How Do You Decide Whether to Bid a Job?

By Wyatt Cooper · Published October 22, 2026 · 8 min read

Key takeaways

Decide whether to bid before anyone starts a takeoff: estimating hours are the cost of every bid, won or lost.
Score each job on the same few weighted factors: fit with your work, the owner, the documents, the competition, your capacity and bonding, the contract terms and the cost to bid.
Set two cutoffs in advance, one to bid and one to pass, and send only the jobs in between to a principal's judgment.
Keep the score sheet with the bid result, so after a year you can see which scores turned into work you wanted.

Decide whether to bid a job by scoring it before you spend estimating hours on it. Pick five to eight factors that tell you whether you can win it and make money on it: fit with your work, the owner, the documents, the competition, your capacity and bonding, the contract terms and the cost to bid. Weight each, score the job, and bid above a cutoff you set in advance, pass below a second one, and decide the middle with a principal.

Why the decision comes before the estimate

Every bid costs estimating time, and most bids lose. A general contractor that bids everything spreads its estimators thin, prices its best opportunities in a hurry, and fills its backlog with whatever it happened to be lowest on. A go/no-go decision is the step that protects the estimating budget: a short, written score made from the invitation, the documents and what you know about the owner, before the job is broken into bid packages or a single invitation to bid goes to a sub.

Public owners make the first check easy. Federal construction notices describe a project's magnitude in physical terms and as a price range, from "Less than $25,000" up to "More than $10,000,000", in eight bands (FAR 36.204). If the band is outside the range of jobs you build well, that is usually the whole decision. Private invitations rarely say it so plainly, so ask the owner or the architect for the budget range before you spend a day on it.

The factors to score

Go/no-go factors for a general contractor, the question each one answers, and what should make you hesitate
Factor	The question	A reason to hesitate
Fit with your work	Have you built this type and size of building, with this delivery method, in this area?	A first job of its kind at twice your usual size
Owner	Does the owner have the money, a record of paying on time, and someone who makes decisions?	Financing not yet closed; slow pay on past jobs
Documents and design team	Are the drawings complete enough to price, and does the architect answer questions?	Design development drawings priced as a lump sum
Competition	How many contractors are bidding, and is it a short list or open?	An open public bid with ten or more contractors
Capacity and bonding	Do you have a project manager and superintendent free, and room in your surety's single-job and total limits?	No superintendent free until halfway through the schedule
Contract terms	Retainage, payment timing, liquidated damages, indemnity, schedule	Liquidated damages on a schedule you think is too short
Cost to bid	How many estimating hours, and is there time to get sub coverage before bid day?	Two weeks to bid a job that needs four
Strategic value	Does it open a new client, market or region you want?	None: it only fills a gap

Bonding deserves its own line because it is a hard limit. On federal work, performance and payment bonds are required for any construction contract exceeding $150,000 (FAR 28.102-1), and many state and private owners require them too. Ask your surety where you stand before you bid a job that would take most of your remaining capacity.

It also helps to look at the job the way the owner will look at you. The federal standard of a responsible contractor includes adequate financial resources, the ability to meet the schedule "taking into consideration all existing commercial and governmental business commitments", and a satisfactory performance record (FAR 9.104-1). If you could not show those on this job, the score should say so.

A worked example: scoring a fictional clinic

Fairbank Builders (fictional) is invited to bid a two-story outpatient clinic. It scores each factor from 1 (poor) to 5 (strong). Each factor's points are its weight times its score, divided by 5, so a perfect job scores 100. Fairbank decided in advance: bid at 70 or more, pass below 50, and send 50 to 69 to a principal.

