How to register for government tenders

Where government work is advertised

Every level of government advertises on its own portal, and councils either run their own or share one. Registering is the easy part. The real cost is the time it takes to read what comes through and decide what to bid on, so start with the one or two portals that cover the buyers near you and add more once you know what turns up. If council work is your main interest, our guide to winning council work covers the quote and tender thresholds, so this one sticks to the portals and the sign-up.

Commonwealth work: AusTender

AusTender is where Commonwealth agencies publish their approaches to market, which covers requests for tender, requests for quote and expressions of interest. Registration is free. As a registered user you get emails when a new opportunity matches your profile, and you can download the documents and lodge your response through the site.

Two other parts of AusTender are worth a look before you bid on anything. Agencies publish annual procurement plans and planned procurements, which give notice of what they expect to buy, although those plans can change or be withdrawn. AusTender also lists contracts and standing offers worth $10,000 or more, so you can see who already does the work you want, for which agency and for roughly what money.

Queensland: QTenders, VendorPanel and Local Buy

Queensland is part way through a change. The state has partnered with Local Buy, the procurement company of the Local Government Association of Queensland, to move government buying onto VendorPanel. Tender information is still being posted on QTenders while that happens, but you'll want a VendorPanel profile to get documents and respond.

The profile is free. You choose your supply categories (VendorPanel calls them Marketplace Lists) and the regions you service, and you then get notices of public tenders that match. The same profile shows opportunities from councils, because many Queensland councils use VendorPanel for their quotes and tenders. Logan City Council's advice is to register in every list that matches what you do, since buyers use those lists to decide who to invite. Not every council works this way, though. Brisbane City Council runs its own supplier portal on SAP Ariba and sends alerts by UNSPSC category code, so check your own council's tenders page.

A VendorPanel listing does not make you a Local Buy supplier. Local Buy runs panels that councils can buy from without going to tender each time, and you get onto one by answering its tender. Those tenders open every three months, on the first of February, May, August and November, and stay open for the month. The application asks about your capability, experience, quality and safety. Local Buy also checks your finances and requires $20 million public liability cover. Once you win work there are monthly returns and fees, so it suits a business that wants steady council work and can carry the admin.

New South Wales: buy.nsw

buy.nsw is the NSW Government's procurement site and Supplier Hub is where you register. You need an ABN because your profile is tied to it. The form then asks for your company details and address, your company type and size, and the products and services you sell. Once you're on, government buyers can find you in the supplier list and you can respond to tenders and apply for prequalification schemes through eTendering.

Two NSW rules make it worth the effort for a small business. Agencies may negotiate directly with a small or medium business for goods and services up to $250,000 (construction is excluded), and when they're buying directly up to $3 million they must consider an SME first. Registered small businesses are also paid within five business days on contracts worth up to $1 million under the Faster Payment Terms Policy, provided the invoice is correct.

Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia

Victoria's portal is Tenders VIC, which sits under Buying for Victoria, and registering keeps you informed of upcoming opportunities. Victoria buys a lot through pre-qualified registers and supplier panels, so read which registers cover your kind of work. Tenders WA is the central source for WA public sector requests and awarded contracts, and once your business is registered you can set up an email alert for public tenders. In South Australia the SA Tenders and Contracts site carries state tenders, and some councils use it as well. The City of Adelaide advertises its bidding opportunities there, and you have to be registered and signed in to download the documents.

Prequalification registers

Some government work only goes to businesses already on a register. In Queensland, building contractors contracted directly on government building projects worth more than $1 million must be prequalified through the PQC System, and key trade or specialist contractors (electrical, demolition and fire protection are the examples given) can register too. Victoria has the Construction Supplier Register for construction works and services suppliers, and NSW lists its prequalification schemes on buy.nsw.

Most small trades won't hold contracts of that size directly. The builders who do still need subcontractors, though, and the awarded contract notices tell you who they are. The NSW Small Business Commissioner suggests reading those notices and contacting the lead contractors you could work under. Our guide to getting on a builder's subcontractor list covers that side.

What to have ready before you register

The registration forms are short, but the first real opportunity will ask for a lot more, and it usually has a deadline. Get these together first:

• ABN, GST registration and current company details, matching your invoices and bank account.
• Certificates of currency for public liability, and workers' compensation if you employ staff. Each contract sets its own amounts, and Local Buy's $20 million is a good example of how high they can go.
• Licences for regulated work, plus safety documents such as safe work method statements where your work needs them.
• A capability statement of one or two pages covering what you do, who for, your team and equipment, and referees. Our capability statement template gives you a start.

For more on the cover and licences buyers ask for, see insurance and licences business clients ask for.

Picking categories for your alerts

The usual mistake is setting alerts so tightly that nothing arrives. AusTender's own help pages warn that its filters work together, so it only sends an opportunity that matches every filter you chose. Pick a category plus three keywords plus a location and you'll get very little. Selling to Government makes the same point about keywords and suggests using the widest range of relevant terms.

Think about the words a buyer would use, which are often not the words you'd use. A commercial cleaner in Townsville might add "janitorial" and "building maintenance" as well as "cleaning services", because a cleaning contract can sit inside a broader facilities package. Look up a few past contract notices for your kind of work to see which categories they were filed under, then use those. After a month, check what came through and adjust.

Is this tender worth the effort?

The NSW Small Business Commissioner puts the first test simply. Read the conditions of participation, and if you can't answer yes to every one of them, don't spend time on a bid. That usually covers things like insurance amounts, licences and minimum experience, and it rules out a surprising number of tenders in five minutes.

If you pass that, ask a few more questions. Is the contract a size you could staff without turning away your current customers? Is the site close enough to service at the price you'd need? Have you done similar work you can point to, with referees who'll answer the phone? Look at past award notices to see what similar contracts were worth and who won them, because a buyer that has used the same supplier for years may be hard to move. A panel that gives you repeat work for several years can justify a long response, but a one-off quote for a small job rarely justifies more than an afternoon. If you bid and miss out, ask for a debrief, since it tells you how your response was scored.

Government is one buyer among many, and the businesses that hold its contracts buy from small suppliers too. Curlew writes to local businesses like these in your name if you'd rather spend your time on the work than on finding them, and our page on facilities managers is a good place to start.