QCBS calculator

QCBS means Quality and Cost Based Selection. It is used for consultancy, project management, design and other services where quality matters as much as price. Instead of awarding to the lowest bidder, the buyer scores each bid on technical quality and on price, then adds the two with fixed weights.

The first stage is technical evaluation. A committee scores each proposal against criteria in the tender, and bidders who fall below a minimum technical score are dropped. The financial bids of the qualified bidders are then opened. The lowest qualified quote, often called L1, scores 100 on the financial side. Every other bid gets a score of lowest quote divided by its own quote, multiplied by 100.

The combined score is technical score times its weight plus financial score times its weight. A 70:30 split gives 70 percent of the final result to technical quality and 30 percent to price, an 80:20 split leans even more to quality, and 60:40 or 50:50 splits give price a bigger say. Some tenders use a custom split, which this calculator also accepts. The bidder with the highest combined score wins, and that bidder is called H1, not L1.

This changes how you should price. In a pure L1 tender, cutting your price is the only lever. Under QCBS, a higher technical score can outweigh a modestly higher quote. For example, with 70:30 weights, a bidder with 85 technical and a quote five percent above the lowest can beat a bidder with 75 technical at the lowest price. Try those numbers in the calculator.

Always read the evaluation clause of your NIT. Buyers vary the formula, the minimum technical score and the way scores are normalised, and the document is what binds. Use this tool as a planning aid, then confirm against the tender. BidShakti extracts the stated QCBS weightage from each tender you open, so the weights come from the document and not from memory.