Record a tender's key dates with reminders, keep its formal submission conditions and their evidence, and track the questions you raise with the issuer and the answers you receive.
Three tabs hold the rules of the game for a tender. Deadlines keeps its key dates and reminds the team before they arrive. Formality lists the formal conditions a bid must meet to be accepted at all, such as a signature, a certificate or a page limit. Q&A tracks the clarification questions you put to the issuer and the answers you receive.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Everyone on the tender's team with View Tenders can read all three tabs. Adding, editing, deleting and changing the status of deadlines, formalities and clarifications needs Create & Work on Tenders (tender:manage-workspaces). See Who can do what.
Once the tender is submitted, its deadlines and formalities are read-only, with one exception: a deadline's status can still be changed, so milestones after submission, such as the award decision or contract signature, can be marked Completed. Clarifications stay editable until the tender is archived.
Items can also arrive from the review after uploading the tender documents, or from the Tender Assistant. They behave like items you add yourself. See Start a tender.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Open the tender and choose the Deadlines tab.
Enter a name in Deadline name…, for example "Clarification questions close".
Choose the date and time.
Choose Add.
Add does nothing until both the name and the date are filled in. The new deadline starts as Upcoming. Deadlines are listed by date, soonest first.
To add a reminder, notes or a more specific type, choose Edit on the deadline, change the fields and choose Save.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Field | What it records | Limits and default |
|---|---|---|
Name | What falls due. | Required. Up to 500 characters. |
Date and time | When it falls due, in your local time. | Required. |
Type | The kind of deadline: the close of questions and answers, intent to bid, submission, clarification, award decision, contract signature, or a custom deadline. | Deadlines added on this tab start as custom. |
Status | Where the deadline stands. | Upcoming, In progress, Completed or Missed. Default Upcoming. |
Reminder | How many days before the deadline the team is reminded. | A whole number, 0 or more. Blank means no reminder. |
Notes | Anything the team needs to know, such as how the issuer wants questions sent. | Up to 20,000 characters. |
The tender's Submission deadline, shown on Overview and in the tender list, is a separate detail of the tender. Add a submission deadline on this tab too if you want a reminder for it, and keep the two in step; see Edit tender details.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
When a deadline enters its reminder period, every member of the tender's team receives a tender notification. With a reminder of 7, for example, the notification comes seven days before the date; with 0, it comes on the day itself. It arrives in the app and by email, according to each person's notification preferences; see Choose channels for a type. Reminders are sent once a day, so a reminder arrives on the right day rather than at an exact hour.
When the date of a deadline on an open tender, one in Draft, Active or Submitted, passes before the deadline is marked Completed, it is marked Missed.
Keep the status current by hand as work moves on:
In progress while the team is working towards it, for example while questions are being drafted.
Completed once it has been met. A deadline marked Completed before its date is never marked Missed. This works after submission too: mark the award decision Completed when the decision arrives.
The Upcoming deadlines tile on Overview counts deadlines that are still Upcoming. The Tender Milestone Deadline Compliance report shows how deadlines were met across your tenders.
To change a deadline, choose Edit. To remove it, choose Delete and confirm Delete this item?.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
A formality is a condition the issuer applies to the submission itself rather than to what you offer: sign the declaration, attach the insurance certificate, answer in English, stay within 40 pages, upload through the e-tendering portal.
Choose the Formality tab.
Enter the condition in Formal requirement…, for example "Signed form of tender".
Choose the type.
Choose Add.
