Tender intelligence for electrical contractors
Tender software built for electrical contractors.
From EICR programmes and planned maintenance to frameworks, rewires and reactive contracts, BidLayer turns complex electrical tender packs into a structured workspace of requirements, eligibility criteria, quality questions, pricing, deadlines and risks.
For contractors responding to formal tenders — not domestic quoting or estimating software.
- 14-day trial
- One real tender analysis
- No demonstration required
Housing electrical compliance
Electrical Testing, Compliance & Remedial Works
- Buyer
- Westborough Housing Partnership
- Contract
- 4 years
- Estimated value
- £3.8m
- Submission
- 18 Sep 2026 · 12:00
12
Eligibility gates
6
Quality questions
14
Requirements
4
Pricing schedules
5
Deadlines
3
Risks
Mandatory requirement
£10m Public Liability
Status: Needs review
Quality
Mobilisation & Engineer Capacity
Weight 15% · Limit 1,500 words
Commercial
Domestic EICR rate
Status: Needs pricing
Why formal electrical tendering is different
Electrical tenders are more than a price to submit.
An everyday quotation answers one question: what will the work cost? A formal electrical tender asks a much wider set of questions before price is even considered, and each answer usually has to be evidenced, structured and returned in a specific format.
- Capability and track record
- Inspection and testing competence
- Accreditation, where the tender requires it
- Health and safety management
- Mobilisation planning
- Staffing and engineer capacity
- Response and attendance times
- Quality assurance and certificate checking
- Resident and stakeholder communication
- Reporting and data returns
- Social value
- Pricing and commercial schedules
A pack for a housing testing and remedials contract can run to several hundred pages across an ITT, an electrical specification, a selection questionnaire, a quality questionnaire, a pricing workbook, an asset schedule and a set of forms and declarations. The requirement that decides whether your bid is compliant may sit in any one of them.
The electrical work may be familiar. The procurement pack is often the difficult part.
That is the gap BidLayer is built for. It does not tell you how to test an installation, resource a programme or set a rate. It makes sure the tender's own requirements are visible, attributed to a source and controlled in one place before the bid team starts writing.
For the general supplier-side picture, see tender management software and bid management software. This page covers what changes when the contract is electrical.
Contract environments
Built around the electrical contracts your team actually bids for.
Examples may include the following. Requirements vary by buyer, so treat these as typical rather than universal.
EICR & electrical testing
- Domestic EICRs
- Communal and landlord testing
- Periodic inspection programmes
- Remedials from C1, C2 and FI findings
- Certificate turnaround
- Compliance reporting
Planned electrical maintenance
- PPM regimes
- Periodic inspection cycles
- Landlord systems
- Emergency lighting testing
- Scheduled servicing
Reactive electrical maintenance
- Emergency callout
- Response and attendance SLAs
- Out-of-hours cover
- Remedial response
- Engineer coverage by area
Rewires & planned works
- Domestic rewires
- Consumer unit replacement
- Communal system upgrades
- Planned investment programmes
Electrical frameworks
- Lot structures
- Geographical coverage
- Selection criteria
- Framework quality responses
- Rate schedules
- Mini-competitions and call-offs
Social housing electrical contracts
- Resident liaison
- No-access procedures
- Vulnerable residents
- Property volumes
- KPIs and reporting
- Social value commitments
From documents to structured work
Turn the electrical tender pack into a controlled workspace.
Supported PDF, DOCX and XLSX documents are classified, with a confidence indication, and your original files are preserved unchanged. Where a file cannot be read — an image-only scan, for example — the workspace says so instead of presenting the analysis as complete.
- ITT.pdf
- Electrical Specification.pdf
- Quality Questionnaire.docx
- Appendix C Pricing.xlsx
- Asset Schedule.xlsx
- Form of Tender.docx
- Requirements
- Quality
- Pricing
- Eligibility
- Deadlines
- Risks
The value is not simply storing the files in one folder. It is turning what the buyer requires into structured work your bid, commercial and operational teams can act on — with each item traceable to the document, page or clause it came from.
Qualification control
Surface electrical tender qualification requirements early.
Mandatory criteria decide whether the rest of your bid is even read. BidLayer identifies apparent eligibility and mandatory requirements in the pack and links each one to where it was stated, so a person can confirm it rather than discovering it late.
Accreditation, insurance levels, quality management, competence evidence and turnover thresholds all appear differently from buyer to buyer. Not every electrical tender requires every accreditation, and BidLayer does not assume one.
Examples are illustrative. Tender requirements vary. BidLayer surfaces criteria for review; it does not guarantee eligibility.
- Unassessed
NICEIC Approved Contractor
Required · Source: SQ §8.2
- Unassessed
Public Liability
Minimum £10m · Source: ITT p.16
- Needs review
ISO 9001
Required · Source: SQ §9.1
- Unassessed
Inspection & testing competence
Evidence required · Source: Specification p.24
Scored quality
Know how the electrical tender will be scored.
Where the pack states them, BidLayer extracts the quality/price split, each scored question, its weighting and any word or response limit — and keeps the buyer's guidance and source reference with the question instead of in a separate spreadsheet.
