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Top tips for tendering wiki
Top tips for tendering and common mistakes to avoid, identified by the Finance Hub.
Top tips for tendering
- Ensure the service being delivered fits the aims and objectives of your organisation.
- Ensure the service is deliverable within the terms of the contract.
- Consider how delivering the service will affect your organisation’s impartiality and ability to be an advocate for your beneficiaries. Will being reliant on income from a public body limit your ability to criticise its services?
- Be sure that you understand how delivery will be judged.
- Apply 'full cost recovery rules to contracts – including the costs of preparing tenders.
- Check out the tax and VAT implications.
- Check employment law if new work involves taking on staff from another employer. Staff are often protected by TUPE – transfer of undertakings – rules that protect their jobs.
Common errors made when tendering
These are some of the errors people commonly make when tendering:
- missing the call to tender
- failing to express interest and therefore not receiving the documents
- failing to submit a pre-qualification questionnaire which debars you from the tender award phase of the process
- not providing the information required
- not answering the questions but providing information which can be regarded as 'marketing'
- basing the responses on unsupported assertions rather than evidenced claims
- not including the key documentation
- failing to adequately demonstrate effective management of risk
- missing submission deadlines.
Have your say
What are your top tips for successful tendering? Let us know on the Commissioning and procurement forum.
