The Tender Review Checklist: What to Check Before You Price a Bid

1. The go/no-go facts (first 15 minutes)

Before reading anything in depth, pull these. Any one of them can end the review early, and finding that out in 15 minutes instead of 4 hours is the whole point.

• Closing date, time, and place. To the minute. Note the time zone on electronic submissions. If it closes in 6 days and the estimate needs 10, stop here.
• Bid security and bonding. Bid bond percentage, consent of surety, performance and payment bond requirements. If the job needs bonding beyond your capacity, stop here.
• Mandatory site meeting. Date, time, whether attendance is a condition of bidding. A missed mandatory meeting is an automatic disqualification.
• Scope fit. Read the project description and the list of spec divisions. Is the bulk of this work something you self-perform? Are you bidding prime or looking at a sub package?
• Owner and funding. Public or private, and whether funding is in place. Private work deserves a harder look at payment terms.

2. Instructions to Bidders (Division 00)

The least interesting pages in the package are the ones most likely to get your bid thrown out.

• Submission format: paper or portal, number of copies, envelope requirements, file naming rules for e-bids.
• Required forms: bid form, appendices, statutory declarations, safety and insurance certificates, references.
• Qualification requirements: prequalification, COR or equivalent safety certification, minimum experience on comparable projects.
• Evaluation method: lowest compliant bid, or weighted criteria? If weighted, what earns points besides price?
• Bid validity period and the owner's right to negotiate or cancel.
• Addenda acknowledgment: where addenda are posted and how each must be acknowledged on the bid form.

3. Scope: what is actually yours

• Walk the spec table of contents division by division and mark what you self-perform, what you sub out, and what is excluded from the contract.
• Read the front-end sections of your own divisions completely, not just the parts with numbers in them. Measurement and payment clauses change unit prices.
• Check drawings against specs for conflicts, and note the order-of-precedence clause that decides who wins when they disagree.
• List alternates, separate prices, unit prices, and cash allowances. Each is a pricing decision of its own.
• Hunt for scope hiding in other divisions: dewatering in the concrete spec, restoration in the landscaping spec, traffic control in general requirements.

4. The geotechnical report

For anyone moving dirt, this is the most important document in the package. Read all of it, including the boreholes.

• Groundwater levels by borehole, and the date they were measured. September readings understate spring conditions.
• Soil profile and strength: SPT N-values, soft layers, fill, organics, anything that softens when wet.
• Excavatability: rock, cobbles, boulders, cemented till. Anything that slows production or breaks teeth.
• Bearing and compaction requirements versus the native material you will actually find.
• Coverage gaps: are there boreholes where your deep excavation actually is? A geotech report that stops 200 m short of your trench line is a risk, not a comfort.
• The disclaimer section: what the geotech engineer is explicitly not responsible for usually maps onto what you should price contingency for.

5. Contract red flags

• Liquidated damages: dollar amount per day, and whether the schedule makes them a real probability.
• For subcontractors: pay-when-paid or pay-if-paid clauses, and the holdback release timeline.
• Unusual warranty periods or maintenance obligations after substantial completion.
• Who carries permits, utility locates, engineering for temporary works, and quality control testing.
• Changes clauses: how extras get priced, notice periods for claims, and whether disputed work must continue.
• Site condition clauses: does the contract disclaim the geotech report you just based your price on?

6. Schedule reality

• Start and completion dates against the season. An earthwork contract that starts in November in Alberta is a different price than the same scope in June.
• Milestone dates and phasing that force remobilization or split crews.
• Working-hour limits, road bans, environmental windows (fisheries timing, nesting season), and shutdown periods.

7. Addenda discipline

• Check the posting site daily in the final week, and always the morning of close. Late addenda change bids.
• Read each addendum against your marked-up scope; a two-line addendum can delete or add six figures.
• Log every addendum number and acknowledge all of them on the bid form. Missing one is a common disqualification.

8. The last 24 hours

• Bid form filled out exactly as issued: no crossed-out clauses, every blank completed, unit price extensions checked.
• Bid security attached, in the right form and the right amount.
• Sub and supplier quotes confirmed in writing, with their exclusions read and either priced or carried up.
• Submission path tested: portal login works, or the courier is booked with margin for a flat tire.
• One full review pass by someone who did not build the estimate.