Tender go/no-go checklist

By Faisal Rehman · Published 8 October 2026 · About 10 minutes to use

A bid for a public contract can take days of work. Most of that is wasted if you find a knock-out requirement on the last evening, or if the contract was never a good fit. This checklist helps you decide in about ten minutes, using the notice and the tender documents, whether a tender is worth a bid.

How to use it

  1. Open the notice and download the tender pack. Have the specification, the evaluation criteria and the pricing schedule to hand.
  2. Answer the five knock-out questions. Any "no" means no-go until you can fix it.
  3. Score the six questions from 1 (poor) to 5 (strong). 18 out of 30 or more is a go.
  4. If it is a go, use the pre-submission list while you write.

The checklist works in this page: tick and score as you go, then use Print or save as PDF or Copy as text to keep a record. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Part A: knock-out questions

Tick each one only if the honest answer is yes.

Part B: score six questions

1 = poor, 3 = workable, 5 = strong. Be as hard on your own bid as an evaluator would be.

1. Fit. Is this our core service, for the type of site or system we already run, at a size we deliver today?

2. Geography and access. Can we cover the sites or users without new depots, long travel or out-of-hours gaps?

3. Price competitiveness. Given the price weighting, can we price at a level that wins and still makes a margin, after staff, on-costs and consumables?

4. Capacity to mobilise. Can we recruit, train, vet and equip for the start date without harming existing clients?

5. Evidence. Do we have references, case studies and data from contracts of similar size and type to answer the quality questions?

6. Strategic value. Does winning lead somewhere: a public-sector reference, a new buyer, more lots, renewals?

Score
0 / 30
Answer the questions to see a verdict.

Part C: before you submit

What the scores mean in practice

Price competitiveness depends on the weighting. A tender scored on price alone suits a lean operator with low overheads; a tender that gives most marks to quality rewards strong method statements and references. In two cleaning tenders open in October 2026, one council window-cleaning contract was scored 100% on price, while a secondary-school contract gave 54% to written quality, 36% to price and 10% to a presentation. The same firm could rightly score these very differently.

Evidence is where first-time public-sector bidders usually lose marks. Private-sector references count if they are similar in size and type; say so plainly and give numbers.

Strategic value is a tie-breaker, not a reason to bid for something you cannot deliver. A lost bid that teaches you nothing is the most expensive kind.

A worked example

A council window-cleaning tender on Find a Tender (notice 091158-2026) was worth £300,000 excluding VAT across five area lots, scored on price only, with clarification questions due on 20 October 2026 and bids on 27 October 2026. For an imaginary six-person window-cleaning firm based nearby, the knock-outs were all yes apart from insurance levels, which were not in the notice and had to be checked in the pack. Scores of 5 for fit, 4 for geography, 3 for price, 4 for capacity, 3 for evidence and 4 for strategic value gave 23 out of 30: a go on the two nearest lots, with a third lot decided after costing. The scores are illustrative; the notice facts are from the published notice.

Want a second pair of eyes? Our go/no-go check does this for you on a real tender, reads the pack and says plainly what it did and did not check. One page, within one working day of the tender pack, fixed £95.

Order a £95 go/no-go check

Related: How to win public sector cleaning contracts · TUPE in cleaning tenders · Open cleaning tenders · Open IT tenders

This checklist is a decision aid, not legal or financial advice. Every tender pack sets its own rules; where the pack and this checklist differ, follow the pack. Notice facts are from Find a Tender, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.