Add does nothing while the name is empty. The formality starts as Not started. Choose Edit to change its name and type, or to add a description, evidence or, for a Page limit formality, the number of pages, then Save.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Field | What it records | Values and limits |
|---|---|---|
Name | The condition, in the issuer's words where possible. | Required. Up to 500 characters. |
Type | The kind of condition. | Signature, Certificate, Format, Submission channel, Language, Page limit or Other. Default Other. |
Status | Whether you have met it. | Not started, In progress, Satisfied or Not applicable. Default Not started. |
Description | Details such as which form, which font size or which portal. | Optional. Up to 20,000 characters. |
Evidence | The document that shows you meet it, such as the signed declaration or the certificate in the tender's vault. | Optional. One document. |
Page limit | For a Page limit formality, the maximum number of pages the submission may have. | A whole number. |
Change the status on the row as soon as the condition is met. Attach the evidence at the same time, so the reviewer of the submission can check it without searching.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Formalities decide whether a tender is ready to submit:
Every formality must be Satisfied or Not applicable before the readiness check passes. Each one that is not appears in the check by name, with its current status.
The Formality checklist on the Submission tab lists every formality with its type and status.
On Overview, the Formality tile counts satisfied formalities out of those that apply; Not applicable ones are left out of both numbers.
A Page limit formality holds the maximum number of pages in its own field. When the submission package is assembled, its written pages, not counting the cover page, are compared with that number. See Validate, package and submit.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
Clarifications stay open to change after the tender is submitted, so you can keep recording questions and answers that arrive during evaluation. Once the tender is archived, the Q&A tab is read-only.
Most issuers allow questions until a set date and publish the answers to all bidders. Record every question on Q&A so the team knows what was asked and what the answer changed.
Choose the Q&A tab.
Enter the question in Add a clarification question to the issuer….
To tie it to a requirement, choose the requirement in the list beside it; the list shows the start of each requirement's text. Leave No requirement link for general questions.
Choose Add, or press Enter.
The question starts as Open. A linked question shows Linked to requirement with the start of the requirement's text.
Move the question through its statuses:
Status | Use it when |
|---|---|
Open | The question is drafted but not yet sent. |
Submitted | You have sent it to the issuer. |
Answered | The issuer's answer has been received and recorded. |
Closed | Nothing more needs doing, for example because the answer has been worked into the response. |
To delete a question, choose Delete and confirm Delete this item?.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
While a question has no answer, it shows Record the answer received…. Type or paste the issuer's answer and press Enter. The answer appears under the question as Answer:, and the status changes to Answered.
The time of the answer is recorded when you first record an answer or set the status to Answered or Closed. The Tender Clarification Q&A Turnaround report uses it to show how long issuers take to answer.
After recording an answer, act on it: update the requirement's wording, disposition or reasoning on Requirements, and change any deadline the answer moves.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId} (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open Tenders, then choose the tender's name in the list. Choose the Deadlines, Formality or Q&A tab.
The "Regional Health Framework 2026 – Lot 2" tender allows questions until 17:00 on 24 October, publishes answers on 31 October, and closes at 12:00 on 14 November.
On Deadlines, add "Clarification questions close" for 24 October at 17:00 with a two-day reminder and a note saying questions go through the portal's messaging area. Set its type to the close of questions and answers.
Add "Clarification answers published" for 31 October, and "Tender submission" for 14 November at 12:00 with a seven-day reminder and the submission type.
On Formality, add "Signed form of tender" (Signature), "Cyber Essentials Plus certificate" (Certificate), "40 pages maximum for the technical response" (Page limit, with 40 as its page limit), "Responses in English" (Language) and "Upload through the e-tendering portal" (Submission channel). Mark the language condition Satisfied at once.
On Q&A, add "Is remote support with a four-hour response acceptable in place of 24-hour on-site support?", linked to the on-site support requirement, and a general question about the pricing schedule's format. Set both to Submitted once they are sent through the portal, and mark "Clarification questions close" Completed.
On 31 October, record both answers. The issuer accepts remote support, so change that requirement's disposition from Cannot meet to Can meet and update its reasoning. Set both questions to Closed and mark "Clarification answers published" Completed.
On the submission day, the readiness check lists any formality that is still not satisfied, such as the signed form of tender, and the submission package checks the 40-page limit.
