Submitting an e-Tender: The Last 48 Hours, Step by Step

Most bids that fail on the last day fail for mechanical reasons: a token not detected, a file too large, a portal slow under load, a signature that would not attach. None of these are hard problems. All of them are hard problems at 2:55pm when the bid closes at 3:00pm.

The clock that counts

The portal's server clock decides whether your bid was submitted in time. Not your computer's clock, not your watch, and not the time you started the upload.

A submission that begins at 2:58 and completes at 3:01 is late. Treat the closing time as the moment the last byte must be in, and work backwards from there.

Forty-eight hours before

Do a full dry run. Log in, plug in the DSC token, and sign something. If the signing component is going to fail, find out now.

Check every document against the notice's list, in the notice's order and format. Where a specific format is prescribed, use it rather than an equivalent.

Check file sizes and formats against the portal's limits. Scanned documents are the usual offender: a 40 MB scan of a certificate that could be 400 KB is a needless risk. Scan at a readable resolution and no more.

Confirm the EMD position. If paying online, confirm the payment route works. If exempt as an MSE, confirm the Udyam certificate is attached and the exemption is claimed in the form the notice requires.

Check for [corrigenda](/blog/corrigendum-in-tender). A revised document or an extended date changes what you are submitting.

Twenty-four hours before

Upload everything that can be uploaded. Most portals allow documents to be uploaded and the bid to be completed later. Getting the bulk uploaded a day early removes the largest source of last-minute failure.

Verify the technical cover contains no price information. Search every document for currency symbols and rate columns. Price disclosure in the technical cover is a rejection with no remedy. See single, two and three cover bidding.

Verify the financial cover carries the priced BOQ in the prescribed format, with rates in both figures and words where required, and totals that add up.

Submission day

1. Log in early. Portals are slowest on the closing day of a large tender.
2. Complete any remaining uploads.
3. Sign and freeze the bid. The terminology varies by portal: freeze, final submit, confirm. An unfrozen bid is generally not a submitted bid, and this is a real and recurring cause of failure.
4. Download the acknowledgement or bid submission receipt, and keep it. It is your proof of submission and it is what you refer to in any subsequent correspondence.
5. Verify the status shows as submitted on the portal, rather than assuming.

The checks that catch real errors

Before freezing:

• Bid is against the correct tender reference, particularly where a department has issued several similar notices
• Rates entered in the correct units and against the correct line items
• Total value is what you intended, checked once independently of the sheet that produced it
• All required declarations are signed by the authorised signatory
• Correct number of documents attached in each cover

The rate-transcription check matters. A decimal error in a BOQ line is the kind of mistake that wins a contract at a price that loses money, and there is no mechanism for correcting it afterwards. See abnormally low bids.

If something goes wrong

Portal down or erroring. Take screenshots with a visible timestamp, note the error, and contact the portal helpdesk immediately. Where a portal has a genuine outage during the submission window, buyers sometimes extend. A documented, timestamped record is what makes that request credible. Without it there is nothing to argue from.

Payment fails. Where EMD payment fails but the amount is debited, keep the transaction reference and raise it with the portal and the buyer the same day.

After submission

Note the date of technical opening and set a reminder. Note the bid validity period, because you are committed to your price for that period. And record the EMD in your register with the expected refund date, so it does not become one of the deposits nobody chases. See the EMD refund process.

Avsar tracks the dates on every tender you are pursuing, including the closing time, the opening date and the validity expiry. See how discovery works.