Publish a tender from a procurement

When you have prepared tender documents in a procurement, by composing an RFP or by uploading them, you can publish them on Tendergate and receive the bids there. This page covers the full settings. For a quick request for prices, see Publish a price quote.

Start

Publish tender appears in a buyer-side procurement that has tender documents and no publication yet:

• under Tender documents → Documents, next to the documents;
• at the end of RFP composition, after you finalise the documents;
• under Publication in the sidebar.

It opens Publish this procurement. Enter the Title (prefilled from the procurement name), the CPV code, the Nature (Goods, Services or Works) and the Submission deadline, then click Continue. You can change everything until you publish.

You land on the Overview of Publication in the sidebar. Its tabs are Overview, Settings, Invitations, Questions, Amendments, Opening and Award. Invitations, Questions and Amendments become available once you publish, Opening after the deadline and Award after the opening.

Before you publish

While the tender is a draft, the Overview shows the Before you publish checklist. Each step has Set up (or Review once it is done):

1. Rules that apply
2. Items and price form
3. Notice and timeline
4. Openers

If your organization is not linked to its company yet, a Company register link row appears too. When every step is done, click Review and publish.

Rules that apply

The rules differ by buyer and value. Tendergate applies the deadline, opening and disclosure rules for you and stores your answers with the tender for the evidence package. The questions:

• Who is buying? A private company, A public authority (municipality, ministry, agency, state or municipal company), A utility, for its water, energy, transport or postal activity, or An organisation using public or EU funding that is not a public authority.
• Is this purchase paid for with public or EU funding? (asked of a private company)
• What are you buying? Goods, services or works.
• Estimated value, excl. VAT: all lots and options together.
• For large funded works and the services linked to them, two more questions about public financing decide whether the Public Procurement Law applies.
• Exception you rely on (optional): if the law does not apply because of an exception, name it. It is stored with your answers.

If your organization is set up as a private company, A private company is already selected on a new tender. You still answer the funding question for each tender.

The result shows the lane (Simple purchase, Regulated procedure or Listing (bids in EIS)), the rules and what they mean for this tender: the minimum deadline, who opens the bids, who reads the opened bids, what becomes public after the award, any duties, how long the records are kept, and the source and rules version. Click Save and continue.

For a listing, add Where bids are submitted (the EIS link) and, if you have them, the IUB notice number and the EIS buyer profile. Tendergate shows the tender, lets you invite companies and links to EIS. The bids, questions and opening happen in EIS.

Items and price form

Items is the same table as on a price quote: paste rows from Excel, use the template, or choose One total price instead of item prices. See Items. Bidders see the items as published.

Settings

The Settings tab holds everything bidders see or rely on. The panel on the right, What bidders see, sums it up. Click Save settings to keep your changes.

Openers and evaluators

Openers approve the opening of the bids after the deadline. Evaluators help assess them. Open the Openers step, or Edit on the Openers card in Settings.

• Who opens the bids: in a simple purchase, choose I open the bids myself (recommended for price quotes and small purchases) or Two people open the bids together (both confirm within 30 minutes). In a regulated procedure, two openers open the bids together, and both need an opening key. If you are the only member, invite a colleague first.
• Add a member: pick a member of your organization and the role Opener or Evaluator, then Add. A person must have accepted the invitation to your team.
• Opening key: each opener sets up their own key once on the sealing service: a passkey or an authenticator app. Openers you add get an email with a link to set it up. The table shows who still has to; you see Set up opening key for yourself. See Your opening key.
• Evaluators are optional in a simple purchase, because every member of your organization can read the opened bids. Under regulated rules, only openers and evaluators can see them.

After publishing, only owners and admins can change the openers, and the change takes effect once a current opener approves it on the sealing service.

Regulated procedures (MK 104)

A funded purchase under Cabinet Regulation No. 104, from its thresholds, is a regulated procedure. Tendergate asks for everything these rules need and lists it under What this procedure needs and Records this procedure needs:

• IUB notice. Open Notice for the IUB publication system, copy the fields into PVS and, when the notice is published, Record publication with its number and date. The minimum deadline (10 working days, 15 for works) counts from the next working day after that date.
• Declarations. The publisher and every opener sign a no-conflict declaration before the tender is published.
• Funding and specification. The funding body, the funding programme or activity, and the place and term of performance.
• Two openers, each with an opening key; submission keys are always required; only openers and evaluators read the opened bids.

Funded purchases below the MK 104 thresholds are simple purchases, but the publisher still signs a no-conflict declaration before publishing, and each opener before the opening. See Compare prices and award for the steps after opening.

Review and publish

Click Review and publish. The Publish this tender? dialog lists the title, reference number, buyer, rules, deadline, last day for questions, opening time, who can bid, the price form, items, documents bidders submit, files, how bids arrive, opening order, openers and submission keys. Then it states what publishing means: bids stay sealed until the deadline, every bidder gets the same information, and whether the tender appears on tendergate.ai or only to invited companies.

If something is missing, the dialog says Fix the settings first and lists it, for example "Too few openers, or an opener has not set up their opening key."

Tick I confirm the information is correct and I may publish this tender for your organization, click Publish and confirm with your opening key. A listing uses List tender instead and needs no opening key. Your organization's first tender uses Send for review; see Publish.

Sharing the link

After publishing, the Sharing card on the Overview shows:

• for a public tender, the Public link with Copy link. Anyone can open it and see the tender.
• for an invite-only tender, the Invitation link: click Create invitation link, then copy it. Anyone with this link can see the tender and bid, so share it only with companies you want to invite. Reset link makes the old link stop working; companies that already opened it and started a bid keep access.

To email companies directly, see Invitations.

Extending the deadline

Move the deadline with an amendment: click Change tender (on Settings or Amendments), set the new deadline and publish the amendment. The deadline can be moved later, never earlier. A change that only extends the deadline needs no minimum time. See Amendments.

Cancelling a tender

While the tender is open for bids, or after the deadline but before the opening, an owner, admin or the procurement owner can cancel it. On the Overview, open More actions (⋮) and choose Cancel tender (Cancel price quote for a price quote). Write the reason: it is shown to bidders and on the tender page. Bidders and invited companies are told the tender is cancelled. With sealed bids, bids already submitted are never opened. With open bids you may already have read them, so the email says only that the tender no longer accepts bids.

After the bids are opened, a tender can no longer be cancelled. End it without an award instead; see Ending without award.