Tender comparison

Bids side by side, after the gaps are levelled

Your document and up to eight returned bids, matched by item reference rather than by row order, with unpriced items levelled on a basis you choose and printed against every adjustment.

Each bid line is matched to your document by item reference
Lines the bidder added are listed separately, not silently mixed in
Lines the bidder skipped show as gaps, not as zeros

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Tender comparison

Tender comparison · three of eight bids

Returned bidAs returned

Bidder A · 42 of 42 priced£2,190,000

Bidder B · 40 of 42 priced£2,146,300

Bidder C · 42 of 42, 3 added£2,238,900

Your document42 items

Before levelling, the cheapest bid is the one with two items missing. That is exactly the comparison that misleads.

Matching

Matched by reference, not by row order

Bidders move rows, merge lines and add their own - matching by row order compares apples with whatever happened to land on row 40.

Each bid line is matched to your document by item reference
Lines the bidder added are listed separately, not silently mixed in
Lines the bidder skipped show as gaps, not as zeros

Tender comparison

Tender comparison · three of eight bids

Returned bidAs returned

Bidder A · 42 of 42 priced£2,190,000

Bidder B · 40 of 42 priced£2,146,300

Bidder C · 42 of 42, 3 added£2,238,900

Your document42 items

Before levelling, the cheapest bid is the one with two items missing. That is exactly the comparison that misleads.

Levelling

Gaps levelled on a basis you choose, in writing

An unpriced item is not free; it is a decision waiting to be made.

Fill a gap with the average of the other bids, the highest of them, or your own figure
The basis is chosen per gap and printed against the adjustment
Levelled and as-returned totals are shown side by side

Tender comparison

Levelling · Bidder B

As returned£2,146,300

2 unpriced items, at average+£48,100

Levelled total£2,194,400

After levelling, Bidder B is no longer the cheapest. The adjustment and its basis print on the comparison, so the recommendation can be defended.

After the award

The winning bid becomes the bill

The comparison is not a spreadsheet you throw away; it is where the contract bill comes from.

The chosen bid turns into the bill of quantities
Every valuation then values against those lines
The comparison stays on the record, adjustments and all

Tender comparison

Award · into the job

Chosen bidBidder A

Lines into the bill42

Comparison keptwith the project

Contract sum£2,190,000.00

A year later, when somebody asks why this bidder won, the levelled comparison is still there to answer.

See it running before you sign up

Who it is for

One chain of payments, four places on it

You are applying

You certify down while applying up

You certify your subcontractors down the chain while your own application runs up it, and the gap between the two cycles is your cash position.

Applying for payment

the same measurement

You are certifying

You certify the top of the chain

You certify the main contractor, and what they owe their chain is not your contract - but their insolvency risk is your project risk.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You pay the chain from your own account

You pay the packages yourself, on their own retention and their own dates, while chasing your own money on a different cycle entirely.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You watch the chain for the lender

You watch the chain below the borrower: money that stops moving down the chain is the earliest warning the facility ever gets.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

Your document and up to eight returned bids, side by side, matched by item reference.

They show as gaps, and you level each one on a basis you choose: the average of the other bids, the highest of them, or your own figure. The basis prints against the adjustment, so the comparison can be defended later.

They are listed separately rather than mixed into your document, so you can see what was offered beyond what was asked.

No. The chosen bid becomes the bill of quantities, and every valuation on the job values against those lines.

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