Mobilisation & Resource Capacity
The buyer asks bidders to explain:
- Mobilisation plan and timescales
- Engineer numbers and supervision
- Geographical coverage
- Handling demand spikes
- Continuity of service
Source: Quality Questionnaire §2.1
Resident Communication
The buyer asks bidders to explain:
- Appointment booking and notification
- Managing missed appointments
- Support for vulnerable residents
- Complaint handling
Source: Quality Questionnaire §3.2
Keeping question, weighting, limit, threshold, buyer guidance and source together means the person writing the response can see what is actually being marked. BidLayer does not write or score responses.
Commercial requirements
Bring electrical tender pricing into the same workflow.
Buyers set the commercial structure: the rate lines, the units and the instructions for how the workbook must be completed. BidLayer identifies those pricing requirements from the supported pack and keeps them beside the requirements and quality questions they relate to.
BidLayer is not currently an electrical estimating or takeoff platform. It does not build up costs, suggest rates or calculate a price. It controls the commercial requirements supplied by the buyer.
Your estimator or QS still owns every number. What changes is that nobody has to reread a 90-page specification to find out which rates are required, in which units, and where the buyer said so.
Electrical tender pricing goes into Schedules of Rates, workbook structure and assumptions in detail.
- Domestic EICRPer property
- Communal EICRPer installation
- ElectricianHourly rate
- Out-of-hours electricianHourly rate
- Emergency calloutFixed charge
- Consumer unit replacementUnit rate
- MaterialsPercentage adjustment
Qualification
Built for formal tenders — not everyday domestic quotes.
Searches for “electrical bidding software” often mean estimating or takeoff tools. BidLayer is a different category: it is tender software for contractors responding to formal, multi-document procurement.
A good fit
- Formal ITTs and tender packs
- Frameworks and mini-competitions
- Public-sector procurement
- Social housing contracts
- Multi-document packs with scored quality
- Significant commercial opportunities
Probably not needed
- Small domestic quotations
- One-page price requests
- Everyday job estimates
- Simple callout quotes
If a job can be priced from a single email, you do not need a tender workspace.
Electrical tender workflows
Explore electrical tender workflows.
Each contract type brings a different mix of competence, access, service and commercial requirements.
Plans start at £299 per month. View pricing.
Questions
Electrical contractor tender software: common questions
What is electrical contractor tender software?
It is software used by an electrical contracting business to control formal tender responses rather than to run day-to-day operations. In BidLayer's case that means uploading the buyer's tender pack — ITT, electrical specification, quality questionnaire, pricing workbook, asset schedule and forms — and turning it into structured requirements, mandatory criteria, scored quality questions, pricing requirements, deadlines and risks, each linked back to the document it came from.
Is BidLayer electrical estimating software?
No. BidLayer does not produce takeoffs, build up labour and material costs, or suggest rates. It identifies and structures the commercial requirements the buyer has set — the rate lines, units and pricing instructions in the pack — so your estimator or QS knows exactly what has to be priced and where each instruction came from. Pricing decisions remain entirely with your commercial team.
Can BidLayer analyse EICR and electrical testing tenders?
Yes, where the pack is supplied in supported formats. Testing and remedial tenders typically combine competence evidence, access arrangements, certificate and reporting requirements, KPIs and a rate schedule across several documents, and BidLayer structures those into one workspace. Extracted information should be reviewed by the bid team before it is relied on.
Can BidLayer read electrical pricing spreadsheets?
XLSX pricing workbooks and asset schedules are supported, and the original workbook is preserved unchanged. Commercial and pricing requirements found in the pack are identified and listed for review. Unusual or heavily structured workbooks may still need manual commercial interpretation.
Can BidLayer identify NICEIC, NAPIT or insurance requirements?
Where the tender states them, apparent qualification and mandatory criteria are surfaced with a link to the source document and section — for example an accreditation requirement in a selection questionnaire or an insurance level in the ITT. BidLayer surfaces criteria for your review; it does not confirm or guarantee that your business is eligible.
Can BidLayer manage scored quality questions?
Yes. Scored quality questions are extracted with their weighting and any word or page limit stated in the pack, and kept alongside the buyer's guidance and the source reference. BidLayer does not write or score responses today.
Can BidLayer be used for electrical frameworks?
Yes. Framework packs are usually larger and structured around lots, coverage and selection criteria, and each lot brings its own requirements and rate schedules. The framework bidding page explains how BidLayer handles that structure.
Is BidLayer suitable for social housing electrical contractors?
It is a common fit, because housing packs mix electrical methodology with resident access, no-access procedures, appointment performance, reporting and social value. Those requirements are extracted alongside the technical ones so nothing sits only in a specification appendix.
Can I try BidLayer using a real electrical tender?
Yes. The 14-day trial is built around one genuine tender analysis, so you upload a live or recent electrical pack rather than reviewing a sample project. No demonstration is required to get started.
Does BidLayer keep working if I close my laptop?
Yes. Analysis runs on the server, so a large multi-document electrical pack continues processing after you close the browser, and the workspace shows the outcome when you return — including an explicit review state if any file could not be read.
Understand the electrical tender before your team starts writing.
Upload the buyer's pack and turn requirements, mandatory criteria, quality questions, pricing schedules, deadlines and risks into one source-linked workspace.
14-day trial · one real electrical tender · no demonstration required