Find and answer a public procurement tender

When to use

The company wants to bid for a Latvian public contract it found or was asked to bid on — state, municipal or above-EU-threshold. Not for a private customer deal — use sales.prepare-offer. Not for checking whether a tender the company already won can be performed — use sales.customer-onboarding once the contract is signed. If the ask is "watch for tenders in our field", start here anyway: S1 sets up the watch.

Before you start

• The company's capability list is current: what it has delivered, to whom, with what references.
• eParaksts signing works for the person who will sign (test it before the deadline, not during S8).
• Someone is named as owner for the go/no-go and the price floor.

What a run requires3

The trail10 steps

1. S1

   Register the tender and set the watchagent

   Open the notice on the procurement portal, record the procurement id, the contracting authority, the object, the submission deadline and the clarification-question deadline. Link it to the goal it serves (bc goals add or bc tasks add).

   Done when the tender is a record with its id, both deadlines and the portal link.

2. S2

   Read the full procurement fileagent

   Download every document: terms of reference, technical specification, draft contract, evaluation criteria, qualification requirements. Build a numbered requirement list — mandatory vs scored.

   Done when the requirement list exists and every line cites where in the file it comes from.

   ⛔ Reading only the summary notice is how mandatory requirements get missed.

3. S3

   Fit checkagent

   For each mandatory requirement: can the company meet it with evidence (reference, certificate, capacity)? Flag every "yes with a partner" and "yes with new hiring or equipment".

   Done when every mandatory requirement has yes / yes-with / no, with the evidence named.

4. S4

   Go/no-goownerneeds approval · owner

   Approval · S4 · owner — the run stops until a named person records the decision

   Present the fit check, the evaluation criteria, the expected competition and the likely price range.

   Done when the owner has decided go or no-go and, if go, named the price floor and the signatory.

   ⛔ A no-go is a valid outcome and is recorded — not deciding is not.

5. S5

   Ask clarifications (if any)agent

   Draft questions for anything ambiguous in the specification, and submit them through the portal before the clarification deadline. Watch for the authority's published answers.

   Done when each question has an answer or the deadline has passed with none.

6. S6

   Draft the bidagent

   Prepare the technical offer against the scored criteria, the price offer (never below the S4 floor without a new approval), and every qualification document: self-declaration on exclusions and grounds, references, certificates, in the exact form and format the file demands.

   Done when a complete draft exists, page-counted and formatted per the terms of reference.

7. S7

   Compliance check against the fileagent

   Go through the requirement list line by line: is each answered, in the required document, in the required form, signed where a signature is required? Check the submission method, file formats and size limits.

   Done when every line of the list has a checked mark and the deviations (if any) are written down for the owner.

8. S8

   Approve and signownerneeds approval · ownerirreversible

   Approval · S8 · owner — the run stops until a named person records the decision

   Irreversible · S8 — an agent never closes it alone

   Present the final bid and any deviations. The owner approves the price and signs with eParaksts (see documents.sign-with-eparaksts for the signing procedure).

   Done when the signed bid exists and the owner's approval is recorded with the date.

9. S9

   Submit and confirmagent

   Submit through the portal before the deadline — not in the last hour. Save the submission confirmation with its timestamp and reference number.

   Done when a portal confirmation with a timestamp is stored against the tender record.

10. S10

    Track to awardagent

    Monitor the portal for the procurement's continuation, cancellation or results. When the result is published, record the outcome and — if lost — the scores if disclosed, for the next bid. Send the owner a three-line summary: result, our score if known, one lesson.

    Done when the tender record shows the final outcome and the summary was sent.

Checks — how we know it worked

• The submission confirmation timestamp is before the deadline, read back from the portal, not from memory.
• Every mandatory requirement from S2 has evidence in the submitted file (read back, not "we covered it").
• The signed price offer equals the approved price from S8, to the cent.
• The bid was submitted in the required form (portal e-form, format, file naming) as the terms demand.

If it goes wrong

What each step leaves behind

1. S1the tender is a record with its id, both deadlines and the portal link.
2. S2the requirement list exists and every line cites where in the file it comes from.
3. S3every mandatory requirement has yes / yes-with / no, with the evidence named.
4. S4the owner has decided go or no-go and, if go, named the price floor and the signatory.
5. S5each question has an answer or the deadline has passed with none.
6. S6a complete draft exists, page-counted and formatted per the terms of reference.
7. S7every line of the list has a checked mark and the deviations (if any) are written down for the owner.
8. S8the signed bid exists and the owner's approval is recorded with the date.
9. S9a portal confirmation with a timestamp is stored against the tender record.
10. S10the tender record shows the final outcome and the summary was sent.

Evidence to keep

Procurement id and portal link · the requirement list with citations · the fit check · the go/no-go decision (who, when, price floor) · clarification questions and answers · the final bid as submitted · the signed submission confirmation with timestamp · the published result and, if lost, the disclosed scores.

How this playbook improves

After every 5 tenders ask: how long from notice to go/no-go, and did late go/no-go decisions cost bids? How many bids were disqualified for formalities, and which checklist line would have caught each? Which scored criteria do we repeatedly score badly on — is that a capability gap or a writing gap? A new version changes the step that caused the loss, and says so in its change note.