CITE (which stands for the ‘Construction Industry Trading Electronically’) is a collaborative electronic business initiative for the UK construction industry. It was launched in 1995 and formally marked the start of a major collaborative undertaking with active participants from the professions, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers. CITE was founded by Alfred McAlpine, Costain, Gardiner & Theobald, Laing, Taylor Woodrow, Trafalgar House, and Wimpey.

The overriding objective of CITE is to extend the operational use of electronic business across the construction industry in the widest context and by so doing, create an open trading environment for all.  Where existing services or standards apply CITE seeks to adapt these and build on best practice. CITE provides its members with document exchange formats alongside practical working support. This makes it easier for businesses of all sizes to get involved, allowing our industry to move forward together. By doing all of this through CITE, the industry is creating a collaborative framework of standards that fully support common solutions.

There is currently a growing need and fundamental drive to collaborate electronically at project level and beyond. The future demands integration throughout the construction process. CITE intends to help lead this drive to build a stronger, more effective construction processes to deliver the very best solutions in delivering value to clients.

Microsoft Excel and the CITE 4.2 Bill of Quantities Standard

If you are looking to import a CITE 4.2 BoQ file into Microsoft Excel then CITE have a 'reader' available to do this for you. The 'reader' is a spreadsheet which contains some macros that automate the import of an EBQ file. To download a copy of the 'reader' please click here.

We have regular requests for software that can take a bill of quantities that has been prepared in Microsoft Excel format and export it into a CITE 4.2 format. Unfortunately because Microsoft Excel is such a flexible formating tool it would be difficult to write a macro that allowed for all the possible combinations and formatting styles used. Therefore CITE are unable to provide a free tool for this purpose.

Copyright statement and use of CITE standards

CITE license the use of its standards and other material on this web site under a Creative Commons Licence.

The full legal wording of the licence can be read here.