Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
Everything you need to know about tender administration, compliance, turnaround times, and how The Bid Office works.
What We Do
We build your tender submission pack, the administrative and compliance side of your bid. That means reviewing the tender document, mapping every returnable, populating SBD/MBD forms, verifying compliance documents, formatting CVs against TOR criteria, organising your technical evidence by evaluation criterion, and assembling a complete, indexed, portal-ready pack.
We do not write technical proposals, method statements, or price your Bill of Quantities. That is your expertise. We make sure everything around it is compliant and evaluator-ready.
No. We never log in to any portal or submit on your behalf. Legal responsibility for every tender submission rests with you, the business owner.
We build your complete, verified, submission-ready pack and provide step-by-step upload instructions. You review, approve, and submit. This is a deliberate boundary, your submission must reflect your authorised intent, and no third party should hold that responsibility on your behalf.
We work across all major South African procurement formats, including RFQs, RFPs, RFBs, ITTs, EOIs, and SOE tenders including Eskom, Transnet, PRASA, and SANRAL. We also assist with selected corporate and private sector procurement and SADC market opportunities.
If you are unsure whether your tender type is covered, send it to us and we will assess it at no charge within one business day.
Compliance & Forms
SBD stands for Standard Bidding Document. These are mandatory government procurement forms , SBD 1 through SBD 9, that every supplier must complete and submit with a government tender.
A single incomplete field, missing signature, or incorrect declaration on any SBD form is sufficient grounds for disqualification at administrative compliance stage, before your pricing or capability is ever evaluated. MBD forms are the equivalent used by some municipalities and entities. We complete, verify, and check every form before your pack leaves our hands.
Gate 1 is the administrative compliance check, the first stage of evaluation in most South African public procurement processes. Before your price or technical capability is assessed, evaluators verify that your submission contains every mandatory document, completed correctly, with no expired certificates.
SMEs fail Gate 1 because they submit under deadline pressure without a structured compliance review. A missing COIDA certificate, an expired tax clearance PIN, an unsigned SBD 4, any one of these eliminates the entire bid. Our pre-flight verification is specifically designed to catch every one of these before your deadline.
The Central Supplier Database (CSD) is the National Treasury’s central register for all suppliers to the South African government. Registration is mandatory for any business bidding on national or provincial government tenders. Your CSD profile must be active and verified before submission.
We check your CSD status as part of our compliance review and flag any issues that need to be resolved before your deadline.
We identify expired documents during our compliance gap analysis, which we conduct before quoting you. If your B-BBEE certificate or any other compliance document has expired, we flag it immediately with enough time for you to address it before your deadline.
We do not issue B-BBEE certificates as that requires a verification agency or sworn affidavit process depending on your turnover level. But we tell you exactly what is missing and what you need to get, so there are no surprises on submission day.
Process & Timelines
Contact us immediately, do not wait. Send your tender document on WhatsApp right now and state your deadline. We offer a 48-Hour Express Turnaround for an additional R 1,500.
We will confirm within hours whether we can meet your specific timeline before any commitment is made. We will not take on a submission we cannot complete properly, but we will tell you quickly either way.
Our standard turnaround is 5 to 7 business days from the point all your required documents are received. The clock starts when your document pack is complete, not when we receive the tender document.
We send you a clear, personalised document checklist immediately after confirming the engagement so you know exactly what to gather. For tight deadlines, our 48-Hour Express Turnaround is available at an additional R 1,500.
You receive a fully compiled, indexed submission pack. For digital submissions: portal-optimised files named and sequenced to eTender, Eskom Ariba, Transnet, or whichever portal your tender requires, with a final upload checklist and step-by-step submission instructions.
For physical submissions: a print-ready pack structured for hand delivery or courier, paginated and indexed. In both cases you receive a Submission Index and a signed-off Pre-Flight checklist confirming everything is present and verified.
Documents
We send you a personalised document checklist after reviewing your specific tender. In general, most submissions require: company registration documents, valid Tax Clearance PIN, B-BBEE certificate, COIDA letter of good standing, CSD registration confirmation, certified ID copies for directors, and any sector-specific certificates your tender requires.
For tenders with functionality evaluation, you will also need CVs, reference letters, and supporting technical evidence. We identify exactly what is needed from your specific tender document — you do not need to figure this out yourself.
Pricing
We price by tender type: RFQ, RFI/EOI, and RFP/ITT each carry a fixed price confirmed before any work begins. The final price is fixed in your Scope of Service Agreement, no billing surprises, no scope creep.
A 48-hour Express Turnaround option is also available where deadlines require it. Send us your tender document and we’ll come back with a clear scope and fixed price within one business day. No obligation.
Yes. Our BidReady retainer covers up to 3 submissions per month, and our BidPro retainer covers up to 5 submissions per month. Both retainers include priority turnaround and a dedicated engagement process.
Most clients move to a retainer after two or three per-tender engagements when the monthly saving becomes clear. Retainer pricing is not listed publicly but is shared with all qualified enquiries, contact us on WhatsApp to find out more.
Outcomes
No! and any firm that makes this promise should be avoided. Tender outcomes are determined by the procuring entity based on price, functionality scores, and procurement policy objectives.
What we guarantee is that your submission will be administratively compliant, structurally correct, and evaluator-ready, so your pricing and capability actually get evaluated instead of being eliminated at Gate 1. The outcome is yours to win. Our job is to make sure you are not disqualified before the evaluation even begins.
Send your tender document to us on WhatsApp. We review it and come back within one business day with a clear scope, timeline, and fixed price. No obligation, no forms to complete.
If your deadline is urgent, say so when you send — we will confirm urgency availability within hours.
STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?
Send Your Tender.
We'll Take It From There.
Share your tender document on WhatsApp. We come back within one business day with a clear scope and fixed price. No obligation.