Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for government contractors.
A checklist built from how government contractors work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Opportunity and tender tracker
- Bid review and approvals
- Proposal and price build
- Contract and modification register
- Deliverables, milestones and subcontractors
- Billing by contract line and payment follow-up
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For the bid manager
- For contract managers
- For delivery leads and subcontractors
- For finance
- For directors
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Open tenders by closing date and owner
- Bids won and lost by buyer
- Contract value, billed and remaining by line
- Deliverables due and accepted
- Subcontractor cost against contract budget
- Invoices by buyer approval step and age
- Option and renewal dates in the next quarter
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Calendar
- SMS
- Accounting software export
- Document storage
- Buyer portal exports
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it submit bids to government portals?
- Can one award have many contract lines and several buyers?
- How are modifications to a signed contract recorded?
- Can subcontractor costs be tied to the right contract line?
- Does it handle different currencies and tax rules?
- Who can see pricing and staff rates?
- Can open contracts and old proposals be loaded?
- What happens to our records if we leave?
- How is the system priced?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Notices and deadlines sit in different places
- Past proposals are hard to reuse
- Contract terms are read once and then forgotten
- Costs do not map to contract lines
- Payment follow-up is slow and uneven
Prefer to talk it through? See the government contractors page.