Free Bid Leveling Spreadsheet (Excel Template)

• How to use: the steps below, in the file.
• Leveling: the blank sheet. Project, package and bid due date; five bidder columns; base bids; fifteen scope rows with a column for where each plug came from; leveled totals; each bid above the lowest and against the median; a check-before-award block (addenda acknowledged, bond, exclusions and qualifications, schedule); four alternate rows and the total with Alternate 1.
• Example: the same sheet filled in with three fictional drywall bids.

1. Write the scope items in column A from the drawings, specifications and your bid package, before you open the first proposal. See how to write a scope of work for a subcontractor.
2. Enter each bidder's name and base bid.
3. For each scope item and bidder: leave it blank if the bid includes the item; enter a positive plug if the bidder excluded it; enter a negative deduct if the bidder included work that is not in this package.
4. Use the same plug for every bidder who excluded the same item, and note its source in column B.
5. Read the leveled totals, then the differences from the lowest and from the median. A bid far from the median deserves a call before anything else.
6. Price alternates in their own rows; they never change the leveled total.
7. Before award, ask the apparent low bidder to price your plugs in writing, and replace each plug with its price.

The Example sheet holds the three fictional drywall bids from how to level subcontractor bids. Base bids of $412,000, $398,500 and $431,750 level to $427,300, $411,700 and $425,750. The median leveled total is $425,750, so the low bid is 3.3% below it ($14,050 ÷ $425,750) and the highest leveled bid is 0.4% above it ($1,550 ÷ $425,750). With Alternate 1 the totals are $441,800, $427,900 and $438,650.

Keep the tab of bids as received as well: public owners keep that record (FAR 14.403), and it is the difference between what was offered and what you adjusted. The difference between a bid tabulation and bid leveling is that record versus the adjusted comparison. The Federal Highway Administration's bid review guidelines also look at the range of bids and prices that differ significantly from the estimate and the other bids, which is what the median row is for.

In Conflo, the leveling sheet builds itself from the bids: each trade bid's Leveling tab puts every submitted bid in a column against the package's scope items, flags excluded items, takes your private adjustments, highlights the lowest leveled total and, with three or more bids, flags any bid more than 15% from the median. Selecting and awarding happen on the same page. See bid leveling.

Download the spreadsheet, list your scope items first, and plug every gap the same way for every bidder. The arithmetic is in the formulas; the judgment is in the plugs.

When you level every package on every job, Conflo does the same thing with the bids your subs submit online.

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1. FAR 14.403, Recording of bids — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 16, 2026.
2. Guidelines on Preparing Engineer's Estimate, Bid Reviews and Evaluation (October 7, 2021), Bid Review Factors — Federal Highway Administration. Read October 17, 2026.