Mighty Andy Insights
Plain answers to the awkward parts of tendering.
Contradictory documents, requirements scattered across six files, clarifications that quietly change the pack, evidence you are not sure counts. These are write-ups of the questions bid teams actually get stuck on — researched, sourced, and meant to be useful whether or not you ever use Mighty Andy.
Latest
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Construction and building services
Bonds, Guarantees, Retention and Z Clauses — Read These Before You Price
Two contractors can price the same drawings and arrive at very different numbers, because the real cost of a construction contract sits partly in its commercial terms. These are the ones to read before you price, not after you win.
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Construction and building services
How Public Construction Frameworks Work
A lot of public construction work is never advertised as a single tender. It is awarded through frameworks. For contractors, that changes which tender matters most, and when it comes round.
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Construction and building services
The Common Assessment Standard, Explained for Contractors
The Common Assessment Standard is now the normal way construction suppliers are pre-qualified, in the public sector and by many main contractors. What it is, which certification you need, and the documents that can quietly let it lapse.
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What Holds Up a Tender Submission (and How to Avoid It)
Most tender delays come from documents you need from other people, not from the writing. The fix is to ask for all of them on day one.
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What’s Actually in a Tender Pack?
A tender pack is not one document but a set of documents with different jobs. Knowing what each one is for tells you where its requirements are likely to be hiding.
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Construction and building services
What’s Different About a Construction Tender Pack?
A construction tender pack has the usual skeleton, plus three things most other packs don't: the design, a works contract whose options decide the risk you are pricing, and pricing documents built around it.
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Bid or No Bid? Answer the Knockout Questions First
A bid/no-bid decision is only as good as the facts underneath it. Before weighing fit, value and strategy, find out whether anything in the tender can stop you outright.
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How to Ask a Tender Clarification Question
Every bidder sees the answer, and the answer is only as good as the question. A clarification question deserves the same care as the bid itself.
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What Is the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)?
The PSQ does much the same job as the old selection questionnaire, with one large difference. Most of the information about your company no longer goes into it at all.
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Do You Need the Insurance Before You Bid?
Often, no. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer generally cannot require you to have contract-specific insurance in place before the contract is awarded. That distinction is easy to miss when a tender simply lists intimidating numbers.
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How Do You Know If You’ve Missed a Tender Requirement?
Reading every page is not quite the same thing as finding everything the tender requires.
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The Tender Wants Audited Accounts. You Don’t Have Any. Are You Out?
A missing audit can look like a failed financial test. Under the Procurement Act 2023, those are not necessarily the same thing.
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When the Tender Pack Disagrees With Itself
Contradictory tender documents are common enough to be recognisable and dangerous enough not to improvise around. The first job is working out what kind of contradiction you actually have.
Questions answered so far
- What are Z clauses in an NEC contract?
- What is a performance bond in a construction contract?
- What is a parent company guarantee in construction?
- Are cash retentions being banned in UK construction?
- How do public construction frameworks work?
- How do you get on a construction framework?
- What is a mini-competition on a framework?
- What is an open framework?
- What is the Common Assessment Standard?
- What is the difference between desktop and site-based CAS certification?
- Is Constructionline Gold the same as the Common Assessment Standard?
- What are the time-critical questions in the Common Assessment Standard?
- What causes delays when preparing a tender?
- What should you do first when a tender is published?
- How long does it take to get certification for a tender?
- How do you avoid missing a tender deadline?
- What documents are in a tender pack?
- What is an invitation to tender?
- What are tender documents?
- What order should you read tender documents in?
- What documents are in a construction tender pack?
- What is the Common Assessment Standard?
- What are the NEC4 main options?
- Do electrical and fire contractors need certification to tender?
- What is a bid/no-bid decision?
- How do you decide whether to bid for a tender?
- What should a bid/no-bid process check first?
- When should you not bid for a tender?
- How do you write a tender clarification question?
- What is the clarification period in a tender?
- Are tender clarification answers shared with other bidders?
- What is post-tender clarification?
- What is the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)?
- What replaced the Standard Selection Questionnaire?
- What is core supplier information?
- What is an associated person in a PSQ?
- Do I need the insurance in place before I bid for a tender?
- Can a buyer require insurance before the contract is awarded?
- What if a tender asks for more insurance than we currently have?
- Can a letter from an insurer count as evidence of insurance?
- How do I know whether I have missed a requirement?
- How do you find every requirement in a tender pack?
- What is the difference between conditions of participation, award criteria and procedural requirements?
- Why are tender requirements scattered across different documents?
- Can I bid for a public tender without audited accounts?
- Can a buyer require audited accounts from a small company?
- What financial evidence can I provide instead of audited accounts?
- What is the difference between annual accounts and audited accounts?
- What should I do when two tender documents contradict each other?
- Which tender document takes precedence?
- Can a clarification change the tender requirements?
- When should I raise a clarification question with the buyer?
Topics
On Andy's desk
- Why are requirements scattered across six different documents?
- What evidence do I need before bidding?
- How do I know whether we actually qualify?
- What should I clarify with the buyer?
- What happens when a clarification changes an earlier requirement?
- How should I think about bid/no-bid?
Questions Andy is working through next. Got one that belongs on this list? [email protected]
Who writes these
Meet Andy.
Andy is the voice of Mighty Andy, a tender diagnostic for SMEs. Andy spends every working day reading tender packs against the company files that are supposed to answer them — which means spending a great deal of time with contradictory schedules, buried requirements, out-of-date certificates and clarification logs. These pieces write up what that reading teaches, for anyone who has to make sense of a tender pack, customer or not.