Construction - Tendering for a Project

Log the tender opportunity. Review all ITT documents - scope of works, employer's requirements, drawings, pricing documents, and submission deadline. Confirm whether the project fits your capabilities and commercial criteria before committing to bid.

Visit the site to assess access, ground conditions, complexity, and risk factors that will affect your pricing. Record observations and photographs that will inform your prelims and risk allowances.

Break down the scope into priced items. Cost materials, labour, plant, preliminaries, and allowances for risk and programme. Reference your rate card and cost data for accuracy at each line.

Issue RFQs to sub-contractors and material suppliers for all portions of work you intend to sub-let or buy in. Chase responses and log received prices against the relevant cost lines in your tender build.

Compile all pricing into the required submission format. Apply overhead and profit. Prepare method statements, programme, and any other supporting documents required by the ITT.

Review the full tender internally before submission. Confirm pricing is complete, the format matches the ITT requirements, and commercial terms are acceptable. Get formal sign-off from the contracts manager or relevant director.

Submit the completed tender package by the deadline using the client's required method - portal upload, email, or physical delivery. Confirm receipt from the client.

Monitor tender status. Respond promptly to any clarification requests from the client. If unsuccessful, request debrief feedback on pricing and methodology to improve future submissions.

We're pricing multiple tenders at once and can't track which sub-contractors have responded to which RFQs - gaps in supplier pricing only appear when we're compiling the final bid.

We submit competitive tenders but never find out why we lose. There's no structured follow-up process to request feedback and learn from unsuccessful bids.

Our tender build is spread across emails, spreadsheets, and PDFs - pulling everything together for the final submission takes hours we don't have close to the deadline.