How a tender progresses
A tender moves from draft to open to closed, and each bid on it has its own life — submitted, shortlisted, accepted, declined or withdrawn. What each state means for both sides.
Two things are moving at once, and they are easy to confuse. The tender has a state. Each bid on it has its own. A tender can be closed while the bid you placed on it is still being decided.
The tender itself
Draft
You are building it and nobody can see it. Basics, specifications, eligibility, budget, publishing — filled in as you go, in any order, over as many sittings as you like.
Nothing is visible and nothing can be bid on. This is where to change your mind.
Open
Published and accepting bids. Eligible businesses can see it and respond; ineligible ones are told why rather than left guessing.
The window has a start, and usually an end you set when publishing.
Inactive
Visible but not accepting bids. This is the state for a tender that is paused rather than finished — you are not taking new bids right now, and you have not decided.
Closed
No longer accepting bids. Either the window ended, or you closed it — after awarding, or because the requirement went away.
Closing is not the same as awarding. A tender can close with nothing awarded, and that is a legitimate outcome.
Each bid
Submitted
The bid is in. The host can see it; competing bidders cannot see each other.
Shortlisted
The host has marked it as still in contention. Useful on a tender with many bids — it separates the ones being seriously compared from the ones already out, without declining anyone prematurely.
Shortlisting is not awarding. Several bids can be shortlisted at once.
Accepted
You won. Contact details are exchanged and the work is yours to negotiate and deliver.
When the engagement is finished, the bid is closed and both sides rate each other — which earns each of you credits back. See Costs.
Withdrawn
You pulled it. Circumstances change: your capacity went, your input costs moved, you read the specification properly the second time.
Withdrawing is better than winning something you cannot deliver.
What each state means for you
| Bid state | Contact details | Your credits | Still in contention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Submitted | Hidden | Spent | Yes |
| Shortlisted | Hidden | Spent | Yes — narrowed |
| Accepted | Exchanged | Spent, and earned back at the close | Won |
| Declined | Never revealed | Mostly refunded | No |
| Withdrawn | Never revealed | You chose to leave | No |
Shortlisted is not a promise
It means you are still being considered. Hosts shortlist several bids and award one.
Why hosting is free and bidding is not
The cost sits with the bidder because that is where the incentive needs to be.
A tender with no cost to bid on collects speculative bids — priced without reading the specification, submitted on the chance something sticks. That is the failure mode that makes a host stop reading bids at all, and it is what a bid fee prevents.
Most of a lost bid comes back, so bidding seriously on something you can deliver is cheap. Bidding on everything is not.
Amending a published tender
Requirements change after publishing, and pretending otherwise produces tenders whose specification quietly no longer matches what is wanted.
Changes to a live tender go through a request rather than being applied silently, and the tender carries its own history. Bidders who priced against the original are not left comparing their quote to a document that changed underneath them.
Writing a bid
Answering the host's specification fields, pricing so the number can be trusted, proposing payment terms, and the mistakes that lose bids that should have won.
Costs
Hosting a tender is free, bidding costs credits and unsuccessful bids are largely refunded, and both sides of an awarded tender earn credits back for giving feedback.