Working in the BoQ editor

Layout of the BoQ editor

From top to bottom, the BoQ editor shows:

1. Header — the BoQ name (also a switcher to other BoQs of the project), the status under it, the search box, the action bar and the grand total.
2. Banners and bars, when they apply — the old-version banner, or the selection bar of a selection mode such as partial acceptance or choosing positions for an offer request.
3. Grid — the tree of categories and positions.
4. Floating dock (bottom right) — Expand all (Отвори всички), Collapse all (Затвори всички), Go to last selected task (Към последната избрана задача, shown when that row is scrolled out of view) and Full screen (Цял екран) / Exit full screen.
5. Right panel — one panel at a time: Resource analysis (opens when you tick rows), Controls, History, Outgoing bid requests and, on the budget, Reports and Contract changes. Opening one panel closes the other.

1. The BoQ name opens a list of all BoQs of your company in the project; the status (for example Processing) is shown under it.
2. The Search in BoQ (Търси в КСС) box.
3. The action bar with the families Related, Exchange, Analysis and Edit.
4. The Total value (Обща стойност) of the whole BoQ.
5. The column headers: Description, UoM, Qty, Unit price, Value, Note.
6. A category row with its total.
7. The floating dock with Expand all, Collapse all and Full screen.

The header

The action bar

The action bar of the BoQ editor groups buttons into families. On a wide screen each family is a captioned column of buttons; between about 520 and 980 pixels each family becomes a dropdown named after it; on a phone all families sit in one dropdown Actions (Действия). The bar is hidden while a selection mode is active.

On the read-only budget page the bar is different: View (Изглед) has View details and Categories; Related adds Reports (Отчети), Budget changes or Contract changes and Link lines (Свържи позиции); Exchange has only Export. See Investment budget.

Grid columns

A category row in the BoQ editor shows, from left to right: a drag handle (with Edit permission), the ▸/▾ chevron, a checkbox, the name and any filter-category chips. Click the row, or press Enter or Space on it, to expand or collapse it.

A position row shows: drag handle, checkbox, status dot, description, chips, unit, quantity, unit price, value and note. A row can carry the pill Accepted (Приета) in a draft of the next budget, or a green ✓ while you assign positions to the schedule.

Numbering. The editor shows no row numbers. Hierarchical codes (1, 1.1, 1.2 …) are created only in the exported Excel file. See Exporting.

Identical positions share one row and one analysis. Positions with the same description, unit and note in one BoQ share one resource analysis: pricing one prices all of them. Inside one category such positions are shown as one row with their quantities added up. With Include categories (Включи категории) switched off in Controls, all of them across the BoQ merge into one row. To separate a position, give it a different description or note. See Resource analysis.

When the BoQ editor is read-only

The grid of the BoQ editor cannot be edited when:

• you are on the Budget page (the accepted budget) or a signed contract — change these through a change order;
• you are viewing an older version (a banner says You are viewing an old version);
• a quantity-only BoQ (an offer-request base) has its latest version locked;
• an offer request is selected and you are not editing its selection;
• a change-order draft has a proposal waiting for an answer;
• your role has Offers only at View.

In a read-only view you can still select rows, search, open Controls, filter and assign filter categories, and export.

How to start an empty BoQ

A new BoQ opens as an empty table. You have two options:

• Import an Excel file with Import (Импорт) in the action bar. See Importing a BoQ from Excel.
• Build it by hand: right-click the empty grid and choose Add subsection (Добавяне на подобект) for a category or Add work item (Добавяне на СМР) for positions at the top level.

How to add a category

1. In the BoQ editor, right-click the empty area (for a top-level category) or a category (for a subcategory inside it) and choose Add subsection (Добавяне на подобект).
2. Type the name in the new row (placeholder New category name).
3. Press Enter or click the green save button. Escape, the red button or a click outside cancels.

The name must be 2 to 100 characters; a shorter one shows Required field. On success you see New category created successfully (Успешно създадохте нова категория). Adding categories is disabled while Include categories is switched off in Controls.

To rename a category, right-click it → Edit subsection (Редактиране на подобект), change the name and press Enter.

How to add positions

1. In the BoQ editor, right-click a category (or the empty area for the top level) and choose Add work item (Добавяне на СМР). The dialog Add work item opens.
2. Fill one row per position:
   • Description (Описание) — required. After 2 characters up to 6 matching task templates from your company library drop down. Picking one fills the description and unit and locks the unit.
   • Unit of measure (Мерна единица) — required.
   • Quantity (Количество) — optional; a decimal comma is accepted.
   • Note (Забележка) — optional.
3. Click + under the table to add another row; the bin icon removes a row (when there is more than one).
4. Click Save (Запази). Rows with missing required fields show Required field.

