Schedule of works: what it is, what goes in one, and a UK example

A schedule of works is an itemised list of the work to be done on a building job, set out room by room or trade by trade, with a description of each item and, once it's priced, a quantity, rate and total on every line. In the UK it's the everyday pricing document on refurbishments, fit-outs and smaller jobs, and under JCT Minor Works and Intermediate contracts the priced version can become one of the contract documents.

If you searched for a schedule of works template and got Gantt charts, that's the American meaning: in the US a "construction schedule" is the timeline. In the UK the timeline is the programme of works. This guide is about the UK document: the list of what's being done and what it costs.

A schedule of works is a list of every item of work needed to complete a job, written so that a contractor can price it line by line. Designing Buildings describes schedules of work as "'without quantities' instructional lists often produced on smaller projects or for alteration work", usually prepared by the designer rather than a quantity surveyor, and used as an alternative to a bill of quantities (Designing Buildings Wiki: Schedule of work).

You'll see one on:

• Domestic extensions and refurbishments, issued by the architect or surveyor for builders to price.
• Office and retail fit-outs, usually set out room by room or floor by floor.
• Tender packages for subcontractors, where the main contractor cuts out the items for your trade and asks you to price them.
• Your own quotes, to show exactly what your price includes.

A schedule can be arranged by element or trade (strip-out, partitions, ceilings, decoration) or room by room. Room by room suits refurbishment, where the client thinks in rooms; by trade suits a subcontract package, where you think in your own work.

Every line needs enough for someone who wasn't on the site visit to price it, and later check it was done:

• Item ref: a unique number (2.03, or K-014). Variations, valuations and snagging all refer back to it.
• Location: room, level or area. "Office 2, first floor" beats "upstairs".
• Description: what's to be done, with a pointer to the specification clause or drawing where quality or detail lives.
• Quantity and unit: m², m, nr (number) or item. On a schedule "without quantities" the pricer measures these from the drawings.
• Rate and total: filled in by whoever prices it.
• Notes: assumptions, exclusions and anything the price depends on.

Then the lines that hold the money nobody can price yet. Keep each one separate from your firm price:

• Provisional sums: an allowance for work that isn't defined well enough to price, replaced by the value of the work actually done, so the final figure can go up or down (Designing Buildings Wiki: Provisional sum).
• Prime cost (PC) sums: an allowance for something supplied by a named supplier or subcontractor, such as ironmongery or sanitaryware the client is still choosing. Price the fixing; the PC sum covers the supply.
• Dayworks: an allowance for work that will be paid on time and materials because it can't be measured in advance.
• Contingency: the client's reserve, spent only on instruction.
• Preliminaries: site set-up, protection, access, waste and supervision. Price them on their own line, or say clearly that they're spread through your rates.

Here's the shape of a priced schedule for a small office refurbishment, set out by trade. The rates are there to show how the columns work, not as price guidance: use your own.

Every line has its own reference, so a later change can point at "3.01, extra 4 m²" instead of arguing about what was in the price. The firm work (1.01 to 4.02, £4,892.80) is kept apart from the sums (5.01 to 5.04, £4,100.00), so everyone can see how much of the total is still an allowance. And the PC sum on line 5.02 says what it doesn't cover, so the fixing isn't paid twice or not at all.

These documents get mixed up because they describe the same job. Each answers a different question:

Schedule of works vs programme of works. The schedule is the list and the money; the programme is the sequence and the dates, usually drawn as a Gantt chart (Designing Buildings Wiki: Construction programme). Linking programme tasks to schedule items shows what's done against what's been valued. Our construction Gantt chart shows a programme tied to costs and margin in that way.

Schedule of works vs specification. The schedule says "new partition in Office 1"; the specification says which board, which studs and to what standard. Designing Buildings advises that quality belongs in the specification and location and size on the drawings, so the documents don't contradict each other (Designing Buildings Wiki).

Schedule of works vs scope of works. A scope describes the package in words: what's in, what's out, who provides what. Good for trade boundaries, poor for pricing, because nothing is itemised.

Schedule of works vs bill of quantities. A bill of quantities is prepared by a quantity surveyor, with every item measured to a standard method such as RICS NRM2, which sets detailed rules for preparing bills of quantities and schedules of rates (Designing Buildings Wiki: NRM2). Bills are typically used on larger projects; on smaller jobs and alteration work, the contractor usually measures its own quantities from the drawings and schedules of work (Designing Buildings Wiki: Bill of quantities).

