How to check a civil tender before you submit

Most tenders are finished late at night, by the person who priced them, with the closing time bearing down. That's exactly when mistakes get through. This guide sets out how we check a civil tender before it goes in: the order to work in, what to look at, and the warning signs that something is wrong.

When to check, and who should do it

Do the check the day before the tender closes, not the hour before. You need time to fix what you find, and some fixes, like a question to the designer, need an answer from someone else.

If you can, have someone who didn't price it do the check. The person who built the estimate reads what they meant to write. Fresh eyes read what is actually there.

1. Confirm you priced the right documents

Start with the paperwork, because a perfect price on the wrong drawings is still wrong.

• Drawing register against the drawings you priced: the right revision of every sheet, and no sheet missing. The missing one is usually the one with the details.
• Every addendum and clarification read and worked into the price, including the ones issued the day before close.
• The specification and the standards it calls up, such as council, TfNSW or Sydney Water requirements. One clause can change the cost of a whole trade.
• The geotechnical report and borehole logs, read in full: rock, groundwater, reactive clay and fill.

2. Check the big quantities, measured the right way

You don't need to re-measure everything. On most civil jobs a small number of items carry most of the value. Find the twenty biggest lines and check those properly.

• Earthworks: bank, loose and compacted volumes kept separate, and the cut and fill balanced stage by stage, not just in total.
• Drainage: pipe lengths measured off the long sections, by diameter and depth band, and checked against the chainages. Scaling the plan misses the depth, and depth is where the cost is.
• Pavements: asphalt and base converted to tonnes at the right thickness and density. They are bought by the tonne, not the square metre.
• Pits and structures: counted from the schedules and the note leaders. Existing pits are often drawn as if they were new.

3. Check how the big rates are built

A rate is only as good as its build-up. For each of the big items, ask whether the rate reflects how the work will actually be done on this site.

• Crew and plant suit the job: the right machine for the depth, the access and the ground.
• Output suits the conditions. A trench in rock, beside a live road or at depth does not go in at the same rate as an open greenfield run.
• Small quantities are priced as small quantities. A crew and plant come for a minimum run, so a small area of asphalt costs far more per tonne than a large one.
• Staging and traffic control are priced to the staging drawings, shift by shift, not as a single lump sum.
• Spoil is priced to its likely classification (VENM, ENM or general solid waste), with the testing to prove it.

4. Check the commercial side

• Preliminaries match the programme. If the programme says 16 weeks, the site costs are priced for 16 weeks. Assessors notice when they don't match.
• Supervision, engineering and survey run for the whole duration.
• Testing, quality paperwork and hold points are allowed for, along with the work-as-executed survey and handover documents.
• Wet weather, escalation and the defects period: you know what the contract gives you and what you are carrying.
• Provisional sums and prime cost items are clear: what is in your price and what isn't.

5. Compare against a benchmark

Once the detail is checked, step back and look at the whole. Compare the big unit costs with your own past jobs: cost per metre of pipe at similar depths, cost per square metre of road, cost per cubic metre of bulk earthworks. If a number is well outside your history, find out why before you submit. There may be a good reason, or there may be a mistake.

If you don't have a history to compare against, or you want a second opinion, an independent price check will tell you where you sit.

6. Write down your assumptions and exclusions

Everything you assumed and everything you left out should be in writing with the tender. Rock to a certain depth, day works only, the authority doing its own connections: if it isn't written down, you will be assumed to have included it.

Questions for the designer should go in before the tender closes. An answer that arrives in time can change the price. One that arrives after award becomes your problem.

7. Reconcile the pricing schedule

The last step is arithmetic, and it matters. The client's pricing schedule should add up to your tender price to the cent, with the right units, the right item numbers and the GST treated the way the form of tender asks. A schedule that doesn't reconcile looks careless, even when the price behind it is right.

Warning signs to look for

• A line with a quantity but no rate, or a rate but no quantity.
• The same rate across every depth band, soil type or access condition.
• Large lump sums with no build-up behind them.
• Items marked "included" that don't appear anywhere in the estimate.
• Preliminaries that stayed the same when the programme changed.
• A total that moved a lot in the last hour with no note of why.

Want it done for you?

We check civil tenders against the documents and a first-principles build-up of the big items, or price the whole tender for you. See our price check service or send us the RFQ. For the full list of what to check, get the Civil Tender Scope Check.

Common questions