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Tracking addenda so the price matches the documents

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

At 13:15, 45 minutes before tender close, the estimator reaches the roofing line. The lowest of three roofing quotes says "includes addenda 1 and 2". Addendum 3, issued two days earlier, replaced the roof membrane and added a cover board.

First-person view of a desk: one hand writes in a notebook with a pencil, the other works a calculator over printed charts, a laptop beyond.
Photo: Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

Keep one addenda log from the day tender documents arrive, check every quote against it before you use the number, and check the construction set against it after award. Addenda arrive late; a quote priced before the last one can look complete and still miss a change. On US federal sealed bids, for example, bidders must acknowledge every amendment to the invitation, the federal term for an addendum, by the time bids are due; a missing acknowledgement can be excused only if the bid shows the bidder had it, or the amendment is a matter of form or has at most a negligible effect on price, quantity, quality or delivery. The City of Calgary's guidelines for its construction tenders build a section for acknowledging addenda into the form of tender.

From tender to construction set

  1. Log each addendum the day it arrives: number, date, the sheets and sections it changes and the trades affected; send it to those trades with their items flagged.
  2. Check every quote's addenda line on bid day. A quote naming fewer addenda than were issued is incomplete until the trade confirms in writing.
  3. Close each gap before the deadline with a written confirmation or revised price, or carry your own number and note it.
  4. Acknowledge every addendum on your bid form, as the instructions to bidders require.
  5. After award, check the construction set against the log and have the consultant reissue anything missing.
  6. List the addenda by number and date in every subcontract.

Once every quote carries every addendum, level the quotes against one scope. If you are the trade, name the addenda you priced in your quote's clarifications.

Common mistakes

  • Trusting "includes all addenda" on a quote written before the last one.
  • Assuming every trade got the addenda from the owner's bidding site.
  • Building from the tender set, with the addenda in a binder nobody opens.

Checklist

On bid day, and after award

  • Every addendum logged, with trades affected
  • Each quote's addenda line checked
  • A written answer for every gap
  • All addenda acknowledged on your bid form
  • The construction set checked against the log
  • The addenda listed in every subcontract

Check your understanding

A drywall quote says "includes all addenda" and is dated the day before addendum 4 was issued. Can you use it as it stands?

Show the answer
No. "All addenda" can only mean those issued when the quote was written. Ask whether addendum 4 changes the price and get the answer in writing before close; even "no change", in writing, closes the question.

Sources

  1. FAR 52.214-3, Amendments to Invitations for BidsU.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal sealed bidding) · accessed
  2. FAR 14.208, Amendment of invitation for bidsU.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal sealed bidding) · accessed
  3. FAR 14.405, Minor informalities or irregularities in bidsU.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal sealed bidding) · accessed
  4. Guidelines for the Preparation of Tender Documents for Construction Projects (March 2013)The City of Calgary · Calgary, Canada (a city's guidance for its own construction tenders; shown as an example) · accessed

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