Tender Support Services

Bid Preparation Support for Bristol Businesses

Clear help with tender documents, from first draft to submission

Japade has supported 702 clients since 2013. We review documents, check compliance and prepare submissions for public and private tenders across Bristol.

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About Japade

Japade was set up in Bristol in 2013 by a small group of people who had spent years reading through public sector contract notices and filling in forms that never seemed to get easier. The idea was plain: help other businesses get through the tender process without losing weeks of work time on paperwork that could be handled by someone who does it every day.

The first years were modest. There was no office beyond a rented desk near Stokes Croft, and the client list grew slowly, one referral at a time. Thirteen years on, the company still works from the same part of Bristol, at 145 Stokes Croft, with a team of six people covering the practical side of bid writing, document checks and submission support.

Team member reviewing tender documents at a desk in Bristol

Reviewing a tender submission ahead of a closing date.

Over that time the firm has worked with 702 clients and completed 920 separate jobs, from short document reviews to full tender packages submitted against a deadline. About one in four clients has come back for a second piece of work, which tells us more about how the service holds up over time than any single project could.

Mission and Vision

The mission is straightforward: reduce the time and risk involved in responding to public and private sector tenders. Many small and medium businesses in the Bristol area have the skills to deliver a contract but not the spare capacity to write a strong bid alongside their day-to-day work. Japade exists to fill that gap, working alongside a client's own staff rather than replacing them.

The longer-term view is less about growth for its own sake and more about staying useful to the same two areas the company has always served. There is no plan to expand into unrelated markets or offer services outside tender support. The aim is to keep doing this one thing well, with a team that knows the local supplier landscape and the kind of paperwork that public bodies in the region tend to ask for.

Core Values

Two colleagues discussing a tender submission checklist

Checking a submission checklist before a deadline.

Experience and Expertise

The team currently offers 11 distinct services connected to tender preparation, covering everything from pre-qualification questionnaires to method statement drafting and final submission checks. Requests are usually answered within an hour during business hours, which matters when a closing date is only days away and a client needs to know quickly whether the team can take on the work.

13 years in tender support, 920 completed jobs, and a team of 6 specialists working across 2 areas around Bristol.

Each member of the team has come from a different background — some from procurement roles inside larger organisations, others from technical writing or project administration. That mix means a tender document gets read from more than one angle before it goes out: is it technically accurate, is it clearly written, and does it actually answer what the buyer asked for.

Japade does not claim to win every tender it touches, and no honest firm in this line of work would say otherwise. What the company can offer is a careful, methodical process built over more than a decade of reading contract notices, drafting responses and learning what tends to go wrong. That process is what clients are paying for when they come to 145 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS6 2FP — not a guarantee, but a steady hand on a task that is easy to get wrong under time pressure.

Anyone wanting to know more about how a specific tender might be approached can get in touch directly. The team replies within the hour during working hours, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00.

Services and Prices

Japade has supported bids and tender submissions in Bristol since 2013. The list below covers all 11 services we currently offer, with a flat starting price for each. Final cost depends on document length, deadline and number of revisions, and is confirmed before work begins.

  1. Tender Documentation Review (from £180)

    Checking a completed tender pack against the buyer's requirements before submission. Covers formatting, missing attachments and inconsistencies between sections.

  2. Bid Writing Support (from £320)

    Drafting response text for method statements and quality sections, based on information supplied by the client. Written in plain language matched to the scoring criteria.

  3. Pre-Qualification Questionnaire Assistance (from £150)

    Completing PQQ forms including company details, insurance data and past project references. Suited to smaller suppliers applying to a framework for the first time.

  4. Tender Opportunity Search (from £90/month)

    Monitoring public and private tender portals for opportunities matching a client's trade and region. A weekly shortlist is sent by email with links and deadlines.

  5. Method Statement Drafting (from £140 per statement)

    Writing a single method statement describing how a specific task will be carried out, including sequence of works, resources and health and safety measures.

