survey-match.which enquiries to price, and which to turn down

One of these twelve enquiries should be turned down, and it is the shortest job on the list.

A surveying practice loses money in two ways that never appear on a rate card. It prices work it has never delivered at scale, and it prices the site visit without the drafting that follows it. This reads each enquiry against the work the practice has actually delivered, costs the travel, the drafting and the disciplines that have to be bought in, and says plainly which enquiries are worth quoting.

SimulationThe enquiries, the clients and the figures are written for this demonstration, and the matching is real code running in your browser. Nothing is connected to a CRM or a quoting system. The production build reads the enquiries from the inbox, keeps the delivered-work record current, and drafts the quote line by line with any subcontract named.

Worth quoting

$106,400

11 of 12 enquiries, carrying $54,851 of margin if they all land.

Turn down
1
not a quote, a no
Disciplines idle
0
no enquiry needs them
Disciplines held
6
in the delivered record

The enquiry list

Thistle Care Homes

bid

Topographic survey and drone photography for a site extension, both needed for the submission.

Why

Deliverable with drone and aerial survey bought in. The margin holds at 31.6 per cent, so bid it and name the subcontractor in the quote.

Disciplines needed

  • Topographic survey64 delivered / Crew Ain house
  • Drone and aerial survey6 delivered / Crew Cbought in

The money

Client budget
$7,400
Cost to deliver
$5,061
Margin
$2,339
Margin rate
31.6%

What the job takes

Crew hours
38.4
On site
3 days
Travel
48 km each way
Repeat client
no

How the desk decides

What it counts

  • Delivered work as the evidence, so a handful of jobs counts as a gap rather than as experience.
  • The drafting that follows the site visit, which a quick estimate always leaves out.
  • Travel, plus a lost crew day on anything far enough to need one.
  • The premium on a discipline that has to be bought in, because it is bought at a worse rate than internal work.
  • Unarranged access, charged as the day it costs rather than found on site.

What it does not claim

  • It does not price the job. It decides whether pricing it is worth the hours.
  • It does not know a client's real budget, only what they have said.
  • It does not judge the quality of past work, only whether it was delivered and how often.
  • It is connected to no CRM and sends nothing anywhere.