How Long Does It Actually Take to Write a Tender Response?

Ask someone who's never written a tender how long it takes, and they'll guess a few hours. Maybe a day.

Ask someone who writes tenders regularly, and you'll get a different answer: somewhere between 20 and 80 hours, depending on the complexity.

That's not a typo. A mid-sized tender response can easily eat 40+ hours of work. And that's if you've done it before.

Understanding where the time goes is the first step to reducing it. This guide breaks down the tender writing process, stage by stage, with realistic time estimates and practical ways to work faster.

Stage 1: Reading and Understanding the Requirements (2-6 hours)

Before you write anything, you need to understand what you're responding to. That means reading:

• The Invitation to Tender (ITT)
• The specification or statement of requirements
• The terms and conditions
• The evaluation criteria and scoring methodology
• Any supporting documents (policies, standards, templates)

For a simple tender, this might be 20-30 pages. For a complex framework, it could be 200+.

You can't skim this. Missing a key requirement at this stage means wasted effort later. People regularly write entire responses only to realise they missed something fundamental buried on page 47.

Time estimate: 2-4 hours for a standard tender, 4-6 hours for complex frameworks

How to speed this up: Create a requirements checklist as you read. Note mandatory requirements, key evaluation criteria, and anything unusual. This becomes your reference document for the whole response.

Stage 2: Bid/No-Bid Decision (1-2 hours)

Not every tender is worth pursuing. Before you commit 40 hours to a response, spend an hour deciding if you should.

Questions to answer:

• Can we meet all mandatory requirements?
• Do we have relevant experience to evidence?
• Is the timeline realistic given our current workload?
• What's our realistic win probability?
• Does the contract value justify the effort?

A formal bid/no-bid assessment prevents wasted effort. It's easier to say no at this stage than to abandon a half-written response three days before deadline.

Time estimate: 1-2 hours

How to speed this up: Create a standard bid/no-bid scorecard. Same criteria every time. Quick to complete, removes emotion from the decision.

Stage 3: Planning the Response (2-4 hours)

Once you've decided to bid, you need a plan:

• Who's answering which questions?
• What evidence do we need? Where is it?
• What's our overall win strategy? What themes are we emphasising?
• What's the timeline? When do drafts need to be done?
• Who's reviewing? When?

Skipping planning feels efficient. It isn't. Unplanned responses drift. People duplicate effort. Key evidence gets forgotten. Reviews happen too late to be useful.

Time estimate: 2-4 hours

How to speed this up: Use a standard response plan template. Assign clear owners and deadlines. Hold a quick kick-off meeting instead of lengthy email chains.

Stage 4: Writing Technical Responses (10-40 hours)

This is the bulk of the work. Each question needs a tailored answer with specific evidence.

A typical tender might have 15-30 questions across sections like:

• Company information and experience
• Technical approach and methodology
• Team structure and CVs
• Quality management
• Health and safety
• Social value
• Implementation and mobilisation

Some questions are quick - a paragraph pulling standard company information. Others require significant thought - a detailed methodology for how you'd deliver the contract.

For each question, you need to:

1. Understand exactly what's being asked
2. Plan your answer structure
3. Find relevant evidence from past work
4. Write a tailored response
5. Check it addresses the evaluation criteria

Multiply that by 20 questions and you see where the time goes.

Time estimate: 10-20 hours for straightforward tenders, 20-40 hours for complex ones

How to speed this up: This is where the right systems make the biggest difference.

A content library - If you've answered similar questions before, you shouldn't start from scratch. Store your best responses organised by topic. When a question about quality management comes up, you've got a starting point.

A knowledge base - Evidence is the hard part. Case studies, client references, statistics, certifications - they're scattered across your organisation. A central, searchable knowledge base means you can find what you need in minutes instead of hours.

AI assistance - Tools like Bidwell can generate first drafts based on your knowledge base. The AI reads the question, finds relevant content from your stored information, and produces a tailored response. You review and refine rather than writing from blank.

In our testing, this cuts writing time by 50-70%. A 30-hour writing task becomes 10-15 hours.

Stage 5: Gathering Supporting Documents (2-8 hours)

Beyond written responses, most tenders require supporting documents:

• Relevant case studies (often with specific formats)
• CVs of key team members
• Certificates (ISO, Cyber Essentials, etc.)
• Insurance documents
• Financial statements
• Policies (H&S, environmental, equality)
• Organograms and team structures
• References

Gathering these takes longer than you'd think. CVs need updating. Certificates have expired. The case study you want is in the wrong format. Your finance team is slow to produce the statements.