  6. Pricing Schedule Formatting (from £110)

    Transferring a client's cost breakdown into the buyer's required spreadsheet or form. Includes checking totals and unit prices add up correctly.

  7. Compliance Document Checklist (from £75)

    Building a list of certificates, policies and licences a tender requires, then confirming which ones the client already holds and which need to be requested.

  8. Framework Application Support (from £280)

    Preparing a full application to join a regional supplier framework, including technical questions, financial standing evidence and references from past clients.

  9. Proofreading and Formatting (from £60)

    Final read-through of a tender document for grammar, page limits and layout rules such as font size and margins set by the buyer.

  10. Portal Submission Handling (from £45)

    Uploading finished documents to the buyer's e-tendering portal before the deadline, with a confirmation screenshot sent back to the client the same day.

  11. Post-Submission Feedback Review (from £95)

    Reading buyer feedback after an unsuccessful bid and summarising the score gaps in plain terms, to help with the next application.

Prices exclude VAT. A written quote is issued after a short call, usually within one hour of the initial enquiry. We serve clients across two areas of Bristol and the surrounding districts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are questions we hear most often from businesses in Bristol looking into tender support. If your question is not covered here, call us on +44 117 374 3886 or write to [email protected].

Tender support covers the practical work needed to respond to a public or private sector tender: reading through the specification, checking eligibility criteria, drafting method statements, pulling together financial and technical evidence, and formatting the final submission so it meets the buyer's rules. We work alongside your existing team rather than replacing it. Since 2013 we have handled this kind of work for firms across Bristol, and most projects involve a mix of writing, document checking and deadline management rather than one single task.

Both are possible. Some clients ask us to draft the entire response from a blank document, working from technical notes and past project evidence they supply. Others already have a draft and want a second set of eyes to check clarity, structure and compliance with the scoring criteria. We agree the scope before starting so there is no ambiguity about who is writing what. Our team of 6 splits this work by specialism: pricing, technical writing and quality checking are usually handled by different people.

We aim to reply to any new enquiry within 1 hour during business hours, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. That first reply confirms whether we can take on the work and gives a rough timeline based on the submission deadline. Tenders are time-sensitive by nature, so if a deadline is close, say so in your first message and we will prioritise accordingly. We do not work weekends, so anything sent on a Saturday or Sunday is picked up first thing Monday.

Mostly small and medium firms across Bristol and the surrounding area, ranging from sole traders bidding for their first council contract to established companies with 20 to 30 staff pursuing framework agreements. We have supported 702 clients since 2013, and the common thread is a business that has the skills to deliver the work but limited spare time to write a strong submission. We do not turn work away based on company size, but our process is built around businesses without a dedicated bid-writing department.

Our work is focused on two areas: Bristol itself and the immediate surrounding districts. This keeps our knowledge of local buyers, frameworks and procurement portals current, which matters more than it might seem, since scoring criteria and evidence expectations vary between authorities. If your tender is for a contract based well outside this area, get in touch anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit before any work starts.

At minimum we need the tender documents themselves, the submission deadline, and background on your company: past project examples, staff qualifications, health and safety records, insurance details and financial standing where relevant. The more evidence you can share upfront, the faster we can draft accurate content. We often send a short questionnaire at the start of each project to fill any gaps, particularly around case studies and methodology, since generic answers score poorly against most evaluation criteria.

We can format and check pricing schedules for consistency and completeness, but the actual figures, rates and margins are always set by you. We are not costing consultants and will not guess at prices on your behalf. What we do check is whether the numbers you provide match what the specification actually asks for, since mismatched units or missing line items are a common reason submissions get marked non-compliant before scoring even begins.

Pricing depends on the length of the tender, the number of questions, and the deadline. A short pre-qualification questionnaire costs less than a full framework submission with multiple technical sections. See our price list on the services page for a breakdown by task. We quote a fixed price before starting so there are no surprises, and we will tell you if a very tight deadline requires an urgent-turnaround rate.

