Forty terms. Two sentences each. Then why it matters for the call.

Abatement / SLA

A service-level regime that reduces what you are paid when a KPI is missed. The schedule, not the headline rate, often decides whether the contract makes money.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: uncapped abatement is a risk fail until someone has sized the downside against the firm, not the fee.

Addendum

A published change to the pack after release: scope, dates, criteria, or answers to clarifications. It forms part of the documents you must lodge against.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: addenda reopen the risk axis. They do not reopen a decision you never made.

ATM

Approach to market. The Commonwealth name for a published buying process on AusTender, covering RFTs, RFQs, and related instruments.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: an ATM is a listing, not a brief. Pull mandatories and the close date before anyone treats it as inbound work.

ATM ID

The identifier AusTender assigns to an approach to market. It is the reference that belongs in correspondence, lodgement, and the decline letter.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: the gate record should carry the ATM ID. A no-bid without a reference is a mood, not a decision.

AusTender

The Commonwealth’s public procurement portal. Agencies publish approaches to market there; suppliers lodge through it when the ATM says so.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: finding a listing is not a reason to bid. Lodgement rules on the portal are a hard gate on capacity.

Call-off

A request for work issued under a panel, standing offer, or head agreement, often at short notice, often on price. It is a bid, just a smaller one.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: membership is not a standing yes. Each call-off still needs the three axes.

Clarification

A question put to the buyer during the process, usually published with the answer as an addendum so every supplier sees it. It is not a private conversation.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: what you ask, and what you do not, tells the room whether the pack is readable. Silence on a lethal clause is a choice.

Conditions of contract

The terms that will govern the work if you win: liability, payment, IP, step-in, termination. They are often a standard form the buyer will not rewrite for you.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: this is the risk axis. Uncapped indemnity in here is the job, not a negotiation you will remember later.

Conditions of tender

The rules for lodging: format, closing time, mandatory information, how late or non-conforming offers are treated. They bind the process, not the delivery.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: a bid you cannot lodge conforming is already a no. Filename rules have excluded better firms than yours.

Conforming / non-conforming

A conforming offer meets every mandatory and lodgement rule. A non-conforming offer can be set aside before price or quality is read.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if you cannot conform today, the rest of the scorecard is decoration.

Conflict of interest

A fact that could reasonably be seen to bias the process or the delivery: prior advice to the buyer, staff on both sides, related entities. Public packs require it declared.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: an undeclared conflict is a probity fail. A declared one can still be a no-bid if it cannot be managed.

CPR

Commonwealth Procurement Rules. They tell agencies how to buy: open tender thresholds, limited tender, value for money, SME consideration. They do not tell you how to write a bid.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: use them to recognise the process you are in. You cannot cite a CPR paragraph to waive a mandatory the RFT wrote down.

Debrief

A structured account, after award, of how you were scored against the published criteria. It is not a rerun of the evaluation and not the competitor’s price.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: use it to test the next gate, not to relitigate the last draft.

Deed

A formal instrument, often used for panels and standing offers, that binds you for the life of the arrangement: rates, insurance, reporting, audit. It is heavier than a one-off contract.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: score the deed’s horizon, not the refresh response. Four years of a rate you cannot deliver at is a risk fail.

DISP

Defence Industry Security Program. Membership and the related clearances are often a mandatory on defence work. You hold it today, or you do not.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: “we can get it” is not a mandatory held. A missing DISP is a no-bid on that ATM.

EOI

Expression of interest. The buyer is asking whether you are capable and interested, usually not for a priced offer. Shortlists often follow.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: cheaper than an RFT, not free. Do not treat it as mandatory visibility. See RFT vs RFP.

Evaluation committee

The people appointed to score offers against the evaluation plan. They can only use what the plan allows. Relationship warmth they already have is not a criterion unless it is written down.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if your only path to a win is a conversation they cannot score, the call is no.

Evaluation plan

The buyer’s internal method for scoring: criteria, weights, pass/fail gates, how consensus is reached. You may not see the full plan. You will see the criteria in the pack.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: reverse-engineer the published weights before you write. A 40 percent price weighting is a different animal from a 10.

Framework

A standing commercial arrangement under which call-offs are issued. In Australian public buying it behaves like a panel; the word is more common in some jurisdictions and in imported templates.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: do not let the label change the arithmetic. Score access, then the work.

Head agreement

The umbrella contract for a panel or standing offer. Call-offs sit underneath it. The ugly clauses often live here, not in the RFQ that arrives six months later.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: read the head agreement before you celebrate the seat. Flow-down terms are the job.

Indemnity

A promise to make the other party whole for named losses. Unlimited indemnity, or indemnity that outruns your insurance, is not a footnote. It is the exposure you carry if you win.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if insurance does not respond to the clause as written, risk cannot pass until legal has said it can.

Indigenous Procurement Policy

Commonwealth policy that sets targets for contracting with Indigenous enterprises. In a pack it may appear as a mandatory, a weighted criterion, or a reporting obligation after award.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if it is a mandatory you do not meet today, the call is no. Do not invent a partnership on Thursday for a Friday close.

