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Ten checks before you rank the bids, on public or private work. A checklist, and an Excel workbook that scores each bid against the criteria you published.
Herman B. Smith
CEO & Co-Founder
Updated Oct 27, 2026
A bid evaluation is a record as much as a decision. The criteria and weightings were set before the bids came in, every bidder gets the same reading, and every score needs a reason someone else can follow. Ten checks take the evaluation team through compliance, coverage, price and quality in an order that keeps the record clean. On public work, that record is what the award decision rests on if it is challenged. On private work, it shows whether the cheapest bid is really the cheapest. Bidding? Run the same checks on your own draft before you submit.
Ten checks before you rank the bids
Whether a bid can be evaluated
On time and complete
Each bid arrived before the deadline, with every required form, schedule and declaration present and signed.
Exclusion grounds and selection criteria
Each bidder passes the exclusion grounds and meets the financial, reference and capacity thresholds you published.
Mandatory requirements
Every pass/fail requirement is marked with the page that shows it, and compliance is settled before any scoring.
Deviations and conditions
Every deviation and condition is logged with the requirement it touches and judged material or not, with the reason.
What each bid covers and costs
Scope coverage
Every requirement has a status for every bid, with the page it comes from, and silence counts as a gap.
Price on one basis
All bids go through the published evaluation model, with arithmetic checked and options and provisional sums treated alike.
Abnormally low bids
Bids well below the others or your estimate are flagged and explained in writing before any decision.
Whether the scores hold
Scores per published criterion
Each bid gets one score per published criterion, from your scoring guide, with no new criteria and no changed weightings.
A reason behind every score
Every score has a written reason with page references, agreed by the evaluation team.
Clarifications and the record
No clarification changed price, scope or terms, and the record supports the award decision and every debrief.
What the workbook adds. The yes/no sheet with what a good answer looks like and what to do on a no, sheets for compliance, coverage, price and scoring, a flag on bids well below the rest or your estimate, a ranking of compliant bids only, and five checks of the record before the award decision. Excel, no macros.
Patterns, not advice. Your procurement documents, and the rules that apply to them, are what matter.
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CHECKLIST / EXCEL WORKBOOK
How to evaluate bids
Ten checks before you rank the bids.
For evaluation and bid teams