What Are Preliminaries and General (P&G) in Construction?
Preliminaries and General (P&G) are the costs of running the project that are not tied to a single permanent work item, such as site management, temporary facilities, insurances, site security and equipment. They usually form the first section of the Bill of Quantities and are priced separately from the measured works.
What P&G typically covers
The exact list comes from the tender documents, but a typical section includes:
- Site management and supervisory staff.
- Temporary offices, accommodation, utilities and welfare facilities.
- Cranes, hoists, scaffolding and other general plant.
- Insurances, bonds and permits.
- Site security, signage, traffic management and cleaning.
Fixed versus time-related items
Some items are fixed, such as mobilisation and demobilisation, because they are one-off costs. Others are time-related, such as site staff and cranes, because they depend on how long the contractor stays on site. Splitting them helps when the programme changes, since time-related items grow with an extension.
Pricing and payment
Estimators often check P&G as a percentage of the total, then build it up from duration and resources to confirm it. P&G is commonly paid in instalments through the contract period or as a lump sum split across months, according to the contract. Use our preliminaries estimator to build a first figure from your own durations and staff.
P&G on Gulf projects
Gulf tenders usually include a preliminaries section in the BOQ with its own notes on what must be priced, and requirements for site facilities, insurances and the engineer's accommodation can be specific. Read the preliminaries notes carefully, as unpriced items are generally assumed to be included elsewhere.
How Arkan handles preliminaries in the BOQ
Preliminaries are items in the BOQ like any other, so they are tracked with the rest of the contract value.
- Hold the P&G section in the BOQ with quantities, units and rates.
- Each item has a cost type (Lumpsum, Normal, Fixed or Provisional) that you can filter by.
- BOQ items feed payment requests in Finance so progress on P&G items is certified with the rest.
Frequently asked questions
What does P&G stand for in construction?
P&G stands for Preliminaries and General, the project-running costs that sit outside the measured permanent works.
Are preliminaries a fixed percentage of the project?
No. Percentages are only a quick check. The real figure depends on the programme, site setup and contract requirements.
What happens to P&G when the project is extended?
Time-related items continue to cost money during the extension. Whether they are recoverable depends on the contract and the cause of the delay.
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Last updated: 2026-10-14. Definitions are general guidance. Your contract and project procedures govern.
