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Pipeline metrics

Bid pipeline metrics: workload, stage age and delivery overlap.

Next month’s capacity is consumed by open pursuits whose stages are ageing, whose close dates cluster, whose planned hours remain, and whose delivery windows overlap work already committed. Report those views from a register. An open row is not a decided outcome. Part of our guide on the economics of bidding.

Published: 16 September 2026 · By Andre · Reviewed by Bill · selrob

Takeaways

Which pursuits consume next month’s bid and delivery capacity?

Read the register, not a slide. Count open rows. Age them from receipt, or from a dated stage change if you have one. Sum planned hours still sitting on those rows, and actual hours already spent. List close dates inside the next thirty days. Overlay delivery windows on work already committed. Blank decision date means pending, not missing. A no-bid with a dash in the delivery window is excluded from overlap, not treated as a hole in the data.

The sample below is the worked example on the pipeline register, as at 16 September 2026: OPP-104 submitted 56 planned / 61 actual; OPP-107 in gate 40 / 6; OPP-101 no-bid 8 / 5; OPP-098 lost 48 / 52. Open planned hours = 96. This page reports. That page is data entry.

Data dictionary

Fields, denominators and missing data

Metric Definition Denominator / missing data
Received Rows with a receipt date. Count of register rows. Blank receipt is missing and excluded; none in the sample.
Open Rows with no decision date. Pending buyer or pending gate. Blank decision date = pending, not missing.
Submitted (current) Stage = Submitted today. Do not add Lost rows unless you keep a lifetime-submitted flag. This sample does not.
Decided Rows with a decision date (no-bid, lost, awarded, withdrawn). Decision date present. Open rows are not decided.
Stage age Days from receipt to as-of date for open rows. Lodgement date is not in the register. Do not invent a lodgement date. Report age-since-receipt and say so.
Due-date load Open rows whose close date falls in the window. Decided rows have no remaining close.
Open planned hours Sum of planned hours on open rows. Blank planned hours excluded and flagged; none blank in the sample.
Remaining planned Per open row, max(0, planned − actual), then sum. Overrun does not create negative remaining.
Delivery overlap Open windows that share a month. Dash or blank window excluded (no-bid in the sample).

Sample rows

Register extract used for every total

Hypothetical. Copied from the pipeline-register example. Not a client result. As-of date 16 September 2026.

ID Stage Receipt Close Decision Planned Actual Delivery window
OPP-104 Submitted 2 Sep 2026 30 Sep 2026   56 61 Jan–Jun 2027
OPP-107 In gate 14 Sep 2026 12 Oct 2026   40 6 Nov 2026–Oct 2027
OPP-101 No-bid 8 Aug 2026 22 Aug 2026 11 Aug 2026 8 5 –
OPP-098 Lost 3 Jun 2026 1 Jul 2026 28 Jul 2026 48 52 Would have been Aug 2026–Jul 2028

Reporting views

Totals reconciled to those rows

View Cohort Working Sample value
Received count Received Four rows with a receipt date 4
Open count Open OPP-104 + OPP-107 (no decision date) 2
Submitted (current) Submitted OPP-104 only 1
Decided count Decided OPP-101 + OPP-098 2
Open planned hours Open 56 + 40 96
Open actual hours Open 61 + 6 67
Remaining planned Open max(0, 56−61) + max(0, 40−6) = 0 + 34 34
OPP-104 overrun Open 61 − 56 5
Decided planned Decided 8 + 48 56
Decided actual Decided 5 + 52 57
All planned Received 56 + 40 + 8 + 48 152
All actual Received 61 + 6 + 5 + 52 124
Stage age OPP-104 Open 2 Sep to 16 Sep, age since receipt. Lodgement date not recorded. 14 days
Stage age OPP-107 Open 14 Sep to 16 Sep 2 days
Time-to-decision OPP-101 Decided 8 Aug to 11 Aug 3 days
Close to buyer decision OPP-098 Decided 1 Jul to 28 Jul 27 days
Due-date load next 30 days Open Closes 16 Sep–16 Oct: OPP-104 30 Sep, OPP-107 12 Oct 2 closes
October bid load Open OPP-107 still in gate, 34 hours remaining, close 12 Oct. OPP-104 hours already spent. 1 pursuit, 34 h
October delivery load Open Neither open window includes October 2026. OPP-107 starts November. 0
Delivery overlap Open OPP-104 Jan–Jun 2027 with OPP-107 Nov 2026–Oct 2027 Jan–Jun 2027 (6 months)

Check: open 2 + decided 2 = received 4. Open planned 96 + decided planned 56 = all planned 152. Open actual 67 + decided actual 57 = all actual 124. Remaining 34 + overrun 5 = 39 hours of variance on the two open rows, which still carry 96 planned. Do not report 96 as hours still to work.

What does this mean for the bid/no-bid call?

OPP-107 is two days old, 34 hours still to spend, closing 12 October, and its delivery window sits on top of OPP-104 for six months in 2027 if both are awarded. The gate on OPP-107 has to see that overlap before anyone drafts. Planned hours on OPP-104 are spent. They are not a reserve. Annual volume is a different model: how many tenders a roster can write. This page is next month.

Keep reading

Elsewhere in this guide.

The economics of biddingWorkload this month, not a win-rate story. Tender calendar and pipeline registerThe four rows every total on this page uses. How many tenders should a firm bidAnnual capacity. This page is the live list. Qualification KPIsDecision quality beyond volume and capacity.

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