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How do I load a contractor's or architect's bill of quantities into my quotation?

A bill of quantities is an Excel file that you receive from, for example, a contractor or architect. You load that bill of quantities straight into a quotation: every row from the Excel file becomes a line on your quotation. Then you link those lines to your own posts in one go, so that your calculation is ready immediately.

Uploading a bill of quantities

Open the quotation and click Upload above the quotation lines.
Choose the Excel file.
The Import measurement window shows the content of your Excel. For each column, indicate which column in Robaws it corresponds to.
Click Import. The rows appear as lines on your quotation.

You can assign these columns:

Column in Robaws	What goes in it?
Description	The description of the line. Mandatory.
Line nr.	The line number from the bill of quantities.
Post nr.	The post number from the bill of quantities. You use this to link the lines to your own posts (see below).
Quantity	The quantity.
Type	The type of the line, e.g. FH or VH.
Unit type	The unit, e.g. m² or pc.
Unitprice	The unit price. Only use the amount, without the € sign.
Extended description	The extended description of the line.
Allocation key	The allocation key. If it does not exist on the quotation yet, Robaws creates it.

A few rules when loading:

If you do not assign a column as Description, the import does not start. A row with an empty description is skipped.
A row without a Quantity and without a Unitprice becomes a text line. It does not count towards the price calculation.
So it is best to also assign Quantity and Unitprice.

Avoid formulas or references in the cells you import. They can cause the upload to fail.

Linking the lines to your own posts

After the upload, the lines of the bill of quantities are on your quotation, but still without your calculation. With Assign posts, Robaws links them in one go to the posts from your post library, based on the post number.

Make sure your posts have the same post number in the Post field as in the bill of quantities.
In the quotation, click ... above the lines and choose Assign posts.
For each line, Robaws looks for the post with the same post number and links it to the line.

This is how the linking works:

Only lines that do not have a post or item yet and that have a Post nr. are linked. Lines that are already linked stay unchanged. So you can safely use the button again after you have created extra posts.
If Robaws does not find a post with that number, it looks for an item with that item number.
The quantity and the description from the bill of quantities are kept. The post brings along its extended description, price and, in a calculated quotation, its full build-up and parameters.
The unit has to match. If the post has a different unit than the line, Robaws does not link it. Afterwards you get a Result overview with those lines: per line you see the post number, the post found and both units.

Does the bill of quantities say 'ST' and Robaws 'piece'? Add 'ST' as an alternative name to the unit 'piece'. Robaws then treats both as the same unit and does link the post. How that works is explained in Working with unit types.

Do you change a post in your post library later on? With ... > Reset posts you retrieve the latest version of the posts again for the lines on your quotation.

Updated on: 14/10/2026

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