Construction pipelines run backwards from submission dates. Track site visits, priced BOQs, bids and awards against a calendar the team can defend. From ₹899/user/month.
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Quick answer
Tender notices arrive by email and word of mouth, get noted in an engineer's diary, and are priced in a spreadsheet that lives on one laptop. The system holds until three bids close in the same week.
The cost is unusual in this trade because it is concentrated. A missed submission is a total loss of effort already spent, and a bid priced without a site visit can cost far more than losing it would have.
Most sales pipelines move forwards from an enquiry. A construction pipeline is governed by submission dates, so the board should sort by deadline and the estimation plan should be built backwards from it.
Seven stages hold the work: lead or tender notice, site visit done, BOQ priced, bid submitted, technically qualified, commercial negotiation, work order received. Keep private negotiated work on a separate board, because its evidence and timings differ entirely.
Site visit means somebody attended and recorded notes and photographs. BOQ priced means a costed bill reviewed internally with an approved margin, not a spreadsheet still being edited on the morning of submission.
Bid submitted means an acknowledgement exists and earnest money is paid where required. A bid rejected for a missing document is not a commercial loss, it is an administrative one, and checklists exist precisely to prevent it.
The timings below suit mid-sized civil and interior contracts. Government tenders often run longer at the award stage, and negotiated private work compresses the front end considerably.
| Stage | What it means | Exit criteria (evidence) | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tender notice | Opportunity identified with a deadline | Documents obtained, deadline recorded | 1 to 3 days |
| Site visit | Conditions and access assessed | Visit notes and photographs on file | 3 to 10 days |
| BOQ priced | Costed bill with approved margin | Internal review and margin sign-off | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Bid submitted | Documents lodged before deadline | Acknowledgement and earnest money paid | On deadline |
| Technically qualified | Client confirms eligibility | Qualification confirmed in writing | 2 to 8 weeks |
| Work order | Award received and signed | Work order number and value recorded | Closed |
Bids closing within a fortnight first, with the estimation owner naming what is still outstanding. Then opportunities needing a site visit. Then submitted bids awaiting result, each chased or closed with a reason.
Finish with expected award and mobilisation months against capacity. That single question stops a firm from bidding four projects that would all start in the same month with one set of equipment and one site team.
The bid calendar by submission deadline, which is the estimation desk's operating document. Win rate by client type and value band, which shows where the firm is genuinely competitive. And pipeline by mobilisation month against capacity.
No system rescues a firm from its own record-keeping habits. If deadlines are not entered, no calendar exists to work backwards from. Start with the bid calendar alone, because a single missed submission usually costs more than a year of software.
This is not estimation software, project management or billing. It does not price a BOQ or track site progress. It manages the opportunity from notice to work order and hands the award over to whatever runs projects and accounts.
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Every team in this space loses revenue to the same recurring gaps. Here is what they cost you and how HelloGrowthCRM closes each one.
Tender deadlines are tracked in an engineer's diary, so a bid is occasionally finished the night before or missed entirely.
Every bid carries a submission deadline and the board sorts by it, so the estimation team works to a visible calendar with owners against each date.Deadline-driven bid calendar
Bids are priced without a site visit when the team is busy, and the loss shows up months later as an unworkable margin.
Site visit is a stage with recorded notes and photographs, so a bid cannot reach pricing without someone having actually been there.Site visit as an exit criterion
Submitted bids disappear for months and nobody knows what is genuinely still alive.
Awaiting result is its own stage with follow-up dates, so bids are chased periodically and dead ones are closed with a reason rather than left open.Awaiting-result tracking
Management cannot line up expected awards against plant and labour capacity, so the firm is either idle or overcommitted.
Each bid carries an expected award and mobilisation month, so the pipeline can be read against capacity months before work starts.Mobilisation month planning
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