Go/no-go score for a fictional clinic: points = weight × score ÷ 5
Factor	Weight	Score (1–5)	Points	Why
Fit with your work	20	4	16	Three clinics built in five years, all smaller
Owner	15	3	9	New owner; financing letter provided
Documents and design team	10	2	4	Mechanical drawings at 60 percent
Competition	15	2	6	Open bid, seven contractors on the plan holders list
Capacity and bonding	20	4	16	A superintendent frees up in March; bonding room is fine
Contract terms	10	3	6	Standard retainage; liquidated damages at a moderate daily rate
Cost to bid	10	3	6	About 120 estimating hours in three weeks
Total	100		63	Between the cutoffs: a principal decides

The arithmetic: 16 + 9 + 4 + 6 + 16 + 6 + 6 = 63. The score points at what would change the answer. If the owner short-listed four contractors, competition would score 4, worth 12 points instead of 6, and the total would be 69: still one short of the bid line. The weak spot is the documents. The principal asks the architect when the mechanical drawings will be complete; if not before bid day, Fairbank passes.

It is worth putting a price on the estimate too. At 120 hours and a fictional loaded rate of $85 an hour, the bid costs $10,200. If Fairbank wins about one bid in five of this kind, each win carries $51,000 of estimating cost (5 × $10,200), before any profit.

Run the decision the same way every time

1EstimatorReads the invitation and documents and calls the owner or architect
2Estimator and project executiveScore the job separately, then compare
3PrincipalDecides any job between the cutoffs
4EstimatorBids or tells the owner promptly that the firm is passing
5EstimatorRecords the score next to the result

A go/no-go decision, from invitation to a recorded result

Score from the invitation, the documents and a call to the owner or architect, before the takeoff starts.
Have two people score it separately (an estimator and a project executive), then compare. A gap of more than one point on any factor is worth a conversation.
Write one line of reasoning per factor. A bare number cannot be checked later.
Record the decision and, if you bid, the result: won, lost and by how much, or passed.
Once a year, compare scores with results. If jobs scoring 60 to 69 rarely win, raise the bid line; if the ones you won at 55 lost money, lower the weight on whatever drove the score up.

A subcontractor makes the same call from the other seat; how to bid a GC's job as a subcontractor covers it. For the general contractor's whole sequence from invitation to award, see the general contractor's guide and the project lifecycle.

Common reasons to pass

The job is far outside your usual size range, up or down.
There is no project manager or superintendent you would trust with it in the window the owner needs.
It would use most of your remaining bonding capacity.
The documents are too incomplete to price as a lump sum, and the owner will not change the contract form.
The owner's money is not in place, or its payment record is poor.
There is not enough time before bid day to get sub coverage on the major trades.

Passing well matters as much as bidding well. Tell the owner or architect promptly, and say why if you can. A clear no keeps you on the list for the next job.

The bottom line

A go/no-go score is a few minutes of honest judgment written down before estimating starts: fit, owner, documents, competition, capacity, terms and the cost to bid, weighted and added up, with cutoffs you set before you saw the job.

The value grows with time. A year of scores next to results tells you which jobs your firm actually wins and builds well, which is the list worth spending estimating hours on.

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Sources

FAR 36.204, Disclosure of the magnitude of construction projects — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.
FAR 28.102-1, General (bonds for construction contracts) — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.
FAR 9.104-1, General standards (contractor responsibility) — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.

Questions

What is a go/no-go decision in construction bidding?

It is the decision, made before estimating starts, whether a job is worth bidding. A general contractor scores the job on a set of weighted factors such as fit, owner, documents, competition, capacity, contract terms and the cost to bid, and bids only the jobs above a cutoff.

What factors should a contractor weigh before bidding?

Whether you have built this kind and size of job, whether the owner can pay and decide, whether the documents can be priced, how many competitors there are, whether you have the people and bonding capacity, what the contract terms are, and how many estimating hours the bid will take.

How many bids should a general contractor win?

There is no standard number; it depends on your market, the delivery method and whether you bid open or short-listed work. Track your own: bids, wins and the score each had. The useful figure is your win rate by type of job and by go/no-go score.

Should you tell the owner you are not bidding?

Yes, and promptly. A short note that you are passing, with a reason if you can give one, helps the owner plan coverage and keeps you on the list for the next job.