Start with the official sources
Find a Tender publishes UK procurement notices. Its Notice Search lets you inspect individual notices; its summarised searches bring notices from a procurement together. The service explains which newer and older procurement regimes each search covers. You can save searches and receive email notifications with an account.
Contracts Finder supports opportunity searches, upcoming work and previous contracts, with saved searches and email updates. Also check the official services for the nations where you work. Find a Tender's service information identifies the different treatment of below-threshold notices in Scotland and links to the other national services.
For the practical setup, follow our guide to Contracts Finder email alerts. Use current official guidance for thresholds and procurement rules; a search result does not establish your eligibility.
Build searches around the work you can evidence
Write down three services you can support with named projects: for example, CMS migration, website accessibility remediation and ongoing website support. Try each as a separate search. Read relevant notices to see the language and CPV classifications their buyers use, then refine your searches using that evidence.
Keep one broader search to catch unfamiliar wording. A buyer may describe a website programme as work on its digital estate. Review a small sample of excluded notices periodically so narrower searches do not quietly hide useful work.
Screen a notice before committing to a bid
- Scope: what must the supplier deliver, and which comparable projects can you show?
- Conditions: what certifications, insurance, financial evidence or registrations does the buyer require? Find the documents when the notice is incomplete.
- Commercial fit: does the expected work, value, timetable and payment structure fit your agency?
- Capacity: can you prepare the bid and deliver the work alongside existing commitments?
- Next action: investigate, ask a clarification, explore a partner or pass. Record the reason.
An incumbent is a research question, not an automatic reason to withdraw. Look for evidence about the requirement, the competition and your ability to offer a credible response.
A worked screening exercise
Illustrative exercise: the opportunity and agency below are invented. This is a manual checklist example, not TenderVerdict output or a customer result.
Imagine a 12-person UK web agency considering an £80,000 CMS migration. It has two comparable migrations and accessibility-testing experience. The notice names a hosting-security requirement the agency has not yet checked.
| Evidence | Useful next step |
|---|---|
| Two comparable migrations | Match their scope and outcomes to the buyer's actual requirements. |
| Accessibility-testing experience | Check the required standard, deliverables and evidence in the tender documents. |
| Unverified hosting-security requirement | Read the requirement and assess the proposed hosting provider before deciding. |
| £80,000 headline value | Check whether it covers the whole term, options and support; estimate delivery and bid effort. |
The next action is to investigate the security and commercial requirements. A matching keyword and an attractive headline value are not enough to decide.
A manageable first week
Set up two service-specific searches and one broader search. Review the first results against the checklist above. Save useful buyer and award information, record why you passed on poor fits, and adjust your searches using the notices you actually found. Decide who owns this review and how much time the agency can give it.
Where TenderVerdict fits
TenderVerdict drafts a capability profile from your website for you to check, then assesses published notices from four official feeds. Its briefs explain BID, STRETCH and SKIP judgements against that profile. You still inspect the tender pack and make the bid decision.
Read how the judgement works and check our feed and geography limits. If you already pay for alerts, compare the workflow in our Supply2Gov comparison before changing your subscription.
Go deeper on your next decision
Use the bid/no-bid evidence checklist, screen website redesign tenders or browse all practical tender guides.
Related
See your own tenders judged.
Start with five free briefs, no card. Confirm your email and check the capability profile drafted from your website. See which published notices deserve a closer look, with the reasons.