Agencies regularly participate in tenders, pitch new ideas, and send proposals to clients - often dedicating many hours of internal work to secure new business. This time investment impacts resource utilization and team workload. To track these efforts accurately and make informed, data-driven decisions, Allfred offers several efficient ways to manage and report on tenders.
Why manage tenders or upsells in Allfred?
Tenders can be resource-heavy, and understanding how much time and internal cost they consume is crucial. By using Allfred, agencies can:
Track time spent on each tender,
Measure internal costs with precision,
Separate and analyze efforts tied to new business development,
Optimize resource allocation based on real data.
Depending on how detailed your agency’s reporting needs are, there are several approaches you can take.
Recommended setup for tender or upsell management
No matter the scenario, we recommend the following setup for tender tracking:
1. Create a dedicated rate card
Set up a specific rate card for tenders in the Hourly rates and commissions section. Use internal hourly costs for each position - this allows you to track internal costs instead of client billing rates.
2. Set up a Client and Brand OR Project categories for tenders and upsells
a) In the Clients and Brands section, create a client and brand named Tenders (or Upsell, etc.). You can also place this brand under an internal client profile. This setup allows for easy filtering in reports.
b) Alternatively, use Project Categories like "Tender" or "Upsell" instead of creating a dedicated brand.
Management Scenarios
Scenario 1: Your agency doesn’t tender frequently
If you only participate in a few tenders per year, we recommend creating a dedicated client and brand with one or a few projects per year:
Create a quarterly, biannual, or yearly fixed price project called something like Tenders 2025 / Tenders Q1 25 etc.
Use the dedicated "Tender" rate card.
Assign the project category Tender for easy filtering.
Use the non-billable billing category since you won't be billing this project.
For each tender, create a new budget item in the budget named after the client or pitch (e.g., Nike RFP).
Under each budget item, create tasks and subtasks, plan resources, and track time.
In reports, filter by this specific project to analyze your total effort and internal cost.
Scenario 2: You need detailed tender reporting
There are two structured approaches to manage tenders with more granularity:
a) Create a dedicated brand for tenders under a central client
In Clients and Brands, create a client (e.g. Tenders) and brands called Tenders, Upsell, etc.
For each tender or upsell, create a new non-billable time and materials project.
Apply the Tender rate card and project category Tender.
Track time, plan resources, and organize tasks under individual budget items.
Filter reports by Brand: Tenders or Project category to get accurate reporting.
b) Create a tender/upsell brand under each client
Example:
Client: IKEA
Brands: IKEA, IKEA – Tender, IKEA – UpsellCreate separate non-billable TM projects for each tender.
Use Project Category: Tender.
This setup helps you analyze not only individual tenders but also assess client-level profitability, including acquisition costs.
How to create budgets for tenders
There are two common approaches to managing cost estimates during the tender process, depending on how your agency prefers to handle offers and proposals:
a) Use Proposals in the Quotes Section
This approach is ideal for agencies that want to keep their tender offers separate from tender tracking projects. You can:
Create budgets as Proposals in the Quotes section.
Easily convert them into a Quote and send them to the client directly from Allfred - perfect if the proposal is not part of a larger presentation.
If the tender is successful, simply click the +Project button to generate a project from the proposal.
Note: Make sure the proposal is created under the same brand you plan to use for the actual project - this is essential for creating the project correctly from the proposal.
b) Create Budgets Directly in the Tender Project
If you'd like to keep all tender cost estimates organized under a dedicated brand for tenders (e.g., Tenders or IKEA – Tenders), you can create budgets directly within the tender project - as long as the project type is Fixed Price.
This lets you structure and store all your offers within the tender project, keeping your tender-related documents and costs in one place.
If the client later agrees to the presented offer, you’ll need to duplicate the budget into a newly created billable delivery project.
We recommend not assigning the tender budget to the project, to avoid syncing its structure into the task section. That structure is often based on final deliverables (e.g., SEO, campaign management), which are not relevant for time tracking during the pitching phase.
This approach ensures that your tender efforts stay clearly separated from project execution, giving you cleaner reporting and better control over both internal costs and offer management.
What If You Win the Tender?
🎉 Congrats! Once you win the tender:
Create a new billable project under the actual client/brand for the delivery phase.
Close the original tender project via Actions → Finish.
Since categories were used, you can still separate and evaluate acquisition cost vs. profit in Profit Reports.
Optionally:
If you don’t want to create a new project, you can:
Change the Billing Category of the original tender project from Non-Billable to Billable.
All tasks, hours, and data will remain.
Hide tender-related budget items if they are no longer needed.
Note: The project may show as Overspent, since initial budget items were not designed for billable delivery.
What If the Client Pays a Pitch Fee (Sketch Fee)?
If you're paid a fee for the tender (e.g., for pitching):
Create a billable project under the same brand.
In the budget, create one budget item and use the 💲icon to enter the fixed sketch fee.
Transfer hours from the tender project to the new project using the time transfer feature (see how to transfer hours here).
Be sure to create a Billing Address for the brand so you can invoice properly.
What If You Lose the Tender?
No worries. Simply close the project, and Allfred will calculate the total internal cost and display it in your Profit Reports.
Note: If you have Pipedrive integration, you can set these projects as Lost.
With the right setup, Allfred gives you full visibility into the time and cost of winning new business - so you can pitch smarter, allocate resources better, and improve overall profitability.