-metre sanity check found a re-roof quote priced below cost — under any plausible supply-and-fix figure for the system specified. Accepted, that number comes back as a mid-job dispute, a substitution argument, or a subbie who walks.

Headline totals are where five-figure gaps hide. When we normalised three supplier quotes to one bill of materials, the sharpest headline was not the cheapest supplier once the comparison was restricted to lines every document had actually priced.

The terms matter as much as the numbers. Our review of consumer-law traps in trade quote templates found standard exclusion wording that does not survive contact with the Building Act or the Consumer Guarantees Act on residential work — clauses a head contractor inherits when that quote is built into a home-build price.

Trueworks runs quote-checks, tender pricing packs, and risk registers for NZ trades and subcontractors — code-cited, in writing, priced per job. Get your first quote check →

Want this kind of review on every job?

FAQ — subbie quote review

Q1: Do you contact our subcontractors? No. The packet comes to you and only you. The queries we draft are written for you to forward under your own name. Your subbies never need to know a reviewer was involved unless you choose to tell them.

Q2: What if the quotes are actually fine? Then the packet says so, trade by trade, and you accept with a clear head. A clean review is not wasted — it is the difference between hoping a number holds and knowing why it should.

Q3: How fast can you turn a review around? Inside 5 business days as standard. If your tender closes sooner, tell us the close date before anything else and we scope honestly — sometimes a full packet on the two biggest trades and risk flags on the rest. We confirm before we start.

Q4: Is this confidential? Our tender pricing is sensitive. Yes. An NDA is available as standard, files are processed on NZ-hosted systems, and everything is deleted after 30 days unless you ask us to retain it. Nothing about your job or your pricing is reused or disclosed.

Q5: What do you need from us to start? The drawings and specification as issued, the subbie quotes as they arrived, and the close date. If a quote refers to a document we do not have, we ask on day one. Messy formats are not a problem — untangling them is most of the job.

Get a second pair of eyes on your next quote or tender

Drawings + your quote or the tender pack = a code-cited review packet within 24 hours, ready before you commit.

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 document-heavy estimation work. Trueworks is the productisation of that practice for NZ trades and builders: the same defensible analysis, at a price and pace a working contractor can actually use.

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

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