Bid or quote?
A quote (offert) is often a freely worded price proposal, while a bid (anbud) follows the buyer's tender documents and is assessed against fixed criteria. A bid is binding for the validity period the buyer sets, often three to six months. A request for quotation (anbudsförfrågan) sent to a few companies is usually a direct award.
How to submit a bid, step by step
- Decide whether to bid. Read the qualification requirements and the evaluation model first.
- Make a requirement list from the tender documents: every requirement, every attachment, every question.
- Ask questions in time through the procurement system. The answers become part of the documents for everyone.
- Show you qualify with the ESPD or a declaration, references and certificates.
- Write answers that score. Answer exactly what is asked, in the buyer's words.
- Price it in the buyer's price sheet, without changing its format.
- Check and submit in good time. A bid that arrives one minute late cannot be considered.
The most common mistakes
- A mandatory requirement left unanswered or a missing attachment.
- Reservations against the contract terms.
- Generic sales copy instead of an answer to the question.
- A price sheet filled in with the wrong unit or extra rows.
- Submitting in the last hour.
Confidentiality
Bids are secret until the award decision. After that they are in principle public documents that anyone, including competitors, can request. To protect trade secrets, state which information and why disclosure would harm you; the buyer still makes its own assessment.
Falkview for suppliers reads the tender documents, builds the requirement list and drafts a first bid from your earlier bids and documents, which you then review.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a bid in a Swedish tender binding?
- Yes, for the validity period the buyer sets in the tender documents.
- Can I change my bid after submitting it?
- Before the deadline you can usually withdraw it and submit a new one. After the deadline it cannot be changed, only clarified if the buyer asks.
This guide is a general description, not legal advice. Laws and amounts can change; the Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement (Upphandlingsmyndigheten) has the latest figures.