Electrical How-To & Lessons · Contractor Owner
Bid electrical jobs by checking the fit, documenting scope and assumptions, costing the delivery plan and assigning a clear follow-up before handing awarded work to the crew.
Learning objective: Prepare a bid with clear scope, delivery assumptions and an accountable handoff.
Picture a contractor finishing an estimate after a full day in the field. The customer wants it tonight. There are a couple of unanswered questions, but the crew has an opening and the work looks familiar. The contractor fills in the gaps with assumptions and sends it.
The customer says yes. Now the crew needs answers. Who is supplying the equipment? Which area will be available first? Was that extra work included?
That is a hypothetical job, but it shows the problem: you can get an approval before you have a clear agreement about what you are delivering.
I look at what a contract changes
On Jobber's Masters of Home Service podcast, I explained how I think about longer contracts. When work is already lined up, the cost of finding the next job can be different. I described using that understanding to make a deliberate pricing decision, instead of treating every opportunity as if its costs were identical. Hear the discussion of larger jobs and contracts with Jobber.
That is not a blanket instruction to discount a job. The question is what actually changes for your business. Before you decide whether the number makes sense, can you explain what it includes and what this particular commitment requires?
You need an answer that survives the handoff to the crew. Here is a practical way to build one, using the planning and follow-up principles in our contractor operations materials.
Decide whether you should pursue this job
An invitation to bid can feel like something you have to chase. Slow down long enough to check the fit. Does the work match your capabilities and authorized scope? Can you support the schedule? Is the information good enough to make a responsible offer?
If something important is missing, name it. “We need the current drawings before we can finish this” is a decision. “We'll figure it out” leaves the estimator and field team carrying an assumption nobody has agreed to.
Give each opportunity one owner, one due date, and one next action. You should be able to open its record and understand where it stands without calling three people.
Get the scope out of your head
Write down the included work, exclusions, options, supplied equipment, and dependencies. Identify the documents and revisions you used. The customer and the person running the job need to understand the same offer.
Ask direct questions. Who provides this item? When will the area be available? Which version of the plan controls? Save the answers with the estimate.
Keep the language usable. An estimate full of vague exclusions does not help the customer understand your work. Neither does a short price with all the important assumptions left in your memory.
Walk the estimate through a working day
Now imagine the crew arriving. What has to be ready? What information do they need? Where could they wait for access, materials, or a decision? Who is supervising, coordinating, documenting, and closing out the job?
Review those questions with the person responsible for delivery when possible. Include the relevant work in your estimating process, and flag conditions you cannot verify. An unsupported labor allowance should not conceal a known information gap.
This is not a universal pricing formula. Use your company's actual information and get appropriate professional advice for the financial or contractual questions you cannot resolve yourself.
Before you hit send
Use this check directly in the bid record:
- The scope and document revisions are clear.
- Inclusions, exclusions, and optional work are distinguishable.
- Material assumptions and unanswered questions are visible.
- The delivery plan has been reviewed against the estimate.
- The recipient, requested format, price, and proposed timing are correct.
- The exact submitted version will be saved.
- Someone owns the next follow-up.
Give the follow-up a reason
After submission, do more than remind yourself to “check in.” Decide what the next conversation needs to accomplish. Confirm receipt. Clarify an option. Find out whether the decision date or schedule changed.
Use the customer's process and agreed contact preferences to choose timing. Don't invent a deadline or promise a crew opening you have not checked.
Record what actually happened. If the customer has not decided, say that. If you lost the job and do not know why, don't automatically write “price.” That assumption can lead you to change the wrong thing on the next estimate.
Make the award useful to the field
Once the work is appropriately authorized, pass on the accepted scope, current documents, delivery assumptions, schedule, and unresolved items. Make sure the crew receives the version the customer accepted.
Ask the person taking over to explain the job back. Where are the boundaries? What decisions are still open? Who owns them? That conversation can expose a gap before it becomes a jobsite disagreement.
A disciplined bid process cannot guarantee a win or a profit. It can give you a clearer basis for choosing work, making an offer, and understanding the outcome.
A related resource for the pricing side
Take one bid you are working on and review its assumptions before you change the number. Keep the checklist above in the job record so the thinking travels with the work.
Our original Pricing Blueprint (Home Service Providers) is a related teaching resource for hourly service pricing, not a bid checklist or a complete estimating method for every electrical project. Its percentages are ballpark teaching assumptions. Review your actual costs, taxes, and margin calculations with your CPA or qualified adviser before using them to set a price.
Put this lesson to work
Choose one open bid. Use the seven checks above, name each unresolved assumption and assign a person and date for resolving it before submission.
Explore BULD contractor development for connected planning, follow-up and team responsibilities.
I’m Wilson Matthew Betances, and my mission is simple: Building the People Who Build Things. Take one thing from this lesson and put it to work. If it helped, keep learning with us.
The original handout is unchanged. Wage × 1.30 includes the base wage; do not count it twice. Adding 30% to cost is markup, not a 30% margin. Use actual costs and review classifications with your accountant.
Keep learning: Calculate electrical job costs and margin.