How to analyse construction tenders

Contractors describe and structure the same work differently. Before you can compare anything, every tender needs to be broken into line items and aligned like-for-like — matching equivalent descriptions even when the wording differs.

With items aligned, compare unit rates and section totals side by side. Look for rates that sit well above or below the field — these outliers often signal a misunderstanding of scope, a loaded rate or an arithmetic error.

A low total can simply mean a contractor hasn't priced everything. Identify which items each contractor did and didn't price, and flag any tender that's missing a significant share of the scope as potentially incomplete.

The hidden risk in any tender lives in the qualifications, assumptions and exclusions. Capture them, normalise their commercial impact, and factor them into the comparison rather than the headline price alone.

Set out your reasoning: why you adjusted or excluded items, how you treated qualifications, and why the recommended contractor represents best value — not just lowest price. Keep an audit trail back to the source tenders.

TenderCompare AI automates steps 1–3 and structures 4–5, so the day-long manual grind becomes a focused review. You stay the responsible surveyor; the software just removes the drudgery.