There is no fixed minimum, but the closer the deadline, the more limited the work we can realistically complete to a good standard. If you contact us with three or four weeks left, we can usually cover the full process from planning to final proofread. With only a few days remaining, we may only have time to review and tighten an existing draft rather than write from scratch. Being upfront about the deadline in your first message helps us give a realistic answer straight away.

No, and anyone who promises that should be treated with caution. Buyers score submissions against published criteria, and the outcome also depends on price, competitor quality and factors outside our control. What we can do is make sure your submission is complete, compliant with the rules of the exercise, clearly written, and backed by relevant evidence. Since 2013 we have completed 920 jobs across various procurement exercises, and our focus stays on the quality of the response itself, not on an outcome we cannot control.

A pre-qualification questionnaire, or PQQ, is usually an earlier stage where a buyer checks whether your company meets basic requirements: financial stability, insurance, relevant experience and health and safety policy. A full tender comes later and asks for detailed method statements, pricing and technical answers scored against weighted criteria. Some procurement routes combine both into a single stage. We can support either stage, and often the evidence gathered for a PQQ feeds directly into the fuller submission that follows.

Both. Public sector tenders, from local council contracts to public bodies, tend to follow strict formats and published scoring weightings. Private sector tenders vary more in structure but often move faster and involve more negotiation. Our approach adapts to whichever format applies, though the core work stays similar: understanding what is being asked, gathering the right evidence, and presenting it clearly within the word or page limits set.

Yes. This is one of the more common reasons clients approach us. Technical staff often understand a project in detail but find it harder to put that knowledge into the formal written English that tender panels expect. We interview you about the work, take notes on the technical detail, and turn that into a clearly structured written answer, then check it back with you for accuracy before it goes into the final submission.

We stay available in case the buyer sends clarification questions before scoring, which happens fairly often on larger tenders. If you are shortlisted for interview or site visit, we can also help prepare notes and anticipate likely questions based on the written criteria. If the result is not successful, we will go through any feedback the buyer provides and note what could be strengthened next time. Of our 702 clients, 166 have returned for a second tender, often after this kind of debrief.

Yes, if you want one in place before sharing sensitive commercial or technical information, we are happy to sign a confidentiality agreement first. Many tender documents contain pricing structures, staff details or client references that businesses reasonably want kept private. We treat all project material as confidential as standard practice, and we are open to discussing your specific requirements before any documents change hands.

Our main work is writing and preparing responses to opportunities you have already identified. That said, if you are unsure where to look, we can point you towards the procurement portals typically used by councils and public bodies covering Bristol. Ongoing opportunity searching on your behalf falls outside our core service, but this is something worth discussing directly, since some clients prefer a simple monthly check rather than managing it themselves.

With a team of 6 across 11 service areas, we manage a set number of active projects at any time so quality does not slip. If you have several tenders with overlapping deadlines, tell us as early as possible so we can plan capacity and, where needed, agree which ones take priority. We would rather be honest about what we can deliver well than accept more work than we can properly support.

Call us on +44 117 374 3886 or email [email protected] with a short description of the tender and its deadline. You are also welcome to visit us at 145 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS6 2FP, during business hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. We reply to new enquiries within about an hour on working days and will confirm next steps once we understand what the tender involves.

Get in Touch

If you need help preparing a tender submission or have a question about our services, send a message below or use the details listed here. We typically reply within an hour during working days.

Contact Details

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 117 374 3886
Address: 145 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS6 2FP

We are based just off Stokes Croft, close to the city centre. View on map

Hours: Monday to Friday: 09:00–18:00

Saturday and Sunday: closed

Disclaimer

The information on this website is provided as is, to the best of our knowledge, for general guidance on tender support services. Japade makes reasonable efforts to keep content accurate, but details, prices and procedures may change without prior notice. Nothing on this site should replace advice from a qualified professional relevant to your specific tender or contract. We recommend verifying requirements with the relevant awarding authority or a suitably qualified adviser before making decisions. Japade accepts no liability for errors, omissions or outdated information, or for actions taken based on this content. Use of this website is at your own discretion.