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Exclusions

Exclusions are the items a bidder states are not included in its price.

Also written as exclusion, excluded scope.

Last updated

Reviewed by Eric Collin · President and Founder of Firmo Construction, 20+ years in preconstruction and bid evaluation

They usually appear as a list near the end of a proposal, written in prose rather than as line items, and marked with notations like NIC or by others.

Excluding work is normal and legitimate. A drywall subcontractor is not being evasive by excluding painting. The problem is not that exclusions exist, it is that they are the entire difference between a price and a cost, and nothing in a proposal totals them — the bottom line reflects only what was included.

That asymmetry is worth stating plainly: a bid can be the lowest precisely because its exclusion list is the longest, and the exclusion list is the part typeset smallest and read last.

Distinct from qualifications, which are conditions on work the bidder IS doing rather than work it is not.

Often confused with
Related terms
  • NIC (not in contract)

    NIC — "not in contract" — is the notation a bidder uses to mark work it has deliberately excluded from its price.

  • By others

    "By others" is a note a bidder places against work it is not pricing, indicating the work is expected to be performed by some other party.

  • Qualifications

    Qualifications are the conditions and assumptions a bidder attaches to its price — the circumstances under which that number holds.

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