The best go/no-go criteria for a specialty trade sub are seven questions: scope fit, documents, schedule, capacity, the GC and owner, contract terms, and expected value. Answer them before anyone opens a takeoff. If a deal-breaker comes back weak, the answer is no. If two or more soft spots show up, the answer is usually no too. Every hour you spend on a bid you were never going to win is an hour not spent on one you could.
This guide gives you the criteria, a scoring matrix you can build in a spreadsheet today, and a process that fits inside a bid window. It is written for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, masonry, concrete, drywall, roofing, fire protection and other trade owners, estimators and project managers.
TL;DR
- Decide before takeoff. A go/no-go call takes 20 to 30 minutes. A full estimate takes days.
- Score seven areas: scope fit, documents, schedule, capacity, GC and owner, contract terms, expected value.
- Use knockout rules. One fatal flaw ends the bid, no matter how good the total score looks.
- Run it as a gate: a quick screen when the invite lands, a re-check after addenda, and a last check before you submit.
- Log every decision and the reason. After a year you will see which bids actually made you money.
Table of Contents
- Why a trade sub needs written go/no-go criteria
- The seven go/no-go criteria for specialty trade subs
- A go/no-go checklist you can copy
- Build a go/no-go matrix in 15 minutes
- A go/no-go process that fits a real bid window
- Estimate review: the go/no-go's second half
- Common mistakes in go/no-go decisions
- Where Subascent fits
- Our view
- FAQ
- Sources
Why a trade sub needs written go/no-go criteria
Most subs say yes to too much. An invite lands, the GC is a friend, the plans look familiar, and the estimator starts counting. Three days later the sub finds out the payment terms are 60 days with 10% retainage, the addendum count is at six, and two other crews are already booked for that month.
Written criteria fix three things.
- They cut wasted estimating time. Estimators are your scarcest resource. A bid you never submit still costs you their hours.
- They take the emotion out. "We have to stay in front of this GC" is a real concern. It is also how a sub ends up pricing jobs at zero margin.
- They create a record. When the owner asks why you passed on a job, or why you chased one that lost money, you have the reasons on paper.
Construction management consultancy FMI makes the same point from the contractor side. It recommends being more selective about the work you say "go" to and more comfortable saying "no-go" to edge opportunities. Its framework asks questions across customer, strategy, risk, cash, margin and resources.
That list translates well to a trade sub. Here it is in shop-floor terms.
The seven go/no-go criteria for specialty trade subs
1. Scope fit
Do the drawings and spec sections match what you actually install? Check that the trade scope is clear. A masonry sub should see the CMU, brick veneer, stone and grout scope spelled out and not buried under "misc. site work." An electrical sub should know whether the fire alarm, low-voltage and temp power fall to you or someone else.
Questions to ask:
- Is the work something we do every month, or something we last did five years ago?
- Are there spec sections that touch our scope but sit in another division?
- Do we have the licenses the jurisdiction requires for this trade and this dollar size?
- Does the job sit inside the area we can cover with our crews?
A job outside your normal scope is not an automatic no. It is a bid that needs a higher contingency or a no.
2. Documentation quality
Can you price this with confidence from what was sent? Look for a complete drawing set, a full spec book, an addendum log and a clear bid form. Missing sheets, "to be determined" finishes and blurry PDFs all push your risk up.
A simple rule: list every missing or unclear item before you decide. If the list is long and the GC will not answer questions before the due date, that is your answer. The six-step intake in our bid invitation checklist for masonry subs works for any trade.
Also confirm you are pricing the current set. A sub that prices Revision 2 when Revision 4 is out has no good options at award. See our guide to document version control for trade teams.
3. Schedule feasibility
There are two clocks. One is the bid window. The other is the project schedule.
- Bid window: Is there enough time to get material quotes, lower-tier sub numbers and a proper review? A bid due in two days with a 400-page spec book is a bad bet.
- Project schedule: Does the duration make sense for your scope? Is your work stacked behind a late structure, or compressed into a window where you would need to double the crew?
4. Capacity
Capacity has two halves, and subs usually only check one.
- Estimating capacity: Who builds this bid, and what are they dropping to do it?
- Field capacity: If you win, do you have foremen, journeymen, equipment and material lead time for it? Does it collide with work you already hold?
If your backlog is full and a win would force you to rush hire, the real cost of this job is higher than the number in your estimate.
5. The GC and the owner
You are not just bidding the job. You are choosing who will owe you money for it.
Questions to ask:
- Have we worked with this GC? How did they pay, and how fast?
- Do they run a clean change order and RFI process, or do they sit on both?
- Were we invited early, or are we the fifth number on a bid day?
- Do we know who the owner is, and is the project financed?
