Four guided steps. Six downloadable reports. No spreadsheets, no formulas.
1
Set Up Your Project — pick SoR and Cost Index
Name your project, pick your SoR and AoR publications, and set a project Cost Index. Once selected, your SoR/AoR pair is locked for the project — keeping every estimate's data trail clean for review and audit.
Pick your SoR and AoR publication
Currently supports CPWD DSR & DAR 2023 (with both old and new GST methodologies) and Indian Railways USSOR 2022 — all kept current automatically as departments publish updates.
Apply a regional Cost Index
Enter the regional Cost Index as a percentage. Every rate, every total, every report reflects it automatically — no manual recalculation when conditions change.
Or pick up where you left off
All your saved projects appear in your dashboard. Click any to resume — your selections, quantities, and reports load exactly where you left them. No re-entry, no version juggling.
2
Find Items — add them to your estimate
Browse the entire SoR by sub-head, search by code or description, and select what you need. The running selection panel shows your in-progress BOQ, organized just like the final report.
Search any item, instantly
Type code, description, or both. The search engine adapts to how engineers actually search — fast and forgiving.
Browse by sub-head
Sub-heads in the sidebar give you the full SoR's structure at a glance. Click to see only that sub-head's items.
One click to add
One click adds an item to your estimate. Click again — or use the trash icon in the selection panel — to remove it. No save buttons in the way.
Selected items panel
The right-side selection panel shows your BOQ in real time, organized by sub-head — exactly how it'll appear in the final report. What you see is what you'll get.
3
Enter Quantities — direct or detailed
Enter quantities directly for simple items, or open the measurement builder for L×B×H detail. Copy measurements between similar items in the same project to skip the rework.
Direct quantity entry
For lump-sum items, items priced by piece, or simple work — type a number and move on. The unit (cum, sqm, kg) is taken from the SoR.
Open the measurement builder
Enter the dimensions your item needs — L for linear items, L×B for areas, L×B×H for volumes. Each row gets a name like 'Room 1, North Wall' or 'Footing 2A,' and the totals auto-sum as you add rows.
Copy measurements between items
When 12mm and 15mm plaster cover the same wall, or two RCC items share a footing, copy the full measurement set with one click — then tweak only what differs. Works within the same project.
4
View Reports — download as Excel
Three report families: the Bill of Quantities, analytical breakdowns by sub-head and top items, and resource takeoffs. Every report downloads as Excel.
Bill of Quantities
The Estimate BOQ pulls items, quantities, rates, and totals into a sub-head organized report. The Detailed Measurements report backs every quantity with its L×B×H breakdown.
Analytics & Insights
The Sub-Heads Breakup shows totals across each work category — useful for spotting unbalanced distribution. The Top 20 Items report ranks the highest-cost items so you know where the project's value is concentrated.
Material Takeoff
The Resource Summary aggregates total materials, labour, and machinery across the project — your single sheet for procurement planning. The Resource Breakup shows the same data per-item, useful for tracing where any single resource is consumed.
Adjust Cost Index
The regional Cost Index you set at Step 1 can be tweaked here without rebuilding. Change the percentage; every rate, every report, every total recalculates automatically.
Download as Excel
Every report downloads as a formatted Excel file ready for tender submission, internal review, or approval workflow.
Workflow 2
Justification / Market Rate Analysis
Justification / Market Rate Analysis in seconds. Update unique basic
rates; every item rate recalculated instantly.
1
Open an Estimate — start your justification
Pick an estimate from your dashboard. Costimator switches into justification mode while keeping every selection, quantity, and rate intact.
Pick an estimate from your dashboard
Every estimate in your dashboard can be justified. Click any project, and Costimator switches the workflow lens from estimation to justification — same SoR, same items, same quantities, but now ready for market-rate analysis.
Switch from estimation in one click
From within an estimate, click the Create Justification link in the sidebar to start. No need to re-create the project, re-pick the SoR, or re-enter quantities — Costimator carries everything forward.
Or duplicate an existing justification
Duplicate any saved justification to create a scenario variant. Change the rates that matter, keep the rest, and the entire dependency tree recalculates against the new values.
2
Adjust the Margins — CPOH, GST, Cess, Water
The margins applied to every rate analysis — Water Charges (1%), CPOH (15%), Labour Cess (1%), GST (18%) — start with defaults. Override any of them for project-specific or bid-specific variance.
