Prequalification & Framework Applications
Risk mitigationFixed FeeFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors5 working days
I build a question register, test your evidence and thresholds against the application, select experience against the criteria, draft commercial answers to the weighting and file the submission before the deadline. This is the entry stage, before any tender exists.
The problem
Prequalification and framework applications can look like administration until the questions ask for financial thresholds, insurance, experience selected against scored criteria and rates that will apply for the framework life. Evidence is gathered without a register, a strong project is used against the wrong criterion, and a rate or percentage is entered without being treated as a commercial commitment.
The solution
I turn the application into a question register and check the evidence held against every ask. Financial and insurance thresholds are tested, relevant experience is selected against the stated criteria, and commercial answers are drafted to the weighting rather than as generic company material. Where the application asks for rates or an overheads and profit percentage, I treat it as pricing that binds for the framework life.
Where a framework asks for a schedule of rates or a percentage for overheads and profit, it is a pricing exercise dressed as an administrative one, and it binds for the life of the framework.
What you receive
The completed submission as filed, together with a one-page commercial note recording what has been committed to. The evidence and thresholds have been tested against the ask, the experience answers the stated criteria, and every framework rate or percentage is recorded as the pricing commitment it is.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: five working days.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me about the application and filing route
You set out the opportunity, deadline and filing route, so the work is planned around the application that must actually be filed.
You send the application, agreement and supporting evidence
The list below gives the register the application, framework terms, thresholds, experience and any rate build-up it needs.
- A
The application documents in full, with the framework agreement if one is attached
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to answer, and any rates would be committed with no sight of what they bind to
Where to find it: The buyer's portal or the invitation email. Download everything, including the appendices nobody opens.
Why I need it: It is the thing being answered, and the agreement is what the rates attach to
- B
The submission deadline and the filing route
EssentialWithout it: There is no date to work back from, and the route is discovered on the last day
Where to find it: The invitation, and the portal itself. Get your own portal login working on day one, not on the last day, and tell me who will be pressing submit.
Why I need it: It is absolute, and the route usually takes longer than anyone allows
- C
Accounts, turnover and insurance certificates
EssentialWithout it: The thresholds cannot be tested, so you may be assembling a submission they cannot pass
Where to find it: Your accountant holds the accounts; your broker holds the certificates. Send the current certificates, not last year's.
Why I need it: Financial and insurance thresholds are pass or fail, and are usually the first filter
- D
The project experience you want to put forward
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to select from, and the highest-scoring questions cannot be answered
Where to find it: Three to six projects, with value, dates, client, and what made each one relevant. Recent and similar beats large and famous.
Why I need it: The experience questions usually carry the most marks
- E
Accreditations and policies held, with certificates
ImportantWithout it: Accreditation answers cannot be checked against current certificates, so an expired or unsupported accreditation could be included
Where to find it: Wherever your certificates live. Check the expiry date on each before sending it.
Why I need it: They are scored, and an expired one scores nothing
- F
Your rate or percentage build-up
EssentialWithout it: Rates would be submitted from habit or from a competitor's guess, and committed for years
Where to find it: Your own overhead recovery calculation, or your last set of management accounts if you have never done one. If you have neither, say so and it is built.
Why I need it: The rates bind for the life of the framework and must come from a real cost base
- G
The turnover you expect to win through this framework, a year
ImportantWithout it: The shortfall can be stated only as a percentage, and a percentage is the form of the number nobody acts on
Where to find it: Your own forecast of what you expect to win under this framework each year. A range is fine; the calculation is then run at both ends and both are shown. It is your figure and the practice will not estimate it for you.
Why I need it: The review turns the rate shortfall into money by multiplying it by this figure, and the money figure is what makes the commitment real
- H
Previous submissions to the same buyer
ImportantWithout it: Answers may contradict what you have previously told this buyer, which is worse than a weak answer
Where to find it: Whoever filed the last one. Even an old one helps.
Why I need it: Consistency is scored, and contradicting your own last submission is costly
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I build the question register
I list the questions, criteria, weighting, evidence requirements and commercial demands, so each response has a visible place in the submission.
I test the evidence and thresholds
I check what you hold against what is asked, including the financial and insurance thresholds that determine whether the application can proceed.
I select experience and draft the commercial answers
I match project experience to the criteria and draft answers to the weighting, while building any rates or percentage the application requires.
I file the submission and record the commitments
I complete and file the application through the required route before the deadline, then record the commercial commitments made in it.
I hand over the submission as filed
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.