The Add work item dialog has no price field: new positions start with unit price 0. Price them in the Resource analysis panel or by typing a direct price in the Unit price cell.

1. The Description field shows matching task templates from the company library while you type.
2. The Unit of measure picker.
3. The optional Quantity and Note fields.
4. The + button adds another row.
5. Save creates all rows at once.

How to edit a position

1. In the BoQ editor, right-click the position → Edit work item (Редактиране на СМР). The row turns into fields: Description, Unit of measure, Quantity, Unit price, Note, with the Value recalculated live.
2. Change what you need. Quantity and unit price accept steps of 0.01 and cannot be negative.
3. Press Enter in a one-line field, Shift+Enter in the Note, or click the green save icon. The red icon cancels. Saving with no changes just closes the editor.

On success: Changes saved successfully (Промените бяха запазени успешно). If a colleague changed the BoQ in the meantime: The data has changed. Please reload and try again. (Данните са променени. Моля, презаредете и опитайте отново.)

How to type a unit price directly

1. In the BoQ editor, click the Unit price cell of a position (or focus it and press Enter or Space).
2. Type the price and press Enter (or click elsewhere). Escape cancels. Tab / Shift+Tab saves and jumps to the next / previous unit price.

The price must be greater than 0 (Please enter a valid positive unit price) and is rounded to 2 decimals. On success: The unit price was updated successfully.

Units of measure

The unit picker in the BoQ editor and in the Add work item dialog has a search box Search units... (Търсене на единици…) that searches standard units and your company's own units. If nothing matches, click + Add "{alias}" as a new unit of measure (or press Enter). The new unit is your company's own unit, awaiting confirmation by BuildColab; its badge says "This unit of measure is an alias and is awaiting confirmation from BuildColab." A unit may be at most 50 characters.

Decisions the editor may ask for when you save

Some edits in the BoQ editor affect more than one position. The editor then stops and asks you to decide:

After a quantity change of a position that is linked to the schedule you may see Schedule updated (Графикът е обновен) or Some schedule tasks must be redistributed manually after the quantity change. See Linking the BoQ: distribution and matching.

Right-click menus

Every item in the right-click menus of the BoQ editor needs Offers at Edit; without it a permission message appears. On deleted "ghost" rows shown during a version comparison, the create, paste, edit and import items are inactive.

On a category

On a position

On the empty area of the grid

Right-click below the rows to get Add subsection (top-level category), Add work item (top-level position without a category), Paste (to the top level) and, with a selection, Delete selection.

In read-only views

On an old version, the budget page or an offer-request view, the menu has only Add to category…. On your company's budget or client contract in the execution phase it also has Contract with a contractor (Сключи договор с изпълнител), which signs selected lines with a self-managed subcontractor; see Self-managed subcontractors and self-contracts. There is no right-click menu in selection modes.

1. The Create group: Add subsection and Add work item.
2. The BoQ copy/paste group: Copy (and Paste after copying).
3. The Other group: Edit subsection and Import into subsection.
4. The Deletion group: Delete subsection.
5. Add to category attaches a filter category.

Deleting positions and categories

Deleting from the BoQ editor asks for confirmation:

• Category: Delete confirmation (Потвърждение за изтриване) — "Are you sure you want to delete the category "{name}"? This action will permanently delete the category and all of its subcategories."
• Position: "Are you sure you want to delete the task "{name}"? This action will permanently delete the task."
• Click Delete (Изтрий) to confirm or Cancel (Отказ). Delete selection does not ask again beyond the new-version warning.

The deletion removes the rows from the current version only. Older locked versions still contain them, and a version comparison shows them as struck-through "deleted" rows.

Editing after a version was locked

When the latest version of the BoQ is locked, the first change you make — editing or deleting a position, typing a unit price, pasting rows or pasting an analysis — shows the dialog New version warning (Предупреждение за нова версия): "The current version of the bill of quantities is finalized. This action will create a new version. Do you want to continue?", with Current version: N. Click Continue (Продължи) to open version N+1 and apply the change, or Cancel. After Finish base (version 1) the first change opens version 2 without this warning.

Moving rows

To move a position or category in the BoQ editor, grab its drag handle (six dots) and drag it at least a few pixels: drop it between siblings to reorder, onto another category to move it inside, or onto Move to the root level (Премести на главно ниво) to bring it to the top. Dragging is off in read-only views, preview and offer-request modes, during schedule assignment, and without Offers at Edit. Dragging moves; to duplicate rows use Copy and Paste. See Labels, filters, search, copy and move.

Selection and keyboard

There are no global keyboard shortcuts. Selecting rows opens the Resource analysis panel when you have that permission; close it with ×, and it comes back with your next selection.

Common questions

Related

• Labels, filters, search, copy and move
• Resource analysis
• Versions, comparing and locking
• Importing a BoQ from Excel