Check your own books for this. Your AR aging report is a better reference than anyone's reputation. If a GC has been 75 days out on your last two jobs, that belongs in the score.
6. Contract terms
Read the subcontract or the sample agreement before you price, not after you win. Flag these:
- Pay-if-paid or pay-when-paid language
- Retainage percentage and when it releases
- Liquidated damages, and whether they pass down to you without a cap
- Broad indemnification and flow-down clauses
- Insurance limits, additional insured requirements and bonding
- Prevailing wage, certified payroll or diversity subcontracting goals
- Backcharge and no-damages-for-delay language
Terms are negotiable sometimes and fixed other times. Note which. A clause you can negotiate out is a condition on your bid. A clause that is take-it-or-leave-it is a scoring input.
7. Expected value
This is the question that ties the rest together. What is the margin you can realistically earn, times the odds you win, against what it costs you to bid?
A rough worked example. A drywall sub figures a job at $180,000 with a target margin of 12%, which is $21,600. It will cost about 25 estimating hours to price, and the sub thinks it wins about one in five times at that number. The expected gross profit is about $4,320 before the cost of those 25 hours and any risk. Now change one input: the sub was invited early and is the incumbent. At a one-in-two win rate, that same job is worth $10,800. The numbers did not change. The position did.
Your own win rate by GC, trade and job size is the most useful number here. If you do not have it yet, start logging it (more on that below).
A go/no-go checklist you can copy
Use this at intake. Fill it in from the invitation, the plans and a quick look at your own records.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Project and location | Name, address, distance from your shop |
| Bid due date and time | Plus who submits and how |
| GC and owner contacts | Estimator, PM, who answers questions |
| Scope | Spec sections and drawing sheets that are yours |
| Missing or unclear items | A list, each with an owner and a deadline |
| Capacity notes | Estimator available, crews available, start date |
| Commercial issues | Payment terms, retainage, LDs, insurance, bonding |
| Decision | Go, no-go or conditional, who made it, date |
| Next action | What happens next and when |
The point of the last two rows is accountability. A decision with no name and no next step is a shrug.
Build a go/no-go matrix in 15 minutes
A checklist tells you what to look at. A matrix helps you compare jobs against each other when three invites land on the same Monday.
Step 1: Pick criteria and weights
Use the seven areas above. Give each a weight that reflects your business. Keep it simple enough that anyone on the team can explain it.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Scope fit | 15 |
| Documentation quality | 10 |
| Schedule feasibility | 10 |
| Capacity | 15 |
| GC and owner | 15 |
| Contract terms | 15 |
| Expected value | 20 |
| Total | 100 |
These weights are a starting point, not a standard. A sub that is cash-tight might push contract terms to 25. A sub with idle crews might lift capacity risk lower and margin higher.
Step 2: Score each criterion 1 to 5
A 5 is a clear yes. A 3 is acceptable with conditions. A 1 is a serious problem. Multiply each score by its weight, add them up, and divide by 5. You get a number out of 100.
Step 3: Set thresholds
A workable starting set:
- 75 and up: Bid.
- 55 to 74: Bid with conditions. Write the conditions down: a price adder, a clarification you need in writing, an exclusion you will state.
- Under 55: No bid.
Step 4: Add knockout rules
A total score can hide a fatal flaw. Four 5s can bury a 1. So add rules that end the discussion no matter what the total says. Examples:
- A required license or bond you do not hold
- Uncapped liquidated damages with a schedule you cannot meet
- A GC with an unresolved payment dispute with your firm
- A start date that collides with work you already committed
One more simple rule to pair with it: count the red flags. Three or more is a no-bid. One or two means a conversation about whether you can fix the risk with price or terms, or whether the profit covers the exposure.
Step 5: Record overrides
Sometimes the owner will say bid it anyway. That is fine. Write down the score, the override and the reason. Overrides you can look back on teach you something. Overrides nobody remembers just repeat.
A go/no-go process that fits a real bid window
A matrix is only useful if it runs on time. Here is a process built for a typical bid that gives you a week or less.
Hour 0 to 2: Screen
When the invite lands, one person reads it and runs the knockout rules. Do you hold the license? Is the due date workable? Is the scope yours? Is it a GC you will not work for? Kill the obvious no-gos here. Log the due date and any mandatory pre-bid meeting. Missed dates are the cheapest way to lose a job, which is why we wrote about tracking bid invitations as its own workflow.
Hour 2 to 24: Gather facts
Pull the evidence. Check your history with the GC. Look at the AR aging. Skim the spec book for Division 00 and 01 terms. Ask the GC the two or three questions that decide the call. Assign each question to a person with a response time.
