Last reviewed . If your team decides a way this guide misses, tell us and we will add it.
The short version
Before you commit a team to a bid, check seven things: fit (type, size, location), the owner or GC, the quality of the documents, the schedule and the bid date, the contract risk (form, LDs, bonding), the competition, and whether you have the people to estimate it and build it. Any one hard walk-away signal is a no. Otherwise, score it against a line you set before you started, and write down why.
The contract and Division 01 hold most of the risk questions, so read Division 01 before you bid. If you go, the questions you find in the documents become RFIs.
The checklist, section by section
Fit: is this the kind of work you do?
Start with three things you can read off the invitation: the building type, the size and the location. If you build tilt-up warehouses and this is a hospital renovation with infection control, that is not a stretch, it is a different business. If this package is several times the size of the biggest job you have run, your bonding and your cash flow will answer before your estimators do.
Location is more than mileage. Ask whether you know the local subs and suppliers, whether the jurisdiction has prevailing wage or local hiring rules, and whether you can staff a super there for the length of the job without paying per diem you did not price.
Owner and GC: who are you working for?
For a GC, the question is the owner. Have you worked for them before, do they pay on time, and do they make decisions or wait on a committee? A private owner who has called you directly is a different bid from a public owner who is required to take the low number.
For a sub, the question is the GC, and often how many GCs are bidding. Do they carry your number fairly, do they share addenda, do they pay through to you, and do they level quotes on scope or just shop the low price after bid day? A good job with a GC who shops numbers is a free estimate for your competitor.
Documents: can you price what is drawn?
Open the set and look at the sheet index and the spec table of contents before you look at anything else. Is it a full construction set or design development with a note that says "for pricing purposes"? Are the MEP sheets there, or is a whole trade marked design-build?
Then skim the sheets for your trade. Missing schedules, details that say "see spec" where the spec section was never issued, and partition types with no legend are all hours of RFIs and assumptions. Thin documents are not a reason to walk by themselves, but they move the price of bidding up and the accuracy of the number down.
Schedule and bid date: is there time to do it right?
Count working days to the bid, then take off the question deadline, which is usually several days earlier, and the days your sub quotes need to arrive. What is left is the time you have to do the takeoff and price it. If that is not enough for the size of the set, the bid will be a guess in a nice binder.
Then look at the project schedule itself. A start date that lands on top of two other jobs you are already running, a substantial completion date that only works with overtime, or long-lead equipment with no float are all costs you either price or eat.
Risk: what does the contract make you carry?
Read the contract form before you price anything. A standard AIA or ConsensusDocs form you know is one thing. A heavily modified owner form with broad indemnity, pay-when-paid, no-damages-for-delay and a short notice period is another, and those clauses are where profit goes after the contract is signed.
Look for liquidated damages and how they compare to the job size and the schedule. Check the bonding: bid bond, performance and payment bonds, and whether this job fits your bonding capacity with what you already have under contract. Note retainage, insurance requirements and any warranty that runs longer than you usually give.
Competition: who else is on the list?
Find out who else is bidding, from the plan holders list if the owner publishes one, or from the GC or the subs you talk to. On a public low-bid job with a long list, the number has to be sharp and the margin thin. On a negotiated or short-listed job, the relationship and the team count for more than the last dollar.
Be honest about whether you can win on the terms the job is decided on. If the owner picks on price and three competitors have lower overhead in that market, a great estimate still loses. If the owner picks on qualifications and you have built the same building twice, that is worth writing into the proposal.
Capacity: who would do the estimate, and who would build it?
Look at the bid calendar for the same weeks. An estimating team that takes this one has to put something else down, or do two at half the care. Name the estimator, not the department, and ask whether they have the hours.
Then look past bid day. If you win, who is the PM and who is the superintendent? A job you win without the people to run it costs more than a job you passed on.
Score it, decide, and write the reason down
Run the seven sections through the table below. Score each 0, 1 or 2, and check the walk-away column first: one hard walk-away signal settles it no matter what the rest adds up to. If nothing in that column is true, the score tells you how much of a fight it will be.
Set your own line before you score, so the number does not get argued up after the fact. Whatever you decide, write one sentence on why and keep it with the invitation. After a few dozen of those, you will have your own record of which jobs you should have passed on, and that is worth more than any rule of thumb.
| Section | The question | Walk away if | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit | Is it our building type, size range and area? | Outside our bonding or a type we have never built | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Owner and GC | Do we know them, and do they pay and decide? | A known history of slow pay or shopping numbers | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Documents | Is the set complete enough to price our scope? | Our whole trade is missing, or marked design-build with no criteria | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Schedule and bid date | Is there time to take off, price and get quotes? | Not enough days to read the set, let alone price it | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Risk | Can we live with the contract, LDs and bonds? | Uncapped LDs, unbondable size, or terms we would not sign | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Competition | Can we win on the terms this job is decided on? | Low bid only, against a list we cannot beat on cost | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| Capacity | Do we have the estimator now and the PM and super later? | No one to run it if we win | 0 / 1 / 2 |
Bidding everything to stay busy
A full bid calendar of jobs you cannot win wears out the estimators and pulls care off the jobs you can.
Deciding on the invitation alone
The invitation tells you type, size and date. The contract form, the LDs and the state of the documents are in the bid set. Open it before you say yes.
Letting the score override a walk-away signal
A high score with an unbondable size is still a no. Check the hard stops first.
Saying yes and then running out of time
A rushed number is worse than no number. If the schedule check fails, pass or ask for an extension before you start.
Not writing down why
Without a one-line reason, every decision is a fresh argument and nothing is learned from the last one.
Questions people ask
What is a bid/no-bid decision?
The call a contractor makes on whether to spend the time and money to price a project at all. It weighs fit, the owner or GC, the quality of the documents, the schedule, the contract risk, the competition and whether you have the people to estimate and build it.
Who should make the bid/no-bid call?
Someone who can say no and make it stick: usually the chief estimator or the head of preconstruction, with operations in the room for the capacity question. The estimator who will do the work should be asked about the hours, because they know the bid calendar best.
Is it bad for the relationship to decline an invitation to bid?
Declining early and politely is usually better than submitting a weak number or dropping out the day before. Tell the owner or GC as soon as you decide, give a short reason if you can, and say what kind of work you would like to be invited to.
How long should a bid/no-bid review take?
Fit, owner, schedule and capacity take minutes. The documents and the contract take a skim of the sheet index, the spec table of contents and the general conditions. A short review before anyone starts the takeoff is cheaper than finding a deal-breaker halfway through.
Should subcontractors use the same checklist as general contractors?
Mostly, with the owner question swapped for the GC question. A sub also has to ask how many GCs are bidding the job, whether to quote all of them, and whether the GC carries numbers fairly or shops them after the bid.
Caliente Vision
Caliente Vision reads the set with you
Caliente Vision reads the drawings, the spec and the addenda your team already has, and flags what is missing or does not line up, with the sheet and the section it came from. You start the go or no-go from the documents rather than from memory, and the decision stays with you. Caliente Vision finds, connects and checks. Estimators decide.