Customizable margins
Water Charges (W), CPOH (X), Labour Cess (Y), and GST (Z) — the percentages applied to every rate. Publication defaults pre-populate; override any of them for your specific situation.
Defaults from Publication
Pre-populated with Publication's published margin values. Most projects start here unchanged. Override only the margins that differ for your specific tender.
Set once, applied everywhere
The four margins you set here cascade through the entire estimate. Update GST from 18% to 12%; every rate analysis reflects the change instantly. No manual recalculation.
Built for actual tender variance
Contractors bidding 10% CPOH to win competitive tenders. Projects with 12% GST instead of 18%. Specific work types with 3% labour cess. Set the margins to match what your project actually faces — not what the textbook says.
Enter the actual market rate for each basic item — cement, steel, sand, labour, machinery hire — and Costimator's dependency engine recalculates every SoR item that uses them. One flat list of unique basic items in; the entire estimate, fully re-analyzed, in under a second.
Unique Basic items, all in one place
Costimator pulls every basic item your estimate depends on — materials, labour, machinery hire — and presents them in one flat unique list. No nested calculations to navigate. No formula tracing. Just the inputs.
Two columns: Publication rate vs Your rate
Each row shows the Publication rate that pre-fill the Market column — you only change what differs from publication. You scan down the list, change only the rates that have moved, and leave the rest.
One rate change, full re-analysis
Change cement from ₹5,156 to ₹5,000 and every dependent item recalculates: every Cement Mortar variant, every concrete grade, every plaster item, every brick masonry rate. Three levels of nested dependencies, all updated in under a second.
Filter to focus
Three categories filter the list: Hire Charges (machinery), Labour, Material. When market rates for steel or cement spike, filter to Material to focus only on those. When a labour ministry update changes wage rates, filter to Labour. Stay focused on what's actually moving.
4
Generate the Justification — six comparative reports
Six reports, every one a SoR-vs-Market comparison: Justification Statement, complete re-Analysis of Rates of all items, two basic-item-level comparatives, and two resource-level comparatives. Every one downloads as Excel.
Justification Statement
The report your approving authority cares most about. Side-by-side: Estimated Amount vs Justification Amount, every item, with the bottom-line variance shown in green or red. "Justified Cost is X% Below/Above Estimated Cost" — the answer to the question every tender review asks.
Analysis of Rates (Market)
For every item: a complete rate re-analysis. Values driven by your actual market rates.
Comparatives at every level
The Basic Item Comparative (SoR vs Market for materials, labour, machinery), the SoR Item Comparative (SoR vs Market for the SoR items in your estimate), and the Resource Summary (project-wide totals at both Publication and Market rates). Three lenses, every comparison the review needs.
Resource Breakup with Market rates
Per-item resource breakdown — same shape as the Estimation version, but with both SoR rates and Market rates side by side, plus the difference. Filter by sub-head to focus on a specific work category. Useful for tracing exactly where the cost variance lives.
Download as Excel
Every report downloads as a formatted Excel file ready for tender submission, internal review, or approval workflow.
Workflow 3
Intelligent Search
Costimator's search is the lookup layer engineers use every day. Type
a code, type a description, type something close — Costimator finds it.
Find Any Item in Milliseconds — Even with Typos.
Costimator's search isn't a basic keyword matcher. It is an intelligent
search engine with advanced typo tolerance.
Exact codes win
Type a known code and it surfaces first — every time, regardless of what else matches.
"20.5.2" → 20.5.2 — 450 mm dia piles (₹4,637.70/m)
Hierarchical prefix
Know the section but not the exact item? Type a parent code and get every child under it.
"20.5" → returns 20.5.1, 20.5.2, 20.5.3, …
Flexible code format
Codes copied from Excel, emails, or WhatsApp arrive in different formats. All of them work.
"20.5.2", "20/5/2", "20-5-2", "20:5:2", "20_5_2" → all return the same item
Type keywords in any order. Search finds items where every word appears, regardless of sequence.
"mm 450 pill" → returns all 450mm pile items, despite both typo and order
Mixed code + description
Combine numeric codes and keywords in the same query. Both are interpreted intelligently.
"20.5 cement" → pile items in section 20.5 that reference cement
Two tabs. One search engine.
One dedicated search page, two tabs: DSR Items (the work) and Basic
Items (the labour, materials, and machinery underneath). The same
matching engine powers both.
Tab 1
DSR Items
Search across every SoR work item. Filter by any of the 23 DSR sub-heads — Earthwork, RCC, Finishing, and so on.
