Tender return day
Six contractors were invited. Five return. Two sent back your Excel bill with prices filled in, although one of them inserted extra rows for their own qualifications. One sent a PDF print of the priced bill. One sent a summary with a lump sum per section and a promise of the detail to follow. One sent the bill back with half the preliminaries left blank and a covering letter full of clarifications.
The client wants a tender report next week. Before anyone can form a view, all five need to sit in one comparison, line against line, and the arithmetic in each needs checking.
Why comparing tenders turns into data entry
- Contractors change the bill layout, insert rows or merge items, so returns no longer line up with the original.
- PDF returns have to be read and typed.
- Arithmetic errors hide in extensions and page totals, and each one must be found before the figures can be trusted.
- Unpriced items, items marked 'included' and provisional sums altered by the tenderer all need spotting.
- Qualifications sit in covering letters rather than against the items they affect.
The skilled part, judging which tender is sound and what the qualifications mean for the client, can only start once the data entry is done.
What the manual comparison costs
Junior surveyors spend days typing. Arithmetic errors get missed when the checking is rushed. Qualifications are read late and their cost effect is assessed in a hurry. The tender report goes to the client later than it could, and sometimes with less analysis than the surveyor wanted to include.
| Check | Done by hand | Done by the tool, reviewed by you |
|---|---|---|
| Rows align with the bill | Surveyor matches each line | Matched by item reference and description |
| Arithmetic | Recalculated in a new sheet | Every extension and total recalculated, errors listed |
| Unpriced items | Spotted by scrolling | Listed per tenderer |
| Outlier rates | Noticed if someone looks | Rates far from the others or your estimate flagged |
| Qualifications | Read from covering letters | Extracted and listed for the surveyor to assess |
The tender analysis tool
- Your issued bill is loaded as the reference, with item numbers, descriptions, quantities and units.
- Each return is read: Excel directly, PDFs with a document extraction model, with low-confidence readings marked for checking.
- Items are matched back to the reference bill, including where the tenderer moved, split or inserted rows. Anything that cannot be matched is listed.
- Every extension and page total is recalculated, and differences from the tenderer's figures are listed as arithmetic errors for your review.
- A comparison sheet lines up all tenderers item by item, with your pre-tender estimate alongside, and highlights rates far from the group.
- Covering letters are read and qualifications extracted into a list, each with a space for the surveyor's assessment.
- The results export to Excel in the format your tender report uses.
How to treat an arithmetic error, and whether a qualification is acceptable, depends on the tender rules and the client's position. Those calls are yours. The tool makes sure nothing is missed before you make them.
After tender return day
Returns go in as they arrive. Within the working day the surveyor is looking at a comparison, a list of errors and a list of qualifications, rather than a blank spreadsheet. Time goes on the questions that matter to the client, such as why one tenderer's preliminaries look thin, or whether a low rate for groundworks reflects a misunderstanding of the site.
Every tender analysis is also kept as data, which feeds your rates library and future cost plans.
Recognise this?
- Tender returns are retyped into a comparison spreadsheet.
- Contractors regularly change your bill layout when they return it.
- Arithmetic checking is squeezed because the report is due.
- Qualifications in covering letters are assessed late.
- Past tender analyses are never used as cost data.