Guides
Guides for contractors who bid public works
Plain-English guides to the parts of a tender that decide whether a bid is worth making, whether it is priced right and whether it survives the opening.
- Procurement guide
Why tenders are rejected, and how to check yours before you submit
Late bids, wrong bid security, short validity, unsigned forms, conditional offers: 12 mistakes that get tenders rejected, and the rule behind each.
Read - Guide · Choosing what to bid
Bid or no-bid? A checklist and break-even calculator for contractors
Decide which tenders to chase: six weighted bid/no-bid factors, a worked score, and a free calculator for the win rate a bid needs to pay for itself.
Read - Guide · Estimating
How to price a bill of quantities for a tender
Build unit rates from labour, plant and materials, price the preliminaries, enter provisional sums as printed, add overheads and profit, then check the BOQ.
Read - Guide · Securities and dates
Bid security and bid validity, explained for contractors
What a bid security is, the forms it can take, how long it must stay valid, how a bid-securing declaration differs, and the errors that get bids rejected.
Read - Guide · Development-bank tenders
World Bank bidding documents for works, explained section by section
A section-by-section guide to the World Bank Request for Bids for works: ITB and Bid Data Sheet, qualification, ESHS, local labour and FIDIC conditions.
Read