Source: https://tendernation.io/features/bid-management Feature # Bid management software for UK SMEs How TenderNation tracks every bid from first look to result: pipeline board, bid plan, checklist, team working, deadline reminders, submission records and what each plan includes. Updated 14 Oct 2026 TenderNation's bid management tools track every tender you're pursuing, from the first look to the result, in the same place you found it. They're built for UK small and mid-sized suppliers bidding for public sector work, where one or two people often run the whole bid alongside their day job, and for consultants managing bids for several clients. There's no separate system to set up and no copying tenders across from a portal. Save a tender and it lands on your pipeline with its buyer, value and deadline already filled in. ## What it does, step by step ### 1. Track every opportunity on a pipeline board Your pipeline is a board with a column for each stage: Discovered, Qualified, Bidding, Submitted, Won, Lost and Cancelled. Drag a card to move it. Each card shows the buyer, value and deadline, with a warning chip once the deadline is two weeks away. You can update or archive several bids at once and export the pipeline to CSV. Every tender already has a fit score and bid/no-bid call, so the Qualified column reflects a decision rather than a hunch. For a second opinion, run the free [bid/no-bid scorecard](/tools/bid-no-bid-scorecard). ### 2. Put the deadlines in your calendar Every account gets a private calendar feed (.ics) for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar. It holds your bid deadlines and, on paid plans, the milestones of each bid plan. The link is unguessable, and you can reset it from the pipeline if it's ever shared by mistake. Each morning you also get a briefing on the tenders you're tracking: bids closing soon, and tenders the buyer has amended since the last one, including changed deadlines. ### 3. Plan the bid backwards from the deadline Open the bid workspace and generate a bid plan. TenderNation works back from the submission deadline and sets the internal dates a bid needs: - Bid/no-bid decision - Clarification questions sent to the buyer - First drafts of every answer - Answers reviewed and scored - Final sign-off: pricing, declarations and approvals - Bid uploaded to the buyer's portal With a full window, steps land at 5pm UK time on a weekday. If the tender closes sooner, the plan is compressed to fit rather than giving you dates that have already passed. You can add your own milestones, and regenerating the plan keeps them along with any steps you've finished. ### 4. Turn the tender pack into a checklist The AI reads the tender documents and builds a requirements checklist: quality questions, pass/fail requirements, documents to supply and key dates, each linked to the page it came from. An eligibility check rates hard requirements such as turnover, insurance and accreditations red, amber or green against your profile. The compliance vault keeps your insurance certificates, accreditations, policies and Central Digital Platform details in one place. It reminds you before they expire and matches them to what each tender asks for. Include them in a bid and you can download the answers and every attached file as one zip. ### 5. Work on it as a team On the Business plan, up to five team members share one pipeline and one bid library. You can: - Assign a bid to a teammate - Give checklist questions and plan milestones to named people - Comment on any question or requirement, @mention a teammate to notify them and resolve the thread when it's done Each morning, everyone gets a note listing their milestones and questions due in the next day, plus any that slipped past their date. ### 6. Write and check the answers Drafting happens in the same workspace. The [AI bid writer](/features/ai-bid-writing) drafts answers from the tender pack and your bid library, tags each claim to its source and flags missing evidence with placeholders instead of inventing it. "Mark my answer" reviews each answer against the buyer's scoring method, and a whole-bid view shows which answers are costing the most marks. If the buyer sent an Excel or Word questionnaire, you can import it and download it back with your answers filled in. ### 7. Record the submission Once you've uploaded the bid, record when it went in, through which portal, the portal's reference and the receipt. If a buyer portal ever disagrees about whether your bid arrived, you have proof in one place. TenderNation suggests the portal from the notice's links. Export the answers to Word with a compliance matrix listing every requirement, where it was found and how you measure up against each pass/fail clause. ### 8. Learn from the result Mark each bid won, lost or withdrawn and note what you learned. Your track record shows win rates by buyer, sector and contract size, and why bids were lost. It also feeds the bid/no-bid advice on new tenders, such as how many bids you've won with that buyer before. When a buyer sends its assessment summary, the AI debrief (Professional and up) shows where you lost points against the winner, and you can save the lessons to your bid library. ## Connect it to your CRM On Business, each bid can sync to HubSpot as a deal. For Salesforce, Pipedrive and other CRMs, TenderNation sends signed webhooks you can route through Zapier or Make. A read-only REST API covers tenders and contract awards. ## What it won't do - **It doesn't submit to buyer portals.