Construction - Managing a Two-Stage Tender

Issue scope outline, site information, employer's requirements, preliminaries schedule, overhead and profit percentage, key rates, and methodology request.

Score tenderers on overhead and profit percentage, preliminary build-up, team CVs, programme, and methodology. Select preferred contractor and notify all parties.

Execute the PCSA defining the scope of pre-construction activities, the Stage 1 fee, and the conditions under which Stage 2 will proceed.

Contractor advises on buildability, programme sequencing, and market conditions as design progresses from RIBA Stage 2 to Stage 3 or 4.

Contractor issues enquiries to trade contractors. Returns are shared with employer and QS. Each package price is agreed before inclusion in the Stage 2 sum.

Contractor presents full Stage 2 tender built from agreed sub-package prices. Employer and contractor negotiate any final adjustments before fixing the sum.

Both parties sign the main contract at the Stage 2 price. Pre-construction costs are absorbed into or credited against the main contract value.

Contractor starts on site. Stage 1 rates and agreed programme carry through as the baseline for variation valuation and cost comparison.

The pre-construction phase generates a large volume of correspondence, cost plan revisions, and sub-package pricing returns, with no central place to track what has been agreed and what is still open.

Stage 1 overhead rates and methodology commitments get buried in tender documents, making it difficult to reference what was originally agreed when Stage 2 pricing is negotiated months later.

Sub-package procurement involves multiple simultaneous RFQs to trade contractors, and coordinating returns across email threads makes comparison, approval, and inclusion in the Stage 2 sum slow and error-prone.