How to Submit an Offer on Etimad: Step-by-Step Guide

To submit an offer on Etimad, you get the tender documents, prepare the technical and financial files exactly as the booklet requires, attach the initial guarantee, and upload your encrypted file or files before the deadline. A late offer is not considered, prices cannot be amended after the deadline, and withdrawing after it, while the offer is valid, costs you the guarantee.

This guide follows the current Government Tenders and Procurement Law, its Implementing Regulations and the Ministry of Finance's model tender booklet, which each entity adapts, so confirm every booklet point in yours. Etimad is what the law calls the Portal, and its on-screen instructions change over time, so use them for click-by-click detail. The new law takes effect in early January 2027 and provides for new Regulations to take effect with it. A tender offered before the new law takes effect stays under the current law unless the Minister of Finance decides to apply some of the new rules to it, so check that tender's booklet and announcements. We flag where the new law differs. Check your tender booklet (كراسة الشروط) for the law that governs your tender.

What do you need before you start?

• A company registered on Etimad, with its data up to date.
• The documents the booklet lists (commercial register, certificates, classification where required), valid on the opening date, with copies ready to enclose.
• An initial guarantee letter from your bank, unless you are exempt. Ask early: its value, term and wording must match the booklet.

How do you submit an offer on Etimad, step by step?

1. Get and read the tender documents. The entity posts the conditions, the bills of quantities and the cost of the documents, if it charges one, on the Portal. Read the timetable first: the model booklet lists a participation confirmation letter, inquiries, submission, opening, award and start of works, each with a date the entity sets.
2. Ask your questions and check the site. Every bidder can see the questions and answers, without the asker's name. You are responsible for examining the works and the conditions of implementation before you bid, and the entity gives site visits where it can. If the entity extends the deadline, for example after amending the documents, the buyers are notified.
3. Prepare the technical file. The model booklet's examples are the methodology, timeline, previous experience, work team and, where local content is weighted or has a required minimum, the target local content percentage. Your booklet lists what applies and may set font size and file types.
4. Prepare the financial file. The model booklet's examples are the priced bills of quantities, the payment schedule and the initial guarantee. Price exactly as the approved bills of quantities, in figures and words, in the local currency unless the tender says otherwise, with no changes, reservations or crossed-out items, and with taxes and fees included. On the Portal, the bills of quantities table may ask for each price before VAT and a tax code, so follow its fields and do not count the tax twice. Rewrite any correction in figures and words and sign it: altering more than 10% of the price list or of the offer's total value can get the offer excluded. Our guide to preparing the financial offer goes deeper.
5. Arrange the initial guarantee. It is 1% to 2% of the offer value, and under the current Regulations the original letter must stay valid for at least 90 days from the date set for opening (your booklet sets the exact term). An offer without it is not accepted unless you are exempt. See our guide to bid bonds and guarantees.
6. Sign the offer letter. The offer and all its enclosures go under an official letter signed by the bidder or its legal representative.
7. Enter the data and upload. Enter the data the tender documents require and submit one encrypted file, or two where a technical and a financial offer are required. Under the current Regulations, two files are mandatory from SAR 5 million estimated value; below that the entity decides between one file and two. In the model booklet the guarantee sits in the financial file, so follow your own booklet.
8. Submit early and check. The model booklet puts the risk of an offer failing to arrive, and of misjudging the time needed, on the bidder. After the deadline and the opening, check that your company is in the list of bidders announced on the Portal. Our guide to closing dates helps you plan.

What if the Portal is down?

If the Portal fails for technical reasons, the current Regulations extend the period for the step that could not be completed by the length of the failure. The model booklet states the practical rule: up to three consecutive days, the period is extended by the same length; beyond that, the procedure moves to paper. In that case the Regulations let offers be submitted in sealed envelopes by official mail, or delivered to the place the entity specifies, against a receipt showing date and time. Do not plan around this: submit early and keep any confirmation.

What can you change or withdraw after submitting?

Under the current Regulations, the opening committee cannot exclude an offer or ask you to fix errors. The examination committee may ask for written clarifications, but these cannot change material matters such as price or turn an offer that breaks the conditions into an eligible one. For a missing or expired certificate, the current Regulations allow a grace period of up to 10 working days; miss it and you are excluded and lose the guarantee. Put any reduction in the offer itself, not in a separate letter.

What does a clean submission look like?

• Every document the booklet lists is enclosed and valid on the opening date.
• Technical content sits in the technical file and prices in the financial file.
• Every line of the bills of quantities is priced in figures and words, with nothing altered or left blank unless the conditions allow it.
• The guarantee has the booklet's percentage and term, and is unconditional and payable on first demand.
• The offer letter is signed by the authorised signatory.
• File types and formatting follow the booklet.

Frequently asked questions

A correct offer submitted incorrectly can still be a lost offer: a guarantee with a short term, a document that expired before opening, an altered price line. Our independent pre-submission review looks at your completed offer before you submit it.