Budget and payment
Whether to show your budget, what each visibility option actually does to the bids you get, and how the pricing model and payment terms shape what comes back.
Two decisions here change the bids more than anything else on the form: whether bidders can see your budget, and what shape of price you are asking for.
Showing the budget, or not
Three options, and they are not interchangeable.
Publish a range
Bidders see what you are prepared to spend before they price.
Hide until acceptance
You record a budget; bidders do not see it while bidding.
Do not provide one
No budget recorded at all.
Publishing a range
What it gets you: bids that are in the right universe. Suppliers who cannot serve that number self-select out instead of spending a bid fee to find out, and the ones who can will shape the scope to fit it.
What it costs you: some anchoring. A supplier who would have quoted below your range now knows there is more available.
Best when your budget is a genuine constraint and you would rather have three viable bids than six of which four are unaffordable.
Hiding until acceptance
You have a number, and you keep it to yourself while bids come in. You get unanchored prices, at the cost of some bidders pricing a different scale of solution from the one you can afford.
Best when you genuinely do not know the market rate and want to find out.
Not providing one
Honest when the budget really is open — the requirement matters more than the price, or you are testing feasibility.
Do not use this to hide a tight budget
If you know the number and pretend you do not, suppliers spend real effort pricing something you were never going to buy. They remember.
When you do give a range, give both ends of it. A minimum without a maximum, or the reverse, is not a range and the form will say so.
Pricing model
What shape of price you want back:
| Fixed | One price for the whole scope. Comparable, and puts overrun risk on the supplier. |
| Unit | A rate per unit. Right when the total quantity is uncertain. |
| Negotiable | An opening position, expected to move. |
Pick the one that matches reality. Asking for a fixed price on a scope you cannot fully define produces either padded quotes or a variations argument later.
You can also mark the budget itself as negotiable, which tells bidders the range is a starting point rather than a wall.
Payment terms
Say them up front: whether the engagement is prepaid, whether a partial advance is available, and anything else in your own words.
Payment terms are priced. A supplier quoting on ninety-day terms is quoting a different number from the same supplier quoting on advance, and the difference is finance cost they are carrying for you. Stating terms clearly is often the cheapest discount available.
What bidders send back
A bid carries its own amount, rate and unit in your currency, its own specifications answering yours, its proposed payment terms, and a description.
So payment terms are a conversation, not a dictation. You state what you want, they state what they can do, and the gap is part of what you are comparing.
Eligibility rules
Deciding who may bid — bidder type, track record, compliance signals and geography — and why every rule you add is a trade between risk and the number of prices you receive.
Comparing and awarding
What arrives while a tender is open, how shortlisting narrows it, what to compare beyond price, and what happens at the moment you accept a bid.