Free planning tool

Government bid/no-bid calculator

Use eight practical pursuit criteria to organize a first-pass decision before your team spends hours reading, pricing, and writing. The calculator runs entirely in your browser; it does not upload or save your answers.

Score an opportunity Learn about full bid analysis

Score the opportunity

Choose the answer that best reflects what your team knows today. Use “Not confirmed” when the solicitation or your internal records do not support a confident answer.

1. Scope and customer fit

How closely does the required work match services, products, geography, and customers you can credibly support?

2. Qualifications and past performance

Can you document the licenses, certifications, experience, references, and past performance the notice requires?

3. Deadline and delivery capacity

Does the team have enough time and available staff to prepare the response and perform the work?

4. Eligibility and mandatory compliance

Check set-aside eligibility, registration status, mandatory meetings, bonds, insurance, clearances, and other pass/fail conditions.

5. Pricing confidence

Can you estimate labor, material, travel, subcontractor, risk, overhead, and margin inputs without unsupported guesses?

6. Partner and vendor coverage

If the opportunity requires subcontractors, suppliers, or specialty credentials, are the right partners available and responsive?

7. Solicitation and addenda completeness

Do you have the current notice, attachments, amendments, pricing sheets, forms, and official submission instructions?

8. Strategic value and competitive position

Consider customer knowledge, incumbent information, differentiators, win path, expected value, and whether the pursuit advances a real business priority.

How to use the result

75–100: strong candidate

Move into detailed solicitation review, verify every pass/fail requirement, confirm pricing inputs, and assign owners. A high score is not approval to submit.

50–74: review carefully

Resolve the weakest criteria before committing proposal resources. A teaming plan, buyer question, updated quote, or internal capacity decision may change the result.

0–49: likely no-bid

Pause unless there is a credible, time-bound plan to close the major gaps. Record the reason so future opportunities can be screened consistently.

Important: this scorecard is a planning aid, not legal, accounting, procurement, eligibility, or pricing advice. The solicitation, its addenda, the issuing agency, and official government systems remain authoritative.

A disciplined bid/no-bid review goes beyond one score

The most useful decision meeting produces a documented recommendation, a list of facts to verify, owners for unresolved items, and a deadline for the final pursuit decision.

Confirm the official package

Open the current agency notice and verify amendments, response time and timezone, submission channel, required forms, representations, and mandatory events.

Separate hard gates from preferences

An unavailable license, missed site visit, or ineligible set-aside can be a hard stop. Strategic preference and competitive strength usually require judgment rather than a simple pass/fail rule.

Document the assumptions

Label pricing ranges, incumbent leads, staffing expectations, and partner availability as assumptions until a source or responsible person confirms them.

Re-score after new information

Update the decision after buyer Q&A, addenda, partner quotes, or management review. Save the final rationale with the opportunity record.

Bid/no-bid calculator questions

Does this tool guarantee an award?

No. It organizes an internal pursuit discussion. Award decisions are made by the issuing agency under the stated evaluation method.

Should every criterion have the same weight?

This public calculator uses equal weights for clarity. In a full company process, a mandatory eligibility failure may override the total score, while other criteria can be weighted according to strategy.

Does GovBidAgent automatically submit bids?

No. GovBidAgent helps contractors discover, analyze, organize, price, and draft. The contractor verifies the final package, completes certifications and signatures, and submits through the official portal, email, or other required method.

Continue your government contracting workflow

Need the decision connected to the full bid package?

Use GovBidAgent to organize documents, analysis, partners, pricing research, proposal work, and pursuit status in one workspace.

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