Split your estimate into scopes, price each one in-house and by your subs side by side, carry the right number to the GC, then buy it out, flow changes down and pay your subs — in the same system you estimate and run the job in.
Ductwork labor-only, piping in-house, controls and electrical subbed — each scope is one of your phases.
Our material, our shop, our crew. The cost is fair: loaded crew rates plus supervision, lifts, tools and consumables — so in-house doesn’t always look cheaper than it is.
The sub carries the whole scope. Its leveled number goes into your estimate with your sub markup; your own lines stay as the basis, so you can switch back to the cent.
Your material and shop, the sub’s crew. Material stays in your number, the sub’s labor replaces yours, and the material request goes to the job when you win.
Your shop is full: duct fabrication priced by an outside shop through an RFQ, your crew hangs it. Equipment can be bought and set by you, by a sub, or furnished by the owner.
Send each scope out as its own package and level the bids against what it costs you to do it yourself.
PIPE | Our crew $318,400 · Apex $305,000 F&I · Bolt $309,750 |
Leveled | Apex + $34,000 plug for hangers it left out |
DUCT | Labor only — Metro $88,200 vs our labor $96,500 |
CTRL | Sub F&I · plug $105,600 until the bids are in |
HVAC-EQ | Rep quotes · Trane $262,500 carried |
To the GC | Ductwork, Piping, Controls, Equipment — never a sub’s name |
Illustrative numbers.
Every scope with its frozen budget, how it is done, its status and what it was bought for — gain or loss per scope and for the job, plugs still open.
A subcontract with its schedule of values, Exhibit A (scope, exclusions, who does what, Q&A, addenda) and your flow-down terms — signed online, in the sub’s portal, or on paper.
Equipment and outside-fab duct released as POs from the quote you carried, with the submittal’s need-by date and reminders before it is late.
After the win, ask chosen subs to sharpen their number. Each sees only its own price; round 2 shows next to round 1 on the leveling.
Changes, payments, the field and closeout — with the subs in the loop and the money right.
A GC change goes to the affected subs to price. Your change order = their parts + yours + markup; when the GC approves, each sub’s part becomes a change order on its subcontract.
Pay applications with retainage, lien waivers per payment, certified payroll on prevailing-wage jobs, pay-when-paid, and backcharges taken off the next payment.
One schedule-of-values line per scope, filled from the subs’ approved progress. The GC sees scope names and numbers — never a sub.
Look-ahead per sub from the CPM schedule, the crew they promised against who came, and a row per sub on your daily log.
O&M manuals, warranties, as-builts, startup reports: a checklist each sub sends from its job page, holding the final payment until it is done.
A warranty call goes to the sub that did the work, with a date to answer — or you fix it and backcharge them.
Your fitters, sheet-metal men and shop pounds against every booked job in the same weeks — before you choose in-house.
Bids, wins, how far each sub lands from your own number, answer time, crews kept, warranty calls and backcharges.
Job cost goes to your books as CSV files for Sage 300 CRE, Foundation, Vista or QuickBooks job costing.
Mechanical, HVAC and plumbing contractors who take a whole scope from the GC and then do part of it with their own crews and sub out the rest — deciding job by job, scope by scope.
Only the drawings and specs for its scope and the line items as descriptions — no quantities, no prices. It never sees your in-house cost, other subs’ numbers or what you told the GC. Subs do their own takeoff.
No. Proposals, the customer portal and your AIA pay applications show scope names (Ductwork, Piping, Controls) and numbers only.
No. A sub without MEPSub bids, signs, reports from the job and answers warranty calls through private links. A sub that runs MEPSub gets it all inside its own workspace.
Yes, as a set of CSV files — jobs, phases, commitments, change orders and sub bills by phase — with a README to map them once into Sage 300 CRE, Foundation, Vista or QuickBooks job costing. Only what changed goes in the next export.
Scope buyout is part of the Projects & PM pack, together with projects, submittals and subcontracts.
We’ll walk through one of your own jobs, scope by scope.