# Glossary of contractor bidding and scope terms

Plain-language definitions of the terms that appear on contractor bids and in a bid process. Each links to a fuller explanation.

- **[Scope of work](https://quotrium.com/glossary/scope-of-work)** — A scope of work is the written, itemised description of exactly what a contractor will do on a job — the tasks, the materials, the quantities and the conditions. It is what a price is a price for.
- **[Bid leveling](https://quotrium.com/glossary/bid-leveling)** — Bid leveling is the process of adjusting competing contractor bids onto a common basis so their prices can be compared directly — adding in what one bidder excluded, stripping out what another included, until every number covers the same work.
- **[Exclusion](https://quotrium.com/glossary/exclusion)** — An exclusion is work a contractor has explicitly stated their price does not cover. Exclusions are a legitimate and normal part of a bid — the danger is not that they exist, but that they are easy to miss.
- **[Change order](https://quotrium.com/glossary/change-order)** — A change order is a written amendment to a signed contract that adds, removes or alters work, and adjusts the price and schedule accordingly. It is the mechanism by which a job's final cost stops matching the bid you accepted.
- **[Allowance](https://quotrium.com/glossary/allowance)** — An allowance is a placeholder amount included in a bid for work or materials that have not been specified yet — a budget line to be reconciled against the actual cost once the choice is made.
- **[Apples-to-apples comparison](https://quotrium.com/glossary/apples-to-apples)** — An apples-to-apples comparison is one where every bid covers identical work under identical conditions, so the only variable left between them is price. Achieving it requires a single shared scope; without one, the phrase is aspirational.
- **[Three-bid rule](https://quotrium.com/glossary/three-bid-rule)** — The three-bid rule is the common practice — and, for many property managers and HOA boards, a written policy — of collecting at least three competing bids before awarding work above a certain value.
- **[Unit price](https://quotrium.com/glossary/unit-price)** — A unit price is a per-unit rate — per square foot, per linear foot, per sheet, per fixture — agreed in advance so that work of unknown quantity can be priced without renegotiation.
- **[Lump-sum bid](https://quotrium.com/glossary/lump-sum)** — A lump-sum bid is a single fixed price for the entire defined scope, regardless of what the work actually costs the contractor to perform. The contractor carries the risk of their own estimate being wrong.
- **[General conditions](https://quotrium.com/glossary/general-conditions)** — General conditions are the costs of running a job that are not part of any single task — supervision, dumpsters, portable toilets, temporary protection, permits, site cleanup, insurance and mobilisation.
- **[Mobilization](https://quotrium.com/glossary/mobilization)** — Mobilization is the cost and effort of getting a crew, equipment and materials to a site and set up to work — and, at the end, of demobilising and restoring the site.
- **[Punch list](https://quotrium.com/glossary/punch-list)** — A punch list is the itemised list of incomplete or defective work identified near the end of a job, which the contractor must finish before the work is accepted and final payment released.
- **[Retainage](https://quotrium.com/glossary/retainage)** — Retainage is a percentage of each payment — commonly 5–10% — withheld until the job is complete and accepted, held as security that the contractor will return to finish the last items.

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Source: https://quotrium.com/glossary · Quotrium — Comparable quotes for property work