** You still upload the bid on whichever e-tendering portal the buyer uses. TenderNation records the submission; it doesn't make it. - **It doesn't fetch documents behind a login.** Where the buyer publishes the pack openly, it's fetched for you. Otherwise, upload it yourself. - **Free is for trying it out.** The Free plan holds up to 10 bids on the board and doesn't include the bid workspace (checklist, bid plan, comments, submission record and export). - **Team working needs Business.** Professional is a single seat. Shared pipelines, assignees and @mentions come with Business. - **It's not a document editor.** You write and edit answers in the workspace and finish formatting in Word. ## How it compares General-purpose bid and proposal platforms usually start with your content library and expect you to bring the opportunities. TenderNation starts from the tender: it finds UK public sector notices, scores your fit and then runs the bid. [Stotles Bid Studio](https://stotles.com/bid-studio) covers similar ground. Stotles' [pricing page](https://www.stotles.com/pricing) lists Basic from £75 a month and Growth, its small-team plan, from £475 a month (as of October 2026). See our [Stotles comparison](/compare/stotles-alternative) for detail. TenderNation's bid workspace starts at £49 a month on Professional, and a team of five costs £149 a month on Business. Prices are published and there's no sales call. ## Plans and limits All figures come from the live plan settings. FreeProfessionalBusinessConsultant**Price**£0£49/month or £490/year£149/month or £1,490/year£249/month**Bids on the pipeline**Up to 10UnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited**Calendar feed & morning briefing**YesYesYesYes**Bid workspace (checklist, plan, submission record, Word export)**NoYesYesYes**Compliance vault & bid pack zip**NoYesYesYes**Team members**1155**Assignees, shared pipeline, @mentions**NoNoYesYes**HubSpot deal sync & webhooks**NoNoYesYes**Client workspaces**NoNoNoUp to 10**AI answer drafts per day**None20100100The Consultant plan gives each client its own business profile, fit scores, pipeline and bid library, and you switch between clients from the app header. See the [pricing page](/pricing) for the full list. ## FAQ ### Is this bid management software or a tender finder? Both. TenderNation finds UK and EU public sector tenders, scores them against your profile and then manages the bids you decide to go for. If you currently track bids in a spreadsheet and keep documents in a shared folder, the pipeline, bid workspace and compliance vault cover both. ### Can I use it for bids I didn't find on TenderNation? Yes. You can add a pipeline item by hand, upload the tender documents and use the same checklist, plan and drafting tools. ### Do the deadlines sync with Outlook or Google Calendar? Yes, through the private calendar feed. Subscribe once and your bid deadlines, plus bid plan milestones on paid plans, appear next to everything else. ### How many people can work on a bid? One on Free and Professional. Business and Consultant include up to five team members, who share the pipeline and bid library and can be given questions and milestones. ### I'm a bid consultant. Can I keep clients separate? Yes, on the Consultant plan. Each of up to 10 clients gets a separate workspace with its own profile, pipeline and bid library. Your morning briefing labels each bid with its client. ## Try it on your next bid [Start the 14-day Professional trial](/register), no card needed. Save a live tender, generate the bid plan and checklist, and see whether it beats your spreadsheet. Compare plans on the [pricing page](/pricing). If you're bidding for the first time, start with [how to win your first public sector contract](/guides/how-to-win-your-first-public-sector-contract) and [how to write a tender](/guides/how-to-write-a-tender). Try it on your own tenders Search UK, EU and World Bank tenders in one place, get AI summaries and a fit score for each one, and track bids in a pipeline. Professional comes with a 14-day free trial, no card needed. [Browse live tenders](/opportunities)[Start free trial ](/register) 14-day free trial, no card required Browse by sector - [Construction work](https://tendernation.io/sectors/construction-work)374 - [Architecture, engineering & surveying](https://tendernation.io/sectors/architecture-engineering-surveying)134 - [IT services](https://tendernation.io/sectors/it-services)54 - [Business services](https://tendernation.io/sectors/business-services)177 - [Health and social work](https://tendernation.io/sectors/health-social-work)300 - [Sewage, refuse, cleaning & environmental](https://tendernation.io/sectors/sewage-refuse-cleaning-environmental)80 [All sectors ](/sectors) ## More features [AI bid writing software for UK public sector tendersHow TenderNation's AI bid writer drafts tender answers from the buyer's documents and your own evidence, what it won't do, and what each plan includes.](https://tendernation.io/features/ai-bid-writing) [See plans and pricing ](/pricing)