Enterprise Plan

How TenderFlow handles every tender at scale

The full electronic tender-management process used by large, multi-region tender teams — from opportunity capture through allocation, briefing, pricing sign-off, submission and award.

The process The roles Why Enterprise Reference Library FAQ
End-to-end process

From opportunity to award

Every tender flows top-to-bottom through this pipeline. Decisions, branches and the role responsible for each action are shown inline.

PHASE 1 · INGEST

Opportunities Spider Feed

automated · external API

Daily ingestion from gazettes and tender portals.

Central Email Account

automated · panel emails

Tender notifications emailed by buying entities or panels.

Manual Capture

(Tender Manager)

Tenders learned about from newspaper articles or other ad-hoc sources.

All sources feed into

Tenders

Central collection point · one record per tender

PHASE 2 · TRIAGE
1

Identification

(Tender Identifier)

The Tender Identifier reviews each new tender and decides whether it is worth pursuing. Identifiers are optionally scoped to a region so each region only triages its own opportunities.

DO NOT PURSUE

Do Not Pursue

Reason captured for audit. Tender stays in the database and can be reallocated later.

PURSUE · ALLOCATE TO GROUP

Daily Email Notification

9am · sent to Tender Group members

Identifier picks the right Tender Group; a digest goes out at 9am the next morning.

PHASE 3 · GROUP REVIEW
2

Review

(Group Admin)

Group Admin reviews the allocated tender. Three possible outcomes:

REFERENCE DATA AVAILABLE Client Information · Briefing Questionnaire · Templates Library
REJECT

Do Not Pursue

Rejection reason / comments captured.

REASSIGN

Loops back to Daily Email Notification

Tender is reassigned to a different Tender Group and re-enters the queue.

ACCEPT

Continue to briefing

Group commits to bidding. Responsible Person, Admin Person, Proposal Person and Briefing Attendee are assigned.

PHASE 4 · BRIEFING
3

Assign Briefing Session Attendee & Notes Template

(Tender Executor)

A named Briefing Attendee and a Briefing Template from the Reference Library are recorded on the tender.

4

Tender Briefing Reminder Emails

automated · 2 days prior

Reminder lands in the attendee's inbox two days before the session, with the template attached.

5

Scan & Attach Briefing Notes and Briefing Document

(Briefing Attendee)

Attendee uploads the completed notes back to the tender's Document Manager and ticks Briefing Notes Attached. The daily digest flags any tender with a compulsory briefing where notes are still missing.

PHASE 5 · REQUIREMENTS
6

Identify Mandatory Requirements & Risks

(Tender Executor)

Mandatory requirements (returnables, certifications, B-BBEE level, CIDB grade) and any bid risks are captured on the Risks tab.

7

Proceed?

(Group Admin)

Once the requirements and risks are clear, the Group Admin makes a go/no-go call.

NO

Do Not Pursue

Reason / comments captured.

YES

Proceed to pricing

Tender enters the costing phase.

PHASE 6 · PRICING
8

Propose Pricing

(Tender Executor)

Pricing built as structured line items — description, line type, cost category, unit, quantity, unit cost, unit price. Rate cards auto-fill role-based costs; deviations are tracked. Historical benchmarks from the API show where the bid sits relative to past winners. AI Extract, Gap Check and Generate Pricing Notes shortcuts pull the line skeleton, flag coverage gaps and draft narrative pricing notes against the tender document.

9

Pricing Review

(Group Admin)

Group Admin reviews the proposed pricing. Three possible outcomes.

NOT FEASIBLE

Do Not Pursue

Reason / comments captured.

FEEDBACK

Loops back to Propose Pricing

Tender Executor refines the pricing based on Group Admin comments.

FEASIBLE

Proceed to document prep

Bid pricing is locked in for the proposal.

PHASE 7 · DOCUMENT PREP
10

Prepare Tender Documents

(Tender Executor)

SBD forms, returnables, compliance pack — assembled via the Document Manager (WebDAV-mountable so editors work in Word/Excel without download/re-upload churn).

11

Prepare & Upload Proposal for Comments

(Tender Executor)

Draft proposal goes up for Group Admin review.

