Bid or no-bid: reasons and partner approval
What a South African firm must record when it decides to bid or not bid on a tender in Achekam, and when an active partner has to approve the decision.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa
A tender response for professional services consumes partner time, manager time, CVs, references, compliance documents and pricing work, usually against a closing date that leaves no slack. Every bid the firm should not have entered takes that effort away from one it could have won.
Yet in many firms the decision to bid is never really made. A tender looks interesting, someone starts downloading documents, and a week later the firm is committed by momentum. A decision not to bid is even less likely to be written down, which means that a year later nobody can say why the firm stayed out of a contract a competitor won.
Achekam asks for the decision to be made explicitly, with a reason, and for large tenders, with a partner's name on it.
A reason for every decision
A bid/no-bid decision on a tender in Achekam must give a reason. That applies in both directions: a decision to bid, and a decision to walk away.
A good reason is specific enough to be tested later. Compare:
- "Not for us." Tells the firm nothing next time.
- "Requires a registered auditor with public-sector audit experience at the entity's scale; our references are all private sector." Tells the firm what to build if it wants this work in future.
- "Bid: matches our internal audit capability; current municipal references; delivery window fits the team's capacity." Tells the reviewer what the firm was relying on, and gives the bid manager a checklist.
Large tenders need an active partner
A decision to bid on a tender of R5 million or more must name an active partner as approver. Below that value, the decision can be made with a reason alone.
The value requirement reflects the stakes. A large public-sector contract commits the firm's name, its people for a long period, and often its professional indemnity cover. Partners should see those decisions before the firm commits, not after the bid has gone in.
The threshold is fixed in code
There is a trap in the settings. Under Tender Settings, the bid partner-approval threshold shows a default of R1,000,000. That value is ignored. The threshold that applies is fixed in code at R5 million, whatever the settings show. Several other Tender Settings tabs likewise save values that nothing in Achekam reads.
If your firm's own policy is that partners approve bids from a lower value, enforce that through your internal process: for example, have the bid manager name a partner on every decision above your own limit. Do not rely on the settings screen to do it.
The disqualification check is advisory
The tender page includes a disqualification check. The check is advisory: it does not stop a decision to bid.
That is a reasonable design, because the firm may know that a missing item will be in hand before the closing date. But it puts the responsibility on the person deciding. Before approving a decision to bid with open disqualification points, the partner should know how each one will be closed, and by whom.
Common points to resolve early in South African public-sector tenders include the firm's registration on the government's supplier database, its tax compliance status, its B-BBEE evidence and any professional registrations the work requires. Check each against the tender document itself, because requirements differ from buyer to buyer. National Treasury's Central Supplier Database registration page explains what a supplier needs to register and how its details are verified with SARS, CIPC and Home Affairs.
Who should take part in the decision
The best bid/no-bid conversations are short and involve the right few people:
- The bid manager, who has read the tender and knows the returnables and the closing date.
- A partner, who can judge the risk to the firm's name and independence, and whose approval is needed at the threshold.
- Someone who would deliver the work, who can say honestly whether the team has the people and the experience in the delivery window.
- Whoever prices bids, who can say early whether the work can be done profitably at the rates the market is likely to bear.
If those people cannot agree within a short meeting, that disagreement is itself a reason worth recording.
Recording a no-bid for later
A no-bid is one of the most useful records a firm can keep, if it keeps it well. Over a year, the reasons for no-bids show the firm where its capability, references or registrations fall short of the work it wants. That is a business development plan written by the market.
To make no-bids useful:
- Use consistent wording for common reasons, so they can be grouped later.
- Name what would have changed the decision.
- Review no-bids with the partners once a quarter.
- Note tenders that recur annually, so the firm can prepare well before the next advert.
Where the decision sits in the wider tender flow
The decision comes after the tender has been found and before any serious work is done. Tenders arrive from the National Treasury eTenders public data feed, from RSS or Atom feeds the firm adds, or by hand. Each carries a match score that comes from fixed keyword, sector, province and value rules applied to the firm's search profile, not from an AI model. The score helps decide what to look at; it is not a recommendation to bid. That stage is described in finding tenders with the scout.
After a decision to bid, the Delivery Tracker lists every tender being prepared with its owner, stage and overdue milestones, and bid hours come from timesheets, so the firm can see what each bid cost. Pricing and requirements follow; see pricing a bid from the rate card and tender requirements and response drafts.
Before the next tender lands, agree in writing which partners may approve bids, the value at which your firm wants a partner's name on the decision, and what a good reason looks like.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
