Prepare your submission file

A bid is rarely rejected for its methodology. It is rejected for an expired certificate, a forgotten document, a missing bond, an envelope handed in too late. The SangoBids submission file starts from there: for every tender you track, it reads the tender file, draws up the list of required documents, compares it with the documents you already have, and reminds you of what is missing before the deadline. This article follows a file from the first click to the result.

Track a tender from its page

Everything starts on a tender page, once the Go/No-Go verdict has made up your mind.

Click Prepare my file
The button is in the right-hand column of the page (under "How to respond" on a phone). One click adds the tender to the Workspace, with a reminder 3 days and 1 day before the deadline.
The submission file opens
It carries the tender's title, buyer and deadline, and starts with the document list. Three tabs: Documents, Letters, Proposal. At the bottom, the Submission section.
Find it again in the Workspace
In the menu, the Workspace lists all your files with their state: "3 documents to add, 1 expiring", the deadline, and the status that moves with your work. The home page repeats the nearest deadlines.

The document list and where it comes from

It is the first thing the file shows, and the reason the file exists: you do not have to re-read forty pages to know what to provide.

When the tender file is online (DAO, RPAO, particular conditions), SangoBids reads it and draws out each requirement, quoted with the file name and page: "Tax clearance certificate — RPAO.pdf, p. 13". Documents are sorted administrative, technical and financial, and marked mandatory or optional. A line above the list says what was read: "List drawn from RPAO.pdf (pp. 12–14) and My documents".

When the tender file is not online, which is frequent, the list starts from the documents usually requested in your country for this kind of contract, and the file says so in plain words. It is then up to the file collected from the buyer to confirm or complete that list.

Each document is then compared with what My documents holds:

Ready: the document is there and still valid on the deadline.
Expires before the deadline: the document is there, but it will be out of date on submission day. It is the most frequent mistake, and the silliest.
To do: nothing in My documents matches. For the bid bond, the file shows a range read on comparable contracts when it has one, so you know what to ask your bank or insurer for.
Not applicable: you can set aside a document that does not apply to you; it leaves the count. A document the file could not match with certainty is marked "To confirm".

The counter at the top of the list sums up: "3 of 8 mandatory documents ready", and an "Add now" card puts forward the three or four documents to start with.

Add a missing document from your phone

A missing document does not need a computer.

Tap Add on the row
The upload opens with the right document type already chosen. On a phone, the camera is offered directly: a sharp photo of the certificate is enough.
The expiry date is read
SangoBids reads the date on the document and suggests it; correct it if it is wrong. That date is what allows "expires before the deadline" on later files.
The document serves every file
A document added once stays in My documents for good. Every new submission file finds it, and you are warned before it expires.

When the documents are ready, Download my documents assembles the ones from My documents into a single PDF, in the list's order, and Print the list gives you the list to tick. The first download is free on every plan; the next ones are part of the Pro plan. The list and the statuses stay free.

The pre-filled letters

The Letters tab prepares the two letters nearly every file requires: the submission letter and the sworn statement. They arrive filled in with your company's name, register, representative, and the buyer, subject and reference of the tender. What is left is to re-read, complete what is flagged, print and sign.

If the tender file provides its own letter template, use the file's template: the pre-filled letter then serves as a draft to fill it in without a wrong reference.

The technical proposal

The Proposal tab is for tenders that ask for a written technical bid: methodology, organisation, references. It works in three stages.

A first text, from the notice and its documents
The text follows the file's evaluation grid when it is published, and draws on your company page. What SangoBids does not know is not invented: a marker "[TO COMPLETE: similar contract, client, amount, year]" stays for you to fill in yourself. You can also import your own Word file and start from it.
A review, as a committee would do it
The review lists the blocking points first (a required reference that is not cited, an exceeded deadline, an unanswered requirement), then the points that cost marks, each with what to do about it.
Rewrites you keep or refuse
For each remark, a rewrite is proposed. You compare before and after; your text only changes if you keep it. At the end, the Word export gives you the file to lay out and submit.

The reminders that say what is missing

Three days before the deadline, then the day before, you receive an e-mail. It does not only say "deadline approaching": it lists the documents still to add and the ones that expire before the deadline, with a link to the file. These two reminders exist on every plan, for every tracked tender.

Submission and the result

At the bottom of the file, the Submission section gathers what you need to know on the day: where to submit, before what time, and the bid opening date when it is published. Once done, the I have submitted my bid button moves the file to Submitted and stops the reminders.

After the award, record the result: won or lost. It is not just a ranking. A contract won becomes a reference your next proposals can cite, and the history of your bids tells you which buyers select you.

What the file does not do

It does not submit your bid. Handing it to the buyer, in person or on the country's official platform, remains your act, and that is why the Submission section tells you where and when.

It does not replace the tender file. The document list is read from the published documents; what is not online, it does not know, and it says so. When the file has to be collected from the buyer, collect it.

It invents nothing. A reference, a bond amount, an article of the procurement code it cannot read stay to be completed, by you.

What next

For each step of the file, the bidding guide goes into detail: the administrative documents to provide, write a technical bid that gets through, bonds and guarantees and submit your bid. If you already write your bids with a general-purpose assistant, read Writing your technical bid with ChatGPT: what works, what is missing.