REFERENCE DATA AVAILABLE Reference Letters · Employee CVs (Company & Treasury formats) · Legislation Documents · Rate Cards · Panel Appointments
Feedback loop: Group Admin comments flow back to both Prepare Tender Documents and Prepare & Upload Proposal until the pack is approved.
PHASE 8 · APPROVAL
GROUP ADMIN APPROVED
12

Get Pricing Sign-off

(Account Administrator)

Each Tender Group has a configurable bid approval threshold (default R500,000). When the bid amount climbs above that ceiling, the Pricing tab locks and the Account Administrator must approve the final amount. A later edit that pushes the bid above the most recently approved figure re-engages the lock automatically — no number can quietly slip past the threshold.

PHASE 9 · SUBMISSION, OPENING & AWARD
APPROVED
13

Submission Deadline Reminder Emails

automated · intensifying as deadline approaches
14

Mark Tender as “Submitted”

(Tender Executor)

Tender physically or electronically submitted; status moves to Submitted.

15

Tender Opening Reminder Emails

automated

Reminders prompt attendance at the public opening.

16

Capture Tender Opening Results

(Tender Executor)

Attendees, their bid amounts and any commercial intel from the opening are captured on the Opening tab; status moves to Adjudication.

17

Followup Reminder Emails

automated · starts 2 weeks post-closing

Daily nudges to chase the award outcome until it lands.

18

Capture Final Award Result

(Tender Executor)

Final outcome: Awarded, Awarded To Other, Not Awarded or Missed. If awarded to another party, the winning company is picked from the captured opening attendees.

PHASE 10 · APPEAL (IF DISPUTED)
Optional phase. Most awards stand and the tender moves straight to Process Completed. If the outcome is contested — typically when the team believes the evaluation was flawed or a competitor was wrongly preferred — the Appeal tab is used to capture the dispute and its resolution.
19

Lodge & Capture Appeal Details

(Tender Executor)

Tick Appealed on the tender and record who lodged the appeal and the date it was submitted to the awarding institution. The full grounds for the appeal live in the tender's Notes / Document Manager so the audit trail is complete.

20

Capture Appeal Response & Outcome

(Tender Executor)

When the awarding institution responds, the response date and full response text are captured on the Appeal tab. The Tender Executor then records one of three outcomes.

AWARD CONFIRMED

Original award stands

No change — the original award outcome holds. Appeal is on record for audit.

AWARD VARIED

Award terms changed

Scope, value or evaluation outcome was adjusted. Update the relevant fields on the tender to reflect the new position.

AWARD REVOKED

Original award overturned

Award is set aside. If the tender now lands with the organisation, switch the final status to Awarded.

Process Completed

Outcome feeds win-rate intelligence for future bids in the same category / institution / province.

The roles

Who does what

Eight named roles split the work. Most people wear several hats — a Proposal Person is usually a Tender Executor first, and may also be the Responsible Person on the same tender.

SYSTEM ROLE

Tender Identifier

Triages the incoming opportunity feed and decides which tenders to pursue. One Identifier per region is typical.

SYSTEM ROLE

Group Admin

Head of a Tender Group. Accepts or rejects allocated tenders, assigns the team, oversees execution and sign-off.

SYSTEM ROLE

Tender Executor

Standard group member who works on accepted tenders day-to-day — requirements, documents, proposal, submission.

PER-TENDER

Responsible Person

Owns one tender end-to-end through the lifecycle (WIP → Submitted → Adjudication → Award).

PER-TENDER

Admin Person

Completes the SBD / returnables paperwork and the compliance pack.

PER-TENDER

Proposal Person

Writes the technical and commercial proposal.

BOTH

Briefing Attendee

Attends the compulsory briefing session on behalf of the group and uploads the completed notes back to the tender.

SYSTEM ROLE

Reference Library Manager

Maintains the shared library of CVs, reference letters, rate cards, legislation, templates and panels.

Why this workflow

Built for nationally-distributed tender teams

A small firm can have one person watching the feed and managing the work. That breaks the moment an organisation is geographically distributed, departmentally split or volume-heavy.

Right tender, right team

A Western Cape infrastructure tender never lands in the Gauteng professional-services team's inbox. Identifiers make the call once; routing happens for everyone downstream.

Decisions stay local

Each region's Group Admins — the people who actually know the local market, capacity and conflicts — own the accept / reject call. Head office is not a bottleneck.