Time estimate: 2-4 hours if you're organised, 4-8 hours if you're not

How to speed this up: Keep a "tender ready" folder with current versions of everything you commonly need. Update it regularly, not when a deadline is looming.

Bidwell's knowledge base stores all this. Certificates, CVs, case studies, policies - uploaded once, available whenever you need them.

Stage 6: Internal Reviews (4-8 hours)

Your response needs checking. Multiple rounds, usually:

Technical review - Does the approach make sense? Is it deliverable? Are the claims accurate?

Compliance review - Have we answered every question? Do we meet mandatory requirements? Is the formatting correct?

Quality review - Is the writing clear? Is the evidence compelling? Does it read well?

Reviews take time for the reviewers. They also take time for the writers - addressing feedback, revising content, resolving conflicting comments.

Time estimate: 4-8 hours total (including revision time)

How to speed this up: Build review time into your plan from the start. Don't leave it until the final day. Use a standard review checklist so reviewers know what to look for. Track feedback centrally so nothing gets lost.

Stage 7: Pricing (2-8 hours)

Pricing isn't just calculating costs. It's presenting them clearly, explaining assumptions, and making sure they align with your technical response.

Common pricing models:

• Fixed price per deliverable
• Day rates for named roles
• Schedule of rates
• Cost-plus arrangements
• Hybrid models

You need to understand the pricing mechanism, model your costs accurately, check profitability, and format everything to match the buyer's templates.

Time estimate: 2-4 hours for simple pricing, 4-8 hours for complex commercial models

How to speed this up: Build pricing templates for common contract types. Know your standard rates. Have a clear approval process for pricing decisions.

Stage 8: Final Assembly and Submission (2-4 hours)

The response is written. Now you need to:

• Compile everything into the required format
• Check page/word limits haven't been exceeded
• Ensure file names match requirements
• Convert to correct file types (usually PDF)
• Upload to the portal
• Complete any online forms
• Submit and get confirmation

This sounds straightforward. It rarely is. Portals have quirks. Files fail to upload. Last-minute formatting issues appear. The procurement contact doesn't respond to your urgent question.

Time estimate: 2-4 hours

How to speed this up: Don't leave submission until the deadline. Upload a draft version early to test the portal. Read the submission instructions carefully - twice.

The Total Picture

Adding it up for a mid-complexity tender:

That's a week of someone's time. For a complex framework response, double it.

Why This Matters

If you're a small business, 50 hours is a massive investment. That's billable time you're not billing. Delivery work you're not delivering.

You need to be selective. Not every tender is worth pursuing. A quick bid/no-bid assessment saves you from burning time on opportunities you were never going to win.

And when you do bid, you need to be efficient. Not rushed - efficient. There's a difference.

Rushed means cutting corners. Skipping reviews. Submitting generic responses. That loses.

Efficient means removing friction. Having evidence ready. Using tools that speed up the slow parts. Spending your time on the bits that actually differentiate your response.

How Bidwell Changes the Equation

Bidwell is built to attack the time sinks:

Tender finding - We monitor the portals so you don't have to. Relevant opportunities arrive in your inbox with AI-generated summaries.

Knowledge base - All your evidence in one searchable place. Case studies, CVs, certifications, past responses. Find what you need in seconds.

AI response generation - Upload the tender questions. Bidwell reads them, pulls relevant content from your knowledge base, and generates tailored first drafts. You review and refine.

The writing stage - the 25-hour chunk in the middle - is where this makes the biggest difference. First drafts that used to take days happen in minutes. You spend your time improving the response, not creating it from scratch.

In practice, users report cutting their total response time by 50-70%. A 50-hour response becomes 15-20 hours. That's the difference between bidding for one tender a month and bidding for three.

Making the Maths Work

The question isn't really "how long does it take?" It's "is this tender worth my time?"

If you can respond to a £100,000 contract in 20 hours instead of 50, that changes your calculation. More tenders become worth pursuing. Your win rate improves because you're not rushing. Your team isn't burned out from constant deadline pressure.

Before you start writing, do the maths:

• What's the contract value?
• What's your realistic chance of winning?
• How many hours will this response take?
• What else could you be doing with that time?

Be honest with yourself. Not every tender is worth chasing. But with the right systems, more of them are.