Pursuit preparation
Before you price the work: prepare for a government-contract site visit
Turn a site visit into useful scope, access, and pricing notes. Includes a preparation checklist and an illustrative facilities-service observation log.
A walk-through should answer delivery questions
A floor plan can show room sizes without showing how your crew will reach them, store equipment, or work around occupants. A useful site visit helps you identify what you need to confirm before committing to a price. It is not a sales presentation or evidence that you are the preferred bidder.
This article offers a suggested preparation workflow for small service and construction businesses. The actual solicitation, attachments, amendments, and site instructions control. Do not assume every notice has a visit or that attendance requirements are the same across buyers.
Read the visit instructions before making travel plans
When included in a service solicitation, FAR 52.237-1 urges prospective offerors or quoters to inspect the site and understand reasonably obtainable conditions affecting performance cost. It also says failure to inspect cannot be grounds for a claim after award. Do not treat skipping a visit as a safe way to leave pricing uncertainty for later.
For construction, FAR 52.236-27 provides for arranging visits through a named contact; its Alternate I accommodates an organized visit with a stated time and meeting location. Read the version and completed details in your solicitation. These provisions alone do not establish one universal mandatory-attendance rule.
Make a visit instruction sheet: solicitation number, official contact, registration deadline, date and time zone, meeting point, attendee requirements, and any required identification or safety equipment. Check whether attendance is stated to be mandatory. If that is unclear, ask the designated contact rather than assuming an unannounced visit will count.
Choose what you need to learn
Bring a short list tied to the written scope. For facilities work, possible questions include access hours, loading routes, storage space, power and water access, occupied areas, waste handling, and equipment restrictions. These are prompts for investigation, not requirements that automatically apply to every contract.
For each item, write why it matters. A restricted delivery window may affect scheduling; an unconfirmed storage arrangement may affect daily transport. Separating the observation from its possible consequence helps you avoid turning a guess into a quoted commitment.
Decide who should attend based on the knowledge needed. If a potential subcontractor would help assess a specialist task, confirm that they may attend and complete the required registration. Do not assume your registration covers another company. Ask permission before taking photographs, measurements, or recordings, and follow the site's restrictions.
Use an observation log with four fields
Observed fact: record the location and what you actually saw or were told, with the date and source. Mark a verbal statement as verbal. Do not describe an area you could not enter as inspected.
Document reference: link the observation to the relevant scope paragraph, drawing, or attachment. If it appears inconsistent with the written package, preserve both versions of the information rather than silently choosing one.
Potential effect: identify the labor, equipment, travel, scheduling, or subcontractor assumption that might change. Use 'needs confirmation' instead of assigning a confident cost to an unresolved condition.
Follow-up: give each open item an owner, a specific question, and a due date before your pricing review. Use the solicitation's authorized question process. Check subsequent written answers and amendments before finalizing your response; do not treat a casual conversation as permission to change the scope.
Illustrative example: a storage assumption changes the work plan
This scenario is invented for illustration, not a live notice or customer result. A cleaning business preparing a quote assumes it can leave its equipment on-site. During the walk-through, it sees a locked utility room but cannot confirm whether contractor storage is allowed.
A useful log entry reads: 'Storage unconfirmed. Utility room observed on first floor; access and permitted use not established. Review scope section on government-furnished facilities. Ask whether secure contractor storage is available and what restrictions apply.' That is more useful than writing 'storage included.'
Suppose, for internal planning only, daily loading and unloading would add 30 minutes per visit for one worker. Across 20 visits, that is 10 labor hours: 0.5 multiplied by 20. It is not a recommended allowance or an established contract cost. Replace those assumptions with your own measured work plan and verified requirements before pricing.
If storage is unavailable, revisit transport, staffing time, and equipment choices together. If the answer remains unclear, assess whether the uncertainty is manageable before deciding to submit. Do not bury an unresolved exclusion in the price and assume the buyer has accepted it.
Close the loop before the quote leaves your desk
After the visit, compare the observation log with your estimate. Resolve questions, update affected assumptions, and ask suppliers or subcontractors to confirm any changed scope. Keep a dated record of what changed and why. Attendance itself does not make the estimate complete.
Use BidGovAI to organize your company information and selected pursuits while you work through the official documents. Available features depend on membership. A fit score cannot inspect a site, confirm access conditions, or guarantee an award. Use the bid/no-bid guide below to decide whether the clarified work fits your capacity, then take your next step deliberately.
Your next steps
- Confirm attendance, registration, timing, and site-entry instructions.
- List scope questions and the pricing assumptions they affect.
- Arrange the right attendees and obtain permission for photos or measurements.
- Separate observed facts, verbal statements, and unconfirmed assumptions.
- Submit specific follow-up questions through the designated process.
- Check written answers and amendments before updating the estimate.
- Reassess delivery capacity and unresolved risks before submitting.