Nothing falls through

Every accepted tender has explicit owners for paperwork, proposal writing and briefing attendance. Daily 9am digests guarantee newly allocated tenders land in front of the right group within hours.

Full audit trail

Every transition is stamped with who did it and when. Rejected tenders keep their reason — essential for compliance-heavy sectors and answering “why didn't we go for that one?”

Visibility without micromanagement

Because every action updates a central status, executives get reports across all regions (allocation volume, acceptance rate, win rate, turnaround time) without having to ask anyone for an update.

Scales with the organisation

Adding a new regional office is just a new Tender Group and a new Identifier — no workflow changes, no code, no retraining.

Reference Library

Shared supporting material every bid draws on

Maintained once by the Reference Library Manager, pulled into every tender automatically. Eliminates the “whose version of Joe's CV is the latest?” problem.

Briefing Templates

Pre-built question sheets that every Briefing Attendee takes into a session so different attendees at different briefings capture the same information in the same shape.

Employee CVs

Two formats per employee — company format for private-sector bids, Treasury format for SBD forms. Effective-dated rate history so historical tenders see the rate that was in force at pricing time.

Rate Cards

Named rate cards (e.g. “Standard 2026”, “Gauteng Public Sector”) with role-based cost / charge rates and default overhead / markup. Tender Groups nominate a default; deviations are audited and require a reason above a threshold.

Client Information

Background notes on buying entities — procurement quirks, contact people, past project history, language preferences. Consulted before drafting so the pitch lands in the client's own vocabulary.

Legislation Documents

PFMA, MFMA, PPPFA, B-BBEE codes, sector-specific regulations — one place, always the current version, ready to cite in any proposal.

Panel Appointments

Register of every panel the organisation is appointed to — with reappointment dates and conflict-of-interest checks so no panel lapses accidentally and no team member ends up on the evaluation panel for their own bid.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Every accepted tender has a named Responsible Person who owns it end-to-end through the lifecycle. The Group Admin assigns the Responsible Person at acceptance time, along with an Admin Person (paperwork), Proposal Person (technical and commercial writing) and Briefing Attendee. Each role is recorded on the tender so accountability is explicit.

A user with the Tender Identifier role reviews each incoming opportunity from the spider feed (or manual capture) and allocates it to the appropriate Tender Group. Allocation is a manual judgement call rather than automated routing, because Identifiers know the local market and capacity better than any rule engine. Identifiers can optionally be scoped to a region so each region only triages its own opportunities.

Rejected tenders move to a Do Not Pursue (DNP) status with the rejection reason captured for audit. They are not deleted — they remain in the database with their reason so reports can show why each opportunity was passed on, and so they can be reallocated later if a different region realises the tender is in their scope after all.

Each Tender Group has a configurable bid approval threshold (default R500,000). When the bid amount on a tender climbs above that ceiling — through line-item edits or a manual override — the Pricing tab locks and the Responsible Person must request approval. An Account Administrator reviews and signs off the approved bid amount. A later edit that pushes the bid above the most recently approved figure re-engages the lock automatically.

Yes. When a Group Admin accepts a tender with a compulsory briefing, they pick a named Briefing Attendee and a Briefing Template from the Reference Library. Reminder emails go out two days before the briefing, the attendee downloads the template, attends, and uploads the completed notes back to the Document Manager. The daily digest flags any accepted tender with a compulsory briefing where notes have not yet been attached.

TenderFlow sends a Daily Email Notification at 9am to each Tender Group listing newly allocated tenders, Tender Briefing Reminder Emails two days before a briefing, Submission Deadline Reminder Emails, Tender Opening Reminder Emails and Followup Reminder Emails (starting two weeks after the closing date) until a final award outcome is recorded.

Each tender has an Appeal tab where the team records that an appeal was lodged, who lodged it, the date submitted, the response from the awarding institution and the final appeal outcome — Award Confirmed (original award stands), Award Varied (terms adjusted) or Award Revoked (award overturned). The full appeal trail stays on the tender so it remains visible in reports and audits.

Move your tender team onto TenderFlow Enterprise

Set up Tender Groups, Identifiers and the Reference Library once. Then every tender that lands in the feed flows through this pipeline automatically — with full visibility, audit trail and accountability.

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