For a General Contractor, the pre-construction phase is the most critical period for margin protection. Once a project begins, the ability to control costs diminishes as the focus shifts to production and scheduling.
Effective pre-construction is a logistical challenge. It requires the coordination of dozens of independent vendors and the aggregation of hundreds of data points. Without a structured organization plan, the process often devolves into “chasing bids” rather than “managing a project.”
To move through pre-construction efficiently, you must follow a disciplined sequence of documentation.
Before an Invitation to Bid (ITB) is sent, the documentation must be complete. Sending “partial plans” leads to a flurry of RFI emails and subcontractor assumptions. Standardize your plan sets and ensure a clear specification book is attached. This reduces the number of “clarification” emails you will have to manage later.
As soon as the plans are out, you must maintain a live Bid Log. This is not just a folder for PDFs; it is a status tracker. You need to know:
A bid is only useful if it covers the entire scope. Providing a trade-specific checklist to your subcontractors—outlining exactly what is included and excluded—prevents the “Scope Gaps” that lead to change orders once construction begins.
One of the most stressful parts of pre-construction is the 48 hours before a client proposal is due. You are often missing 20% of your bids, and the ones you have received need to be leveled.
To maintain order, we recommend the 72-Hour Rule. You must set your subcontractor bid deadline exactly 72 hours before your client presentation. This “Buffer Zone” is essential for:
If you don’t enforce this buffer, you will find yourself doing data entry at midnight on a Thursday, which is when the most expensive mistakes happen.
For renovations and complex sites, a digital plan set is never enough. To organize your pre-con effectively, you must schedule a structured “Trade Walkthrough.”
Instead of meeting 20 subs at 20 different times, schedule a two-hour window where all major MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) and structural subs meet you at the site. This allows for:
This “Batching” of communication saves you hours of repetitive phone calls and ensures that every bid you receive is based on the same physical reality of the site.
How organized is your current process? Score yourself 1-5 on the following:
If your total score is less than 15, your pre-construction phase is a high-risk area for your business.
Q: How do I get subs to follow a strict deadline? A: By making it easy to bid. If they have to log into a complex portal, they’ll miss the deadline. If they can just click a link to see plans and reply to an email, their “on-time” rate increases significantly.
Q: Should I show my preliminary budget to my subcontractors? A: No. You want their “honest” price based on the plans. However, you should use your preliminary budget to “Reality Check” their bids. If they are way off, you need to investigate if the scope was misunderstood.
Q: What is the most important document in pre-con? A: The “Exclusions List.” What a sub isn’t doing is usually more important than what they are doing. Always normalize your bids based on these exclusions before presenting to the client.
The barrier to this level of organization is usually time. Most GCs are so busy with active projects that they cannot find the 10-15 hours required to properly organize the bidding for the next project.
The solution is not to “work harder,” but to use a system that organizes the data as it arrives.
Bid Bench was designed to be the “command center” for this phase.
By standardizing your pre-construction workflow, you transform a chaotic “bid chase” into a professional procurement process.
Protect your margins before you build.
Bid Bench brings structure to your pre-construction phase. Start your free trial at app.bidbench.com/signup.