See how leading builders have transformed procurement.
Discover why procurement and project management are better together.
Only 100 spots available! Don’t miss out on our AI-enabled procurement webinar.
Tendering is where risk starts. If you get it wrong at the beginning, no amount of project management or risk management in construction will fix it later.
Most main contractors focus on price, programme, and delivery when preparing tenders for their subcontractors. But they often overlook compliance within their own tender process. That oversight invites risk. From misaligned scopes to inconsistent evaluations, poor tendering can damage your reputation and eat into your margins.
Compliance isn’t about ticking regulatory boxes. It’s about fairness, transparency, and defensibility. When you can prove you’ve run a clear, consistent process with your supply chain, you’re on solid ground — even if decisions are challenged.
Below, we unpack what compliance means for main contractor tendering, why it matters, and how to protect your tenders from costly errors.
Non-compliance in tendering is more common than you think, and it’s never harmless. Even in private projects, if your tendering process isn’t fair and auditable, you risk disputes, delays, and damaged relationships.
While legislation like the UK Procurement Act 2023 governs public sector tendering, many of its principles — fairness, transparency, and consistency — apply equally to private subcontractor tendering. Ignoring proper procedures can result in costly rework, forced re-tenders, and lost opportunities.
Common pitfalls include:
These errors don’t just cause delays — they erode trust and margin. Compliance isn’t only a legal matter, it’s good business sense.
Tendering compliance means following a consistent process for how you issue, receive, evaluate, and award subcontractor tenders. This involves clear documentation, fair treatment, and full transparency with your supply chain.
Consistency is key. Every tender package should follow the same steps. No shortcuts. No surprises.
A quantity surveyor once told us: ‘When a subcontractor questions our decision, I want to show exactly how we got there — what we sent, when we sent it, how we evaluated it, and who signed off.’
A compliant tender is fair, consistent, and documented. It includes:
If you issue incomplete documents, skip a scoring matrix, or ignore agreed deadlines, that’s non-compliant. These ‘small’ mistakes can trigger re-tenders and costly delays.
Poorly defined scopes are a fast track to non-compliance. If subcontractors don’t have the same information, you can’t assess them fairly.
We’ve seen teams send scopes before finalising the trade split. That leads to double-ups, gaps, and confusion over responsibilities. It also means subcontractors quote based on different assumptions — leading to disputes and variations later.
‘It’s almost criminal that we still have scope gaps — we know they’re risky, but we issue them anyway because we’re under the pump,’ one contract administrator admitted.
To stay compliant, scopes must be complete before release:
Scope gaps aren’t just frustrating — they’re expensive.
Contracts fail compliance checks when they don’t match the live programme. This happens often, especially if contract documents go out before updated timelines are finalised.
One team might circulate contracts with a fixed start date while another is still adjusting the build schedule. A fortnight shift turns that ‘agreed’ start date into fiction.
If your dates are wrong, you’ll get late submissions, missed addendum cut-offs, and a questionable tender window. You can’t enforce deadlines that have already passed or defend the fairness of your process if not all subcontractors had the same response period.
Before drafting or releasing any contract, confirm:
Missed deadlines aren’t just administrative errors — they’re compliance failures. Once a tender timeline slips, key steps get rushed or skipped.
Set firm milestones and stick to them:
‘We don’t start until we lock the schedule. Once we set deadlines, we stick to them,’ says a commercial manager in Perth. Rush jobs breed non-compliance.
Compliance goes beyond issuing and evaluating tenders. It extends to who you appoint.
Too often, awards happen because ‘we know them’ or ‘they were quick’. Licences are assumed, insurance skimmed, references ignored. That’s wishful thinking, not compliance.
No shortcuts. Confirm:
If paperwork is dodgy, your contract might not be enforceable. If insurance lapses, you carry the liability. That’s real money, not theoretical risk.
Tendering compliance means an airtight paper trail. If you can’t prove what was sent, when, and who signed off, you’re exposed. In competitive tenders, assessment summaries must be provided to successful and unsuccessful suppliers before contract award publication.
We once saw a subcontractor claim they never got the site walk invite. Without an email log, the main contractor had no proof. The whole process was questioned, and the job nearly went back out to tender.
Collect more than PDFs in a dusty folder:
If communication is split between email, phone, and chat, you’ll struggle to find a cohesive record. Use a single platform that logs every detail against each tender package. In a dispute, you want to pull up the exact message from the day it was sent — no rummaging.
Verbal approvals are worthless if challenged. Use digital sign-offs with names, timestamps, and documents attached. If you can’t show it happened, assume for compliance it never did.
Everyone gets the same documents, at the same time, with the same instructions. You apply consistent evaluation, log every step, and follow your own process without deviation.
Yes. Tendering is the stage where you invite, receive, and assess offers. Procurement covers the entire journey — planning scopes, sending tenders, awarding contracts, and managing changes. Tendering is one part of procurement.
Procurement compliance means following all relevant rules — internal policies, legal requirements, and contract obligations — at every procurement step. This includes subcontractor vetting, valid contractual terms, and thorough documentation.
Absolutely. Centralise communication in one platform. Lock tender dates early. Automate approvals. Use standard templates. Confirm legal entities. These steps remove guesswork and lower risk.
Compliance isn’t about lofty promises. It’s about having a system that keeps every tender aligned, transparent, and defensible. If every package follows a different path, you’re relying on memory and luck to stay out of trouble.
Standardising your tender process removes that uncertainty. You get thorough scopes, dates that match real timelines, clean approvals, and clear records. Whether it’s your first tender or your fiftieth, the structure is the same.
ProcurePro streamlines tendering from start to finish. One place to issue, track, compare, and sign. No missed addenda or awkward date mix-ups. Just consistent procurement — every time.
James Metcalfe
