Free runsheet · Winning strategies
The Six-Week Bid Runsheet
A tender is a project with a fixed, unmovable completion date. This is the program for it — week by week, with owners, gate reviews and a submission-day runsheet for the two hours that lose more bids than any other.
Get the bid runsheet
Enter your email and we’ll send it through — the week-by-week runsheet, the three gate reviews and the blank planner.
We’ll email you the PDF, plus occasional practical guidance for civil contractors bidding government work. One or two emails a month, unsubscribe in one click, and we never pass your details to anyone else. Privacy policy.
Why we made this
The bid didn’t fail in week six. It failed in week one.
Nobody loses a tender because they had six weeks instead of eight. They lose it because weeks one to four were spent waiting for a decision nobody formally made, and the written response got drafted in the last four days alongside the price.
What’s inside
Six parts.
The bid as a project
The five places the tender program fails every time, and the three fixed points to build it around — starting with the mandatory site inspection.
The six-week runsheet
Week by week from release to lodgement, with the owner and the output that has to exist at the end of each one.
Three gate reviews
Go/no-go inside 72 hours, the content review at week three, and the compliance lock 48 hours out — each with its own checklist.
The clarification window
The most underused fortnight in tendering, the four questions worth asking, and how to ask without revealing your approach.
Submission day
The two-hour runsheet, the portal traps, and why the deadline is earlier than you think.
The blank planner
Compliance matrix, program, gates, quotes and clarifications — print it and work backwards from the closing date.
Is it for you?
Worth your email if…
This is for you if
- Your bids get written in the last four days, every time
- You’ve been caught by an addendum, a time zone or an upload
- One person prices and writes, and the writing loses
- You want a repeatable process instead of a scramble
Probably not if
- You want the bid/no-go decision itself — our free calculator does that, and the runsheet links to it
- You have a bid team with an established stage-gate process already
Read first, download later
The free guides behind it.
Everything in this pack is drawn from the guides we publish openly — no email required for any of them.
Before you enter your email
Fair questions.
Is it actually free?
Yes. No credit card, no trial, no call required. We ask for an email so we can send the file and so you hear from us occasionally — that’s the whole exchange.
Will you call me?
No. We don’t cold-call people who download a template. If you want to talk, there’s a number on every page and a booking link in the email.
How often will you email me?
One or two emails a month with practical guidance for civil contractors bidding government work. You can unsubscribe from the first email, and we’d rather you did that than mark it as spam.
Can I use this on client work?
Use it, print it and adapt it inside your own business as much as you like. Please don’t resell it or republish it as your own.
Is it specific to my state?
It’s written for Australian civil contractors generally. Where requirements differ by state or scheme — licensing, prequalification, procurement thresholds — the pack says so and points you at the authority that governs it.