The ceiling contractor who bids the same way they've always bid — total sqft times a ballpark rate, materials guessed from experience — is the contractor who discovers at job completion that the grid system cost 18% more than estimated and the labor ran over by two days. The bid was won. The profit was lost. The proposal worksheet exists to prevent that specific failure mode.
Estimated vs. Actual — The Profitability Audit
This template runs two parallel columns on every cost category: estimated and actual. Estimated total price of grid w/tax and Actual price of Grid w/tax. Estimated price of tile w/tax and Actual price of Tile w/tax. Budget for grid installation and Actual amount paid for Grid installation. Across every material and labor category, the estimate-to-actual comparison is built into the record structure.
The reason this matters is that the gap between estimated and actual on any single job may be acceptable. The pattern of that gap across twelve jobs is the pricing intelligence that tells you whether your grid estimates are consistently off — whether the supplier's pricing has moved and your estimating assumptions haven't tracked with it, or whether a specific tile type runs 10-15% over estimate on larger installations because of cut waste you aren't building into the quantity.
Total profit, Estimated total profit, and Actual total profit are the three fields that produce the number that makes or breaks the business. If estimated profit is $3,200 and actual profit is $1,900, the gap of $1,300 happened somewhere across material costs, labor, or extras. The parallel columns tell you exactly where.
Material Quantification
Grid type, Grid, Quantity, and Price per sqft handle the ceiling grid system — the T-bar framework that the tiles hang in. Tile type, 2x2, 2x4, Quantity, and price per sqft handle the primary tile specification. Tile #2 through its corresponding quantity and pricing fields accommodate two-tile designs — a field common in commercial spaces where a mix of standard acoustic tile and a specialty tile for feature areas requires separate material pricing.
Extra material type, Quantitys, and the estimated and actual extra material pricing fields handle the supplementary components: perimeter trim, main tee cuts, cross tee waste, clips, hanger wire. The extras category is where many ceiling bids go wrong — it's easy to forget that a standard grid system installation in a commercial space requires roughly 30% more material than a pure coverage calculation suggests.
Total sqft and Amount per sqft are the top-line bid parameters. Total bid amount is the number the client sees. The material and labor breakdown beneath it is the internal documentation that justifies that number.
Scope and Option Architecture
Scope of work, scope, Options?, Option 2, Option 3, and their corresponding bid totals create the proposal variant structure. A ceiling contractor bidding on a commercial renovation might offer a base scope with standard grid and acoustic tile, Option 2 with upgraded tile, and Option 3 with a specialty lay-in panel and integrated lighting accommodation. Three total bid amounts for three scope configurations, in one record.
Exclusions documents what's not in the bid — the adjacent wall work, the existing grid removal, the electrical rough-in clearances. The exclusions field is the clause that prevents the scope creep conversation at job start.
Invoice status, Proof of payment, Invoice, View set of plans, and View plans close the record with the project lifecycle fields. A signed proposal transitions to an active job; the invoice status field tracks where the billing is in the payment cycle without needing a separate accounting system entry for field reference.