Click any item → opens its full Analysis of Rates
Tab 2
Basic Items
Search across the labour, materials, and machinery that feed into every SoR item. Filter by Material, Labour, or Hire Charges.
Click any item → opens its reverse dependency view
Click a Basic Item. See Every SoR Item That Depends on It.
Click any basic item — cement, steel, Beldar labour, machinery — and
Costimator shows every single SoR item that depends on it. Filter by
sub-head to narrow the impact view.
No PDF, no competitor, does this.
Use case
Cement price changes by ₹100/tonne. Which items are affected?
Click cement in Basic Items. Costimator shows every SoR item that uses it, organized by sub-head. Re-quote in minutes, not days.
Use case
Where is Beldar used in Flooring work?
Click Beldar in Basic Items, filter by sub-head 11 (Flooring). See exactly which flooring items consume Beldar labour.
Workflow 4
Non-Scheduled Item Builder
Build custom rate analyses for items the DSR doesn't cover — composed
from DSR items, basic items, your own custom inputs, and
description-only lines.
1
Open Your NS Items Library
Your NS Items live in their own library — separate from individual projects, persistent across estimates. Open an existing one or create a new one with code, description, and unit.
Create a new NS Item
Three fields to start: code, description, unit. Save and step into the rate analysis builder.
Edit or delete anytime
Update code, description, or unit on any NS Item. Delete removes the item and any analyses tied to it — confirmed before action.
2
Build the Rate Analysis from Four Component Types
Compose your NS Item from four component types: existing DSR items, DSR basic items, your own custom basic items, or description-only lines for notes and formulas. Mix freely.
Add DSR Items as Sub-Dependencies
Pull in any existing DSR item. Its full dependency cascade — basic items, sub-rates, margins — flows into your NS Item automatically.
Add DSR Basic Items Directly
Search the DSR's basic item catalogue — labour, material, machinery — and add what you need. Same intelligent search Costimator uses everywhere.
Create Your Own Basic Items
Code, description, unit, rate — four fields and you have a new basic item that persists across all your future NS Items.
Add Description-Only Lines
Plain-text lines for formulas, calculation notes, or context. They appear in the final rate analysis exactly as you type them.
3
Customize the Margin Cascade
The same four margins as Justification — Water Charges, CPOH, Labour Cess, GST — but with one twist: rename them. Project-specific overhead structures get their own labels.
Four Margins, Cascading Through the Analysis
Water Charges (1%), CPOH (15%), Labour Cess (1%), GST (18%) — defaults you can override. Every margin cascades automatically through the rate analysis.
Rename Margins for Project-Specific Overheads
Some projects use overhead structures the standard CPOH category doesn't cleanly cover. Rename any margin — "Water Charges New," "CPOH Revised" — to match how your project actually books costs.
W-A X-A Y-A Z-A
Standard CPWD Notation for NS Items
NS Item-level margins use the W-A through Z-A notation per CPWD DAR convention. Sub-DSR analyses inside the same NS Item keep standard W/X/Y/Z. Approving authorities recognize the distinction immediately.
4
Update Rates with Market Values
All basic items feeding into your NS Item — including those nested inside added DSR items — appear in one flat list. Update market rates inline; the analysis recalculates instantly.
Every Basic Item, Including Nested Ones
Whatever basic items your DSR sub-dependencies use, they all surface here in one flat list — alongside basic items you added directly. No drilling required.
Filter by Type — Including Your Custom Items
Five filters: All Items, User Created, Hire Charges, Labour, Material. Find your custom basic items in one click — they're a first-class category alongside DSR types.
5
Two Reports, One Click Each
An NS Item is a single rate analysis, not a full project estimate — so it produces two focused reports rather than six. Each downloads as Excel with one click.
Analysis of Rates (Market)
Full DAR-format rate analysis with the W-A/X-A/Y-A/Z-A margin cascade. Three-panel view lets you drill into any sub-AR item to see the standard W/X/Y/Z analysis underneath.
Basic Item Comparative
Side-by-side DSR rate vs market rate for every basic item — including your custom user-created items. Same five filters as Step 4.
The difference
Months of Excel. Hours with Costimator.
