Guide · updated 2026-10-28T00:00:00.000Z
How to Assemble a Tender Submission Pack
A tender pack fails in ordinary ways: the pricing PDF is a different version from the narrative, a certificate is sideways, and nobody can say which page the insurance schedule is on. The fix is one file, one contents list, and numbers that match. InHousePDF’s tender template starts with invitation, response, pricing, and certificates. Rename them to match the buyer’s volume names if the invitation uses those words. Adding the template does not add the buyer’s documents. You still add each PDF yourself.
Follow the invitation, then the tool
Read the invitation for the order of volumes, the page cap, and the file-size cap. Those instructions win over this page. If the buyer wants a separate commercial envelope, build two packs rather than hiding the price in an appendix. Use the pack builder for each volume. Set the cover title to the opportunity name and the date to the submission deadline you are actually meeting.
Add the response, the programme, the pricing schedule saved as PDF, and the certificates. Move a file up or down until it matches the contents you intend to stand behind. Rotate any scan that is lying on its side before you download. Delete blank separator sheets you do not want cited. Undo is there if you remove the wrong page.
Turn on the contents page, divider pages, bookmarks, and continuous numbering with a prefix such as TDR-. The contents lines link to the first page of each document. A buyer who opens the PDF in a normal reader can click the line or the bookmark. Download the CSV if your bid manager keeps a register of versions. The CSV columns are file name, section, start page, and page count. The template you save for the next bid stores section titles and numbering, not the previous bid’s file names.
What not to send away
Draft pricing and method statements are commercially sensitive. Merging them on a public website makes a copy you cannot delete with confidence. Add the files in the browser. The proof panel should show zero network requests during assembly. Switch the network off and try the download again if you want a second check. The worker already has the bytes.
InHousePDF does not fill in a tender portal for you. When the pack is checked, you submit it through the buyer’s own system. That submission is deliberate. The assembly step is not.
The buyer’s rules are not this product
Some teams also prepare papers for an internal review. That is another folder of PDFs. The same buttons can order them. InHousePDF does not claim that a pack meets a buyer’s procurement rule. Those rules belong to the buyer, not to this site.
If two people are editing the narrative, agree which PDF is final before you add it. The tool will faithfully bind whatever you add, including last night’s draft.
Check the file before you send it
Download the pack and open it on the same device. Read the cover, the contents page, and the first page of each section. Confirm the stamped numbers match the contents. Open the CSV beside it if a colleague needs the index in a spreadsheet. Only then send the pack by the route your process already uses: the company portal, the client’s secure room, or the email address in the instructions. Sending it there is a choice. Assembling it did not require a copy on someone else’s server.
If the proof panel lists a network request while the pack is built, stop and treat that as a fault. The expected count is zero. You can also switch the network off after the page has loaded and run the same steps. The worker does not need a connection to stamp numbers or write bookmarks.
InHousePDF is not a professional adviser and is not affiliated with a regulator or a professional body. The same buttons can prepare documents for a review, an audit, a submission, or a handover. The product does not decide which papers a process requires. You still follow the instructions you were given.