Whether you're writing one for a client or breaking down a scope you've been sent, the method is the same:

1. Walk the job with the drawings and photograph the existing condition.
2. Choose the layout. Room by room for refurbishment and domestic work; by trade or element for a subcontract package.
3. List the work in the order it happens (strip-out, first fix, boarding, second fix, finishes), so gaps stand out.
4. Write each item so it can be priced and checked. One activity, one location, one unit. "Make good walls" can't be priced; "Patch plaster to walls, Office 1, approx. 6 m²" can.
5. Point to the specification or drawing for quality, and measure quantities from the drawings.
6. Separate what can't be priced yet into provisional sums, PC sums and daywork allowances.
7. Add preliminaries and your notes: assumptions, exclusions, access, working hours.
8. Check it against the drawings once more. A schedule that misses an item invites a dispute about whether it was in the price; Designing Buildings notes that failing to describe every significant item may result in a claim by the contractor.

Price every line, don't lump. Don't work out a total and spread it back across the lines. Your line rates are what the main contractor will use to value changes, so a rate you invented to make the total work will come back when the quantity changes. Build each rate from labour, materials and plant, then add overheads and profit. If you set your margin by adding a markup, check you're getting the margin you think: our markup vs margin guide has the conversion.

Check the quantities. If the schedule gives them, check them against the drawings. If it doesn't, your measure is your risk, so note any assumption.

Qualify the price. Put your assumptions and exclusions (access, working hours, making good, waste) in the notes column or straight under the total, not on a separate sheet that gets lost.

Don't absorb the sums. Provisional sums, PC sums and daywork allowances are adjusted to the actual work, so leave them at the figure given and price only what's asked of you, such as the fixing for a PC item.

Think about how changes will be valued. Once the job is running, extra work similar to a line you've priced is often valued at your rate for that line, adjusted if the conditions differ. Keep your priced schedule to hand when an instruction arrives, and log every change against its item reference. Our guide to variation orders and daywork sheets covers how that works and how to make sure it's paid.

It can be, and on JCT minor and intermediate works it often is. JCT says that under the Minor Works Building Contract 2024 the employer must provide "drawings, a specification, or work schedules to define the quantity and quality of work" (JCT: Minor Works Building Contract 2024). Under the Intermediate Building Contract 2024 the employer provides "drawings and either bills of quantities, specification, or work schedules" (JCT: Intermediate Building Contract 2024). Where work schedules are used, the contractor prices them, and the priced version is part of what the contract is built on.

On a subcontract, check the list of subcontract documents. Your priced schedule might be in it, or the main contractor might rely only on a scope of works and a lump sum. If it isn't listed, your exclusions may not be either, so ask for your quote, notes included, to be added. Our guide to JCT contracts explains how the documents fit together, and your payment rights sit in the Construction Act whatever the paperwork looks like.

General information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Your own contract and its amendments decide which documents are binding.

• Vague items. "Make good as required" or "allow for decoration" can't be priced fairly or checked when it's done.
• One lump sum per room. It hides what's in the price, and gives you nothing to value a change against.
• Sums mixed into the firm price. If the electrical allowance is buried in your partition rate, nobody can adjust it properly.
• Exclusions in a separate email that never reaches the contract file.
• No item references. Without them, valuations and variations turn into arguments about which bit of the job you mean.
• The schedule and the programme never meet. You can't tell how much of the job is done until someone walks it with a pen.

For most small contractors a schedule of works lives in Excel, and for a handful of jobs a year that's fine. It starts to hurt when you're pricing several schedules a week: rates copied from the last job that were never updated, formulas broken by an inserted row, a different layout from every estimator, and no way to see which lines became variations. We've written up the common estimating spreadsheet problems and their fixes, and most of them apply here.

The next step is either off-the-shelf estimating software (we've compared the UK options and their prices) or a quoting system built around how your firm already prices. That second one is what we build at Streamlined Analytics: your rates, your build-ups, your schedule layout, producing a priced schedule and quote in minutes instead of rebuilding a spreadsheet each time. See how it works for construction firms.

Take the last schedule of works you priced and check three things: does every line have a reference, are the sums kept apart from your firm price, and are your exclusions written on the schedule itself? If the answer to any of them is no, fix the template before the next tender, not after the next dispute.