Category
Manual / Excel / Other Tools
With Costimator
Estimation
BoQ build time
Days to weeks
Minutes
Code, Description & Rate Entry
Manual typing per row
Click to add, no typing
L × B × H entry
Side calculations, copy-pasted
Built-in automation
Estimate Duplication
Not available
One click duplication
Cost index
Buried in one cell
Project-level, change anywhere
Tender Justification & Market Rates
Basic-item aggregation
Days mapping dependencies
One click to all unique basics
Market rate updates
Hundreds of cells, multiple tabs
One table, one column
Cascading recalculation
One missed dependency = wrong totals
Every dependent rate, automatically updated
Rate analysis structure
Built from scratch each time
Auto-built in one click
Custom CPOH/GST/Cess
Manual formula on every row
One project setting
Non-Scheduled Items
Item composition
Each item is its own ad-hoc structure
Compose from DSR + basics + custom + notes
Custom CPOH/GST/Cess
Manually entered, no defaults
Smart defaults, override per project
Market rate entry
Hand-traced across nested items
Automatic list of all dependent basics
Search & Navigation
Find any item
Exact match or nothing
Typo-tolerant, word-order independent
From Item to Analysis
Flipping between PDFs
One click analysis view
Filtering by Sub-Head
No filtering, just scroll to find
Filter by sub-head
See where a basic is used
Not possible
Click any basic, see every DSR item using it
Reports
14 reports across 3 workflows
Build each report by hand
All 14 auto-generated
Reports & comparatives
Hand built, hand formatted
Auto built, auto formatted
Excel export
Hours of formatting before submission
One click, submission-ready
Analytics
Cost breakups
Difficult to build, harder to maintain
Auto-generated, auto-maintained
Estimate Insights
Catch only by manual vigilance
Charts and sorted views — anomalies stand out
Resource Summary
Weeks of manual summing
Auto-generated, plug into resource planners
Always Online & Updated
Always available
Locked to the machine the file lives on
Login from any device, any OS, any time
No installation
USB dongles, license keys, version-locked installs
Open the browser, log in, you're working
Always-current rates
Manual update with each new circular
Auto-applied within days of publication
Always-current methodology
Read every OM, update workbooks by hand
Methodology updates pushed centrally
Multi-SoR & Multi-Department
CPWD, Railways, MoRTH & more
Most tools locked to one department
All major departments, one platform
Manual / Excel
With Costimator
Estimation
BoQ build time
Days to weeks
Minutes
Code, Description & Rate Entry
Manual typing per row
Click to add, no typing
L × B × H entry
Side calculations, copy-pasted
Built-in automation
Estimate Duplication
Not available
One click duplication
Cost index
Buried in one cell
Project-level, change anywhere
Tender Justification & Market Rates
Basic-item aggregation
Days mapping dependencies
One click to all unique basics
Market rate updates
Hundreds of cells, multiple tabs
One table, one column
Cascading recalculation
One missed dependency = wrong totals
Every dependent rate, automatically updated
Rate analysis structure
Built from scratch each time
Auto-built in one click
Custom CPOH/GST/Cess
Manual formula on every row
One project setting
Non-Scheduled Items
Item composition
Each item is its own ad-hoc structure
Compose from DSR + basics + custom + notes
Custom CPOH/GST/Cess
Manually entered, no defaults
Smart defaults, override per project
Market rate entry
Hand-traced across nested items
Automatic list of all dependent basics
Search & Navigation
Find any item
Exact match or nothing
Typo-tolerant, word-order independent
From Item to Analysis
Flipping between PDFs
One click analysis view
Filtering by Sub-Head
No filtering, just scroll to find
Filter by sub-head
See where a basic is used
Not possible
Click any basic, see every DSR item using it
Reports
14 reports across 3 workflows
Build each report by hand
All 14 auto-generated
Reports & comparatives
Hand built, hand formatted
Auto built, auto formatted
Excel export
Hours of formatting before submission
One click, submission-ready
Analytics
Cost breakups
Difficult to build, harder to maintain
Auto-generated, auto-maintained
Estimate Insights
Catch only by manual vigilance
Charts and sorted views — anomalies stand out
Resource Summary
Weeks of manual summing
Auto-generated, plug into resource planners
Always Online & Updated
Always available
Locked to the machine the file lives on
Login from any device, any OS, any time
No installation
USB dongles, license keys, version-locked installs
Open the browser, log in, you're working
Always-current rates
Manual update with each new circular
Auto-applied within days of publication
Always-current methodology
Read every OM, update workbooks by hand
Methodology updates pushed centrally
Multi-SoR & Multi-Department
CPWD, Railways, MoRTH & more
Most tools locked to one department
All major departments, one platform
Your next tender doesn't have to take three weeks.
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