Cost of Bidding Calculator

We’ve created this calculator to help you work out the cost of bidding to your business, so you can make better decisions about which opportunities to pursue and how to resource them.

We’ve assumed hourly rates based on industry averages and the time it often takes to write and manage a typical SME tender response. Use this as a benchmark for the cost of bid writing, then refine it to reflect your own team, process, and the complexity of the bids you go after.

Change the times to suit your business and the type of bids you respond to. For a more accurate estimate, factor in planning, input from subject matter experts, internal reviews and final submission tasks, not only the writing time.

Cost of bid writing explained

Knowing your cost of bidding helps you make better bid decisions, forecast resource properly, and avoid overloading your team. Our Cost of Bidding Calculator gives you a quick estimate based on the hours you spend across the bid lifecycle and an assumed hourly rate, which you can adjust to suit your business and the opportunities you pursue.

Used well, a cost of bidding model becomes more than a number. It helps you:

Compare opportunities consistently using cost per submission
Spot where your process is leaking time
Decide when it makes sense to bring in extra support
Build a bid strategy that your commercial team can actually sustain

What other costs are there to consider?

Fixed business overheads

Even if your bid team is busy, the lights still stay on. Factor in rent, software licences, IT, management time and other overheads so your cost of bidding reflects the real cost of operating.

National Insurance & pension costs

Your true hourly rate is rarely just salary. Including NI, pension contributions and other employment on-costs gives a more accurate view of your cost per bid.

Time not being spent in other areas of the business

Bidding draws time away from delivery, account management and business development. This “opportunity cost” can be significant, especially when multiple tenders land at once.

Missed future sales opportunities

Time spent on bids can limit how much you nurture relationships and build pipeline. If the bidding workload is high, it may reduce your ability to pursue other opportunities that could generate revenue sooner.

Where the hours go in a typical tender response

Every tender is different, but many bids follow a similar flow. Here’s a practical breakdown you can adapt.

Bid stage	What happens	Common time sinks
Bid decision	Bid/no-bid, quick gap check, capacity check	Rushed decisions, unclear ownership
Planning	Kick-off, responsibilities, storyboard/answer plan	Too many stakeholders, late start
Information gathering	Subject matter expert calls, evidence collection, policies, case studies	Chasing inputs, inconsistent evidence
Writing and iteration	Drafting responses, tailoring to scoring criteria	Rewrites due to missing win themes
Review and QA	Compliance checks, scoring, editing, formatting	Late reviews, version control issues
Finalisation	Uploads, attachments, sign-off, submission	Portal friction, last-minute changes

If you’re worried about the cost of bid writing, the most effective solution is often to make changes early on in the process. This can avoid time-consuming and costly rewrites.

What makes bids more expensive?

The bids that cost the most to produce are usually the ones that create complexity, not necessarily the ones with the longest word count. When a tender asks for lots of supporting evidence, multiple policies, detailed mobilisation plans, or highly structured pricing, the workload shifts from writing to coordinating inputs and validating detail.

You’ll often see costs increase when ownership is unclear or the response starts late. That’s when teams spend more time chasing subject matter expert input, filling evidence gaps, and rewriting sections to align with scoring criteria. Reviews can also inflate the cost per bid if there are several sign-off layers, or if feedback arrives in different formats and triggers repeated edits.

A good rule of thumb is that bids become more expensive when they require either more contributors, more iterations, or both. You can get these factors under control via clear roles, an answer plan, and a structured review. This typically reduces time spent without lowering quality.

In-house vs outsourced: which is usually cheaper?

When comparing the cost of bid writing, one of the key questions is whether to stay in-house or outsource. There isn’t a universal answer to this question. Which is cheaper for you will depend on your approach to bidding.

In-house can be more cost-effective when:

You bid frequently and can keep people busy
Your opportunities are similar, so content is reusable
You already have strong processes, templates, and a content library

Outsourced support can be more cost-effective when:

Bidding is seasonal and internal utilisation is uneven
You’re pushing into a new sector or framework and need specialist capability
Deadlines are tight and you need extra capacity without hiring
You want to reduce internal disruption while still submitting high quality bids

At Bidding, we often find that organisations choose to keep strategy and knowledge in-house, then scale capacity and quality control when needed.

If you want support without committing to a fully outsourced approach, our Bid Management Service can reduce the internal load while keeping you close to the process.

How to reduce your cost of bidding without lowering quality

Improve bid decisions

A sharper bid/no-bid approach prevents teams burning days on low probability tenders. If you want to strengthen this, our Bid Planning and Strategy support is designed to tighten up decision-making and pre-bid thinking.

Start earlier with a simple plan

A short kick-off plus an answer plan (even bullet points) prevents late rewrites and helps to maintain focus.

Build a reusable evidence library

Policies, case studies, CVs, org charts, and standard method statements should be easy to find and easy to update.

Use structured reviews

A proper compliance and scoring-style review often cuts rework and improves consistency. If you’re close to submission, our targeted Bid Review and Comment Service can be a fast way to lift quality without restarting the whole response.

Prepare for frameworks and DPS

Framework applications can be time-heavy, but they often unlock repeatable routes to market. If frameworks are part of your pipeline, our Framework Applications support can help you approach them efficiently.

Cost of bidding FAQs

What is the average cost of bidding?

It depends on bid size, sector, and how much is reused, but the biggest driver is almost always total hours across writing, SMEs, reviews, and submission.

How do I calculate my internal hourly rate for bidding?

Use a fully loaded rate: salary plus on-costs and an overhead allocation, divided by productive hours per year.

Why does our cost per bid keep increasing?

Common causes include late starts, unclear ownership, excessive rework, and chasing SME inputs without a clear plan.

Should I include sales time in my cost of bidding?

If sales or account teams spend time shaping the bid or gathering evidence, it should be counted, even if it sits outside the bid function.

Is outsourcing bid writing always more expensive?

Not necessarily. If internal utilisation is low or deadlines force overtime and disruption, outsourced support can reduce total cost and risk.

How can I reduce cost without reducing quality?

Improve bid decisions, tighten planning, standardise evidence, and use structured reviews to reduce rework.

Want to reduce your cost of bidding?

Let's Talk

01134790803
info@biddingltd.co.uk

Bidding
The Wellsprings
Howell Croft S
Bolton
Greater Manchester
BL1 1SB

Bidding is a brand of Thornton & Lowe Limited (Company No. 07600205). Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: The Wellsprings, Howell Croft South, Bolton, Greater Manchester, BL1 1SB.