How to write a tender response

Start with the evaluation criteria

Our guides to registering for government tenders and deciding whether a tender is worth it cover finding the work and making the call to bid. This one starts once you've said yes and have the pack open in front of you.

Read the evaluation section before anything else, because it tells you exactly how your response will be marked. Queensland's standard invitation to offer for goods and services (the July 2026 version) is a good example of how these packs are built. Part A holds the conditions and the criteria, Part B holds the draft contract and Part C holds the response schedules you fill in and send back. It says plainly that offers are not evaluated on price alone. Mandatory criteria (such as warranting that you'll follow the Queensland Government Supplier Code of Conduct) sit apart from the scored ones, which include capability and relevant experience, quality, value for money and purposeful public procurement outcomes. It also says an offer that shows a failure in capability or capacity on any one criterion may be set aside. A gap on one criterion can sink an otherwise strong response.

So before you write a word, turn the pack into a checklist. It should hold every mandatory requirement and every criterion with its weighting, plus the forms and schedules you have to return and any word limits or file formats. Business Queensland's advice is to use the buyer's response template when there is one, since its sections may carry word limits and set formats. Then answer the criteria in the order they're asked, under the buyer's own headings. The evaluator scores with the criteria list beside them, and they shouldn't have to hunt through your company history to find the part that answers question three. If a criterion has parts, answer each part under its own label.

Evidence scores and claims don't

Business Queensland tells suppliers to give specific examples of how they meet each criterion rather than simply stating that they do. Every response in the pile says the business is reliable and safety-focused, so those words score nothing on their own. What moves your mark is proof the evaluator can check.

Choose referees who know your work on jobs like this one. Business Queensland suggests getting their permission first and briefing them on what the buyer wants, so their answers speak to the job. Queensland's procurement policy encourages agencies to ask for insurance evidence and reference reports only when they need them, often once you're shortlisted. Have them ready anyway, because the standard template gives you five business days to produce insurance certificates when they're requested after closing.

Here is a made-up example. A commercial cleaner in Toowoomba with four staff is bidding to clean a state agency's regional office and depot, and one criterion asks for demonstrated experience with similar services. The weak answer says the business has years of experience cleaning commercial premises to a high standard. The strong answer looks like this.

Since March 2024 we have cleaned the two-storey offices of an accounting firm in Toowoomba (about 1,100 square metres, five nights a week). Since 2023 we have cleaned the amenities and lunchroom at a transport depot in Wilsonton three times a week, working around forklift movements under the site's traffic management plan. Referees for both jobs are listed in Schedule 4, and both know about this tender and have agreed to take a call.

It's short, every fact can be checked, and it covers both kinds of site the agency wants cleaned.

The pricing schedule and your assumptions

Fill in the buyer's pricing schedule line by line, in their format, and don't attach your usual quote in its place. Business Queensland lists what a price should make clear: the price for each item or service, whether it's fixed or can move (with CPI, for example), any conditions that affect it, delivery charges and GST. The NSW Small Business Commissioner adds that your pricing should be reasonable and competitive and should include all your direct and indirect costs, so the price you lodge is one you can live with for the full term.

Then write down what your price assumes, next to the price or in the notes field the schedule gives you. The cleaner above might list these.

• Access after 6pm using a swipe card the agency supplies.
• Consumables such as paper towel, soap and bin liners supplied by us and included in the price.
• Windows above ground floor excluded, with an hourly rate given for them separately.
• Rates held for 12 months, then reviewed in line with Brisbane CPI.

Be careful when an assumption changes a contract term. The Queensland template asks you to confirm that you accept the contract conditions or to identify any departures from them, so a change to payment terms or liability belongs in that schedule where the buyer will see it. For scope, exclusions and rates, our guide to quoting for commercial work goes further.

Ask your questions through the proper channel

If something in the pack is unclear, ask, but do it the way the pack says. The Queensland template requires every question to go in writing to the named contact person by the closing date for questions, which falls before the closing date for offers. It also says you must not discuss the process with anyone else except to prepare your offer. Councils take the same line, and City of Sydney warns that lobbying councillors or employees is prohibited and may disqualify you.

Ask early and make each question specific, such as how many bins are on each floor or whether the agency supplies the alarm codes. Expect your question and its answer to be shared, because answers that change the requirements usually go out to every bidder as an addendum. NSW agencies are told not to issue addenda within five working days of closing and to consider extending the deadline if they must. Watch the portal anyway and read every addendum, which is one of the Small Business Commissioner's steps for writing a tender.

Conforming and alternative offers

A conforming offer does everything the invitation asks in the way it asks. Under the Queensland template a conforming offer must:

• be received by the closing date and time;
• arrive in the format and by the method the invitation describes;
• stay open for the minimum validity period (the template suggests 120 days);
• satisfy every mandatory requirement;
• respond to every section of the response schedules.

An alternative offer proposes a different way of doing the job, such as fortnightly carpet cleaning instead of monthly with a lower total. Queensland encourages them through a separate schedule, and its 2026 procurement policy says invitations shouldn't make you lodge a conforming offer before you can lodge an alternative. In NSW the rules come from each invitation's conditions. City of Sydney, for one, says substitute terms must be submitted in full as part of the tender. The safest course in either state is to lodge a complete conforming offer and then put the alternative beside it, clearly labelled and priced separately, with a short note on what the buyer gains.

Declarations and conflicts of interest

Most packs include a form you sign and return. In Queensland it's the supplier acknowledgements and certifications, and the template's warranties cover a lot of ground.

• You haven't colluded with other bidders or engaged in anti-competitive conduct.
• You have no conflict of interest except one disclosed in your offer, and you'll tell the buyer immediately if one arises.
• Everything you've provided is complete, accurate, up to date and not misleading.

Those warranties keep running until you're told you've missed out or the contract ends. In NSW the Supplier Code of Conduct says real or perceived conflicts of interest must be reported to the agency immediately, and it bars suppliers from offering benefits to government staff.

For a small business a conflict can be ordinary. Your sister might work in the team that's buying, or you might be doing private work for the manager who wrote the specification. Declare it in the offer and say how you'll keep it apart from the evaluation, since a disclosed conflict can usually be managed and a hidden one tends to end the bid or the contract.

Lodge early, because late usually means out

Business Queensland says late or incomplete responses are usually excluded unless there are exceptional, pre-agreed circumstances. NSW agencies are told not to accept a late submission unless the delay is the agency's fault or the circumstances are very exceptional, and no other bidder is disadvantaged. City of Sydney won't consider a tender lodged even a few minutes late. The Queensland template lets the buyer consider or reject a late offer, but that is the buyer's choice and not something you can count on.

Upload the day before closing. Check the portal's file limits (the Queensland template mentions 100 MB per upload on QTenders), confirm every file arrived and keep the receipt. Business Queensland also suggests having one person read the whole response for consistency, so get someone who didn't write it to read it against your checklist first. If you miss out, ask for a debrief. When a contract is too big to bid for on your own, our guide to subcontracting on government work covers the other way in.