ITT

Invitation to tender. A Commonwealth or state flavour of an RFT: a conforming offer against a specification. The letters are not a different test.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: treat it as an RFT. Mandatories first. See RFT vs RFP.

Liability cap

A ceiling on what you can be held to pay if something goes wrong. Uncapped liability, or a cap above what insurance will meet, is the size of the downside.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: size it against the firm, not the fee. A bad year is a different call from a bad month.

Limited tender

A process the CPRs and some state regimes allow when open tender is not required: a short list, a single supplier, an exception. You were invited. That is information, not a win.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: an invitation is not a reason to skip the gate. The terms can still be lethal.

Local content

A requirement or weighting for Australian (or state) industry participation: labour, supply, or value-add onshore. It can be a schedule you fill or a mandatory you fail.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if the threshold is a mandatory you cannot meet today, stop. A thin schedule written for the response will be read as that.

Lodgement

How and when the offer must arrive: portal, format, filename, closing time to the minute. Late is usually fatal. Wrong format is often treated as late.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if you cannot lodge conforming in the days remaining, capacity has already failed.

Mandatory criterion

A pass/fail requirement. Miss it and the offer can be set aside before quality or price is scored. They hide in schedules, not only in the evaluation table.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: held today, or the call is no. “We can get it” is not a mandatory held.

No-contact period

The window, once the process is live, in which you may not contact the buyer except through the published channel. A helpful email to someone you already know is a probity event.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if your only path to a win is a conversation the process forbids, you are not bidding. You are hoping.

Open tender

A process advertised so any capable supplier can respond. The CPRs require it above set thresholds unless an exception applies. Open does not mean you should respond.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: public listing is not a duty to bid. A conforming no-bid, sent on time, is a legitimate act in the process.

Panel

A bid for the right to bid later. You win a seat on a standing list; work arrives as call-offs. Standing offers and frameworks behave the same way.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: score the membership, then the work you would actually chase. A seat can be the no-bid. See bid/no-bid for panels.

Parent guarantee

A requirement that a parent company guarantee the subsidiary’s performance or liability. It pulls exposure up the group, often beyond the bidding entity’s insurance.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if the parent will not sign, or the exposure is the group’s bad year, risk has failed. Do not discover this in week three.

Prequalification

A prior assessment of capability, financials, or licences that some agencies require before you can be invited or can lodge. It is a mandatory that sits outside this ATM.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if you are not prequalified today, you are not bidding this one. The application for next year is a different decision.

Probity

The rules that keep evaluation on the published criteria: no-contact, conflicts, conforming lodgement, an audit trail. It exists so a later review can reconstruct the process.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: you cannot win on a fact the evaluators are forbidden to use. Warmth is not a row.

RFI

Request for information. The buyer is gathering facts, not committing to buy. A response can shape a later RFT. It is usually not a bid.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: still a time cost. If the only reason to answer is visibility, that is not a strategy.

RFP

Request for proposal. The buyer wants a proposed solution, often with room to negotiate, rather than a conforming offer against a fixed specification.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: a beautiful proposal for the wrong work is still the wrong work. Fit and risk still gate it. See RFT vs RFP.

RFQ

Request for quotation. Price against a known scope, often under a panel. Fast, and easy to treat as mandatory because the seat already exists.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: capacity and margin. The conditions of contract still sit underneath. Membership is not a yes.

RFT

Request for tender. A conforming offer against a specification. Mandatories, lodgement rules, and published evaluation criteria decide whether the offer is even read.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if you cannot conform today, it is a no-bid. The rest of the response will not save it.

Security of payment

Statutory regimes, especially in construction and related work, that govern how and when you get paid and how disputes are run. Packs sometimes try to contract out of them.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: a carve-out that leaves you funding the client is a cash-flow decision. Put it on the risk axis, not in finance’s inbox after award.

SME

Small and medium enterprise. Public policy often asks agencies to consider SME participation. In a pack that can be a weighting, a mandatory, or a reporting line.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: if SME status is a gate you do not meet, stop. If it is a weighting, score the evidence you can actually put on the page.

Standing offer

An arrangement where you offer to supply on set terms for a period, and the buyer calls off as needed. Functionally a panel. The deed is the thing you live with.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: the label is not the test. Score access, rates, and the call-offs you would take.

Value for money

The CPR concept that agencies should not buy on price alone. In a pack it is usually given effect through weighted criteria, not through a paragraph you can argue in a cover letter.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: do not bid hoping the evaluators will look past a mandatory you missed because the rest looks like value. They cannot.

Weighted criterion

A scored requirement with a published percentage. Unlike a mandatory, a weak score does not automatically void the offer. It can still make the bid unwinnable.

Why it matters for bid/no-bid: reverse-engineer the weights before you write. A category you cannot evidence at 30 percent is a strategy question, not a drafting one.

Keep reading

Elsewhere in this guide.