Takeoff Template for Excel: Columns, Waste and a Revision Log

A takeoff template is a sheet where every row is one measured quantity, tied to a drawing and a plan issue, with its own unit and waste figure. The whole layout is in the tables below, so copy them into a blank Excel workbook. There is no download: the tables are the template. For the measuring method behind the sheet, read the full takeoff walkthrough.

Takeoff template columns that earn their place

Use rows 1 to 3 for a header block: project, bid date, who measured and who checked. Two cells there feed the formulas. B2 holds the plan issue you measured, as a revision number, and B3 holds a tolerance such as 1%. Put the column headers in row 4 and the first line in row 5. Thirteen columns follow. A to F trace a quantity to a drawing, G to J make it quotable, and K to M keep the sheet honest after the plans change.

Column D carries more weight than it looks. A reviewer sees every dimension you used, even on a printout. FORMULATEXT returns #N/A when the cell it points at holds no formula, so an #N/A in column D means column F holds a pasted number or nothing. Counts follow the same rule: type =6+2, not 8. Keep prices off a construction takeoff template, and let a separate estimate read these quantities.

Four steps set it up:

1. Type the header block, with the plan issue in B2 and 1% in B3.

2. Type Tolerance in the Name Box while B3 is selected, and press Enter.

3. Format column G and cell B3 as percent, and give column E a drop-down list of EA, LF, SF and CF.

4. Copy the table below into cell A4. Row 4 becomes the header and row 5 the first line, the slab from the next section. If a formula arrives as text, click the cell and press Enter.

If you would rather not measure every bid on this sheet, see how an outside desk measures.

A filled example in quantities, not prices

The example is invented and simplified: a one-story shop, 24 ft by 16 ft, one room, with a 4 in slab on 6 in of gravel. Walls are 9 ft high, with one 3 by 7 ft door (21 SF) and two 3 by 4 ft windows (12 SF each). The gable roof overhangs 1 ft at each end, and the fixture schedule lists six F1 and two F2 fixtures. Every dimension is printed. The number in brackets after each item is its CSI division.

The first table shows the measure columns and the second-route check. Every pair matches, so each flag reads OK and each Rev is 0.

Line 4 checks wall by wall: two 24 ft walls and two 16 ft walls at 9 ft, less 45 SF of openings. That proves the arithmetic, not the dimensions. Lines 2, 3 and 5 take their second figure from the area table printed on the sheet, and line 1 compares the fixture schedule with the plan symbols.

The second table turns the same lines into order quantities. The waste percentages are placeholders.

Each trade has its own worked version: an electrical takeoff of devices, conduit and wire, a lumber takeoff from a framing list and a plumbing takeoff of fixtures, pipe and fittings. The example above ignores the gable-end area above the 9 ft walls, wall thickness, laps, corner detail, footings, thickened slab edges and gravel compaction. Its pack sizes are placeholders, and a supplier may sell gravel by the ton.

Unit conversions and a check on every line

Measure in the unit you can verify, then convert at the end. Concrete and base rock are the classic traps: you read feet and inches, and the supplier sells cubic yards, or sometimes tons. Ask which unit applies and for the conversion. The four quantity rows in the last column convert the Needed figure from the order table.

A check is the same quantity reached a second way: a fixture schedule against plan symbols, a printed area against your own dimensions, wall-by-wall totals against the perimeter. Put the second figure in column L and flag the pair in column M. The test rounds first because Excel keeps about 15 digits of precision, and Microsoft documents ROUND as one fix when two results must be compared.

Scaled lengths rarely match to the decimal, so the test allows a percentage. With 1% in cell B3, a count of 9 against 8 shows CHECK and 680 SF against 675 SF shows OK. Where no second route exists, a ratio is the only check. Line 4 gives 675 SF of sheathing over 384 SF of floor, or 1.76 SF per SF, which you compare with past jobs of the same type. A ratio catches a missed room or a slipped decimal, not a small miss. No check catches an error that both routes share, such as a wrong scale, so confirm the scale against a printed dimension before you measure.

Do not trust a tidy total either. Raymond Panko's review of field audits, published in 2000, found errors in 24 percent of the 367 spreadsheets in seven audits, and in at least 86 percent in the most recent audits, which generally used better methods. These were business spreadsheets, not takeoff sheets. The only technique the review found shown to work was inspecting cells one by one, and in the experiments it cites a reviewer working alone caught only about half of the errors. Have a second person step through your formulas, and treat the check as a filter, not proof.

Waste and order quantity in their own columns

Keep waste out of the measure. A hidden *1.05 inside the formula in column F gives you a quantity that matches neither the drawing nor the order. One percentage per line in column G keeps the measured quantities clean. Take the percentage from your job history or your supplier, apply it once, and keep risk contingency in the estimate.

Then round up to what you can buy. Microsoft's ROUNDUP function with zero digits rounds up to the nearest integer, so the formula in column J returns whole packs times the pack size. Rounding can outweigh the waste you typed. A cell with =J5/F5-1 shows the waste you actually buy. Line 5 allows 5 percent for ceiling tile, but 7 boxes against 384 SF net is 16.7 percent over. Line 4 allows 10 percent and ends 13.8 percent over. The estimate reads column J, and the pricing columns that sit beside these are laid out in that post.

The revision log: how a takeoff goes stale

A takeoff goes stale the day a sheet is reissued, and nothing in your file warns you. On federal sealed bids, for example, a change in quantity or specifications goes out as a formal amendment under FAR 14.208, and bidders confirm receipt of each under FAR 52.214-3. Open both links and read the current text before you rely on it. Other owners set their own rules.

Keep one log row per document. Set Rev to the log number on every line you check against it, and a line still showing 0 after addendum 1 is stale. The formula =COUNTIF(K5:K60,"<"&B2) counts those lines when cell B2 holds the current plan issue. The dates in the log are illustrative.

Run the same routine for every document:

1. Put the new sheet beside the old one and compare them. Revision clouds help, but they can be missed.

2. Re-measure the lines that moved, then re-check the rest, starting with lines on reissued sheets and lines that use a moved dimension. On a large job, set Rev on the remaining lines only after you confirm their sheets did not change.

3. Record before and after quantities where whoever prices the job will see them.

4. Match your log to the addenda the bid form asks you to acknowledge.

In the example, addendum 1 added two F2 fixtures, thickened the slab from 4 in to 5 in and raised the walls from 9 ft to 10 ft. The next table is what the pricing side needs.

Lines 2, 5 and 6 were re-checked and did not move, which the Rev column can show. Line 2 shares sheet S1.1 with the slab, so it needed the look.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A spreadsheet is enough while bids are few. Once revisions and addenda outpace the person updating it, one fix is to hand the measuring to someone else and keep the pricing. Takeoff Services LLC sells outsourced takeoffs, so test that advice against these signs rather than against this page.

• Column K shows stale lines on the day a bid is due.

• Two people edit two copies, and nobody knows which file is current.

• You turn down invitations because nobody has time to measure.

If these keep happening, compare software or outsourcing and run a break-even worksheet on your own numbers. The answer can also be to keep it in house. A small bid load and one careful person is the case this takeoff template fits.

Frequently asked questions