Tender & Quote Review
Risk mitigationFixed FeeFor Main Contractors & Clients10 working days
I level the tenders you have received and make a written award recommendation, normalising the qualifications, checking the arithmetic and exposing the scope gaps. The lowest tender and the cheapest job are rarely the same number.
The problem
The tenders are in and the temptation is to read straight to the bottom line and pick the lowest. But the bottom line is the least reliable figure in the return: one tenderer qualified out a chunk of scope, another has an arithmetic error, a third excluded the attendances everyone else included, and a fourth priced a different specification because they misread the enquiry. Take the lowest number at face value and you buy the qualifications with it, then pay for them again as variations once the work starts.
The solution
I take each return and level it: qualifications and exclusions listed and either priced back in at a fair rate or flagged as a risk to carry, arithmetic checked so an error is not read as a saving, and each price broken to the schedule's lines so the comparison is item by item. The output is a levelled table of true cost, a recommendation of which is best value and why, and the questions to put to each tenderer before an order is placed. The same discipline serves an employer levelling a main contract: larger returns, dearer exclusions, same method.
What you receive
You choose the tender that is genuinely the best value rather than the one with the lowest headline, and you place the order knowing where the winner's price is thin and what they carved out. The levelled comparison and the written recommendation justify the decision on the file, which matters if the choice is ever questioned, and the questions put before the order close the gaps that would otherwise reappear as variations once the works are under way.
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: ten 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 package and the returns
One call on the package, how many tenders came back and what you are weighing up. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the returns and the enquiry
The list below lets each return be levelled against the question it was answering rather than against the other prices alone.
- A
All returned tenders in full
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to compare, so the analysis cannot begin
Where to find it: The tender inbox and wherever the returns were collected on the closing date.
Why I need it: The prices being compared
- B
The ITT as issued, with every addendum
EssentialWithout it: There is no way to know what each tenderer was actually asked to price
Where to find it: The buying folder or the enquiry email sent to the tender list.
Why I need it: What each was asked to price
- C
The scope
ImportantWithout it: A scope gap common to every return may go unseen, because coverage is tested against the pricing schedule alone
Where to find it: The buying folder or the enquiry email sent to the tender list.
Why I need it: The boundary each priced to
- D
Every qualification and exclusion submitted, including anything sent since the return
EssentialWithout it: The returns cannot be made comparable, so the levelling and the recommendation cannot be produced, and a price that has since been corrected may be levelled as though it still stood
Where to find it: The tender inbox and wherever the returns were collected on the closing date, together with any correspondence with a tenderer since.
Why I need it: What makes returns incomparable until adjusted. A rate corrected or a qualification added after the return changes the tender, and the work reads the post-return correspondence as well as the return itself
- E
The budget or allowance
ImportantWithout it: The result has nothing to be measured against, so you are told what the tenders cost each other rather than what the package should cost
Where to find it: Your own cost plan, or the budget held by whoever authorised the package. Send its date and build-up if you have them; a round number with no build-up is still worth sending.
Why I need it: What the result is measured against
- F
The drawing register, with the revision each tenderer was issued
ImportantWithout it: The superseded-revision test cannot run, so a return priced on old information is adjusted only if the tenderer happens to have said so
Where to find it: The buying folder, or the register kept under the relevant service if this practice assembled the pack.
Why I need it: The review tests each return for anything priced against a superseded drawing, and that test needs to know which revision each tenderer held
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.
Late Returns Decided First
Your written decision on any tender that arrived after the deadline is recorded before a single price is opened, so the comparison stays fair and defensible.
- A
I level each return against the enquiry
Qualifications and exclusions listed and priced or flagged, so an excluded item is added back at a fair value rather than bought by accident.
I check the arithmetic and expose the scope gaps
Each price broken to the schedule's lines, errors caught, and any tenderer who priced a different scope quantified rather than left as a guess.
I write the comparison and the recommendation
A levelled table of true costs, a recommendation weighed against your priorities, and the questions to put to each tenderer before you commit.
Adjustments Reconciled
Every adjustment recasts to the tenderer's own submitted total with no double counting, and validity is checked before the recommendation reaches you.
You put the questions and place the order
You run the final questions with the tenderers and make the call; the analysis is yours to negotiate from and to justify the choice.
I hand over the levelled comparison and the recommendation
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.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
The returns are far quicker to level when the enquiry was built for it, which is what ITT Pack Assembly & Pricing Schedules sets up. Once the winner is chosen, the tender's clarifications are captured in the order by Subcontract Drafting & Placement.