Free tools for tender bidders

Before you bid on a government tender in India, two numbers decide a lot. The first is the EMD, because it is cash you must block before you even know whether you will win. If you are looking at several tenders at once, EMD adds up quickly, and a bidder who is short of working capital should know that at the shortlist stage, not on the closing day.

The second is how the buyer will compare bids. In an L1 tender the lowest price wins. In a QCBS tender, technical quality and price are combined with fixed weights, and the highest combined score wins. The right strategy in each case is different, and a small calculator makes the difference clear.

Both calculators work on numbers you already have. For EMD you only need the estimated contract value from the NIT and the percentage the buyer states. For QCBS you need your technical score once it is published, your quote, and the lowest qualified quote. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere, the arithmetic happens in your browser and disappears when you close the page.

More tools will be added here as they prove useful in real bidding work, such as performance guarantee and bid validity helpers. Each one will be written for Indian tendering practice, with the terms you meet on GeM, CPPP and state portals: EMD, PBG, L1, H1, DSC, MSME and BOQ.

These tools are deliberately simple. They do the arithmetic and explain the idea, and your tender document remains the final word on every rule. If you want the checking done for you across every clause, try BidShakti free for seven days.