Guide
How to review an RFP before you bid
A fast go/no-go checklist for U.S. public contractors reviewing municipal, county, school, and state solicitations — before you burn estimating hours.
Why go/no-go comes first
Public RFPs are long on purpose. The first job is not a full takeoff — it is deciding whether the opportunity fits your license, bonding, trades, and schedule. Skip that and you spend days on jobs you should never have chased.
The RFP review checklist
- 1. Checklist
Hard deadlines and mandatory meetings
Find bid due date/time/timezone, pre-bid conference, site walk, and question cutoff. Missing a mandatory pre-bid is often an automatic no-go.
- 2. Checklist
Bonding and insurance
Compare bid bond, performance/payment bond, and insurance limits to your capacity. If single-project bonding is above your ceiling, treat it as NO-GO unless you have a broker path.
- 3. Checklist
License class and geographic fit
Confirm the solicitation’s required license class and where the work sits. Out-of-state work without the right license or reciprocity is a fast kill.
- 4. Checklist
Diversity and subcontracting goals
Note DBE/MBE/WBE/HUB/SWaM/CBE goals and whether they are aspirational or enforceable. If you are not certified and have no sub plan, score this as CAUTION.
- 5. Checklist
Prevailing wage / certified payroll
Davis-Bacon or state prevailing-wage jobs change labor cost and admin burden. If your team is not PW-ready, price the overhead or walk.
- 6. Checklist
Liquidated damages and schedule risk
Steep LDs plus aggressive completion dates turn a thin-margin job into a loss. Match schedule risk to your crew availability.
- 7. Checklist
Scope vs your trades
List the real work packages (demo, sitework, HVAC, electrical, etc.). If your self-perform trades are thin and buyout risk is high, prefer CAUTION.
- 8. Checklist
Submission portal and format traps
Portal registration, electronic seals, bid forms, and addenda acknowledgments kill otherwise good bids. Confirm the submission path early.
Faster path with RFPCheck
Upload the PDF and get a GO / CAUTION / NO-GO stoplight report covering deadlines, bonding, diversity goals, licensing signals, and trade scope — with 50-state bid intel. Free: 1 report/month.
FAQ
How long should an RFP go/no-go review take?
A first-pass go/no-go on a typical municipal PDF should take minutes once you know what to scan: deadlines, bonding, license, diversity, prevailing wage, LDs, and scope. Deep estimating comes only after a GO or strong CAUTION.
What usually makes a public RFP a NO-GO?
Common killers are bonding above capacity, wrong license class, mandatory pre-bid already missed, enforceable diversity goals with no path, and schedule/LD risk that your crew cannot absorb.
Can software replace reading the RFP?
No. Tools like RFPCheck speed up extraction and risk scoring, but always verify critical terms in the source solicitation before bidding.