If an answer cannot arrive before you must decide, decide whether you can live with the unknown. If you cannot, that is a no.
Hour 24 to 36: Score
Fill in the matrix. Write the evidence next to each score: "GC paid last two jobs at 68 and 74 days," not just "3." The note is what makes the score checkable later.
Hour 36 to 48: Decide and document
Keep the meeting short. Thirty minutes, the owner, the estimator and the PM is plenty. Have someone argue the other side. Write the decision, the owner of the decision and the next action.
Re-check twice more
The first decision is based on what you knew then. Two later moments are worth a second look:
- After addenda and clarifications, before price lock. If an addendum changed the scope, the schedule or the terms, your score may have changed too. Our guide to GC addendum tracking shows how a missed acknowledgment can sink a bid.
- Before you submit. Confirm your quantities match the latest drawings, your sub and supplier quotes are current, and your exclusions are written out. Our estimator's guide to bid proposal exclusions covers this step.
Estimate review: the go/no-go's second half
A go decision is not a promise to submit. The estimate review is the last gate. FMI advises that estimate review should include input from operations and field leaders before the bid goes to the client. The estimator is not the only person who knows whether the crew can build it for that number.
A review checklist for a trade estimate:
- Quantities match the latest drawings and every addendum is acknowledged.
- Each scope section has a source for its number: a written quote, a dated database figure or a documented allowance.
- Labor hours tie back to your own production history, adjusted for the site.
- Material quotes are current. Anything older than 12 months gets reconfirmed.
- Lower-tier bids cover the scope and have not expired.
- Exclusions are reconciled. An exclusion nobody resolved becomes a claim after award.
- Bonds, insurance, permits and fees are included where required.
- Alternates and allowances are separated from the base bid.
- Markup and contingency are applied the same way on every line.
If the review turns up a hole that cannot be closed before the deadline, a late no-bid is better than a bad price. See also our seven-step estimating workflow for where this review fits.
Common mistakes in go/no-go decisions
Deciding after the takeoff. By then you have sunk the time and every number looks like a reason to continue.
Scoring on gut. Without written evidence beside each score, the loudest person in the room wins.
Letting the relationship override everything. Relationships matter. They do not pay your retainage.
Never reviewing outcomes. Log every decision with its score and reason. After 12 months, compare the scores to the jobs that made money. You will find which criteria actually predicted margin for your trade and adjust the weights.
Using a GC's checklist. A general contractor's criteria are about bonding capacity and owner risk on the whole project. A sub cares about scope slices, pay timing and crew capacity. Your list should be built around the sub's side of the contract.
Where Subascent fits
A go/no-go decision depends on information in four places: the invite, the plans, your history with the GC and your current workload. Most subs keep those in an inbox, a shared drive, a spreadsheet and somebody's head.
Subascent is job and bid management software built for specialty trade subcontractors. It includes automated bid tracking, estimating, PDF takeoff tools, submittal and RFI management, change order workflows, daily field reporting, crew tracking, QuickBooks sync and profit analytics. That puts due dates, bid records and job profitability data in one system, so the facts a go/no-go needs are on screen when the invite arrives.
Plans are published at $49 per month for Starter, $99 per month for Scale and $179 per month for Pro, with annual pricing of $490, $990 and $1,790. PDF takeoff is available as a $99 per month add-on. The free CrewTrack mobile app for foremen comes with the subscription. See bid management and estimating and takeoff, or compare the plans.
If you already run a checklist in a spreadsheet, keep it. Bring the criteria above into whichever system holds your bids, and the log will build itself.
Our view
Most subs we talk to do not have a bid problem. They have a saying-yes problem. Every owner can name a job they should have passed on, and the reason was almost always in the contract or the GC's payment history, not in the plans.
Estimating time is where a small trade business bleeds quietly. Nobody sends an invoice for a bid you lost. That is why we built Subascent around the whole life of the bid, from the invitation to the job's final margin. When bid dates, documents and job costs sit in one place, the go/no-go gets faster and the log gets honest.
Start with a one-page checklist, a handful of weights and two or three knockout rules. Run it on your next ten invites. You will learn more from that than from any template.
Dave
FAQ
What are the criteria for a go/no-go decision on a bid?
The core criteria are scope fit, documentation quality, schedule, capacity, the GC and owner, contract terms and expected value. Score each one before any takeoff starts. Add knockout rules for problems that should end a bid regardless of the total.
What is a go/no-go matrix?
It is a scorecard that weights your criteria, scores each one from 1 to 5 and totals the result. Two thresholds turn the total into bid, bid with conditions or no bid. A knockout row lets one fatal flaw override a high total.
How long should a go/no-go decision take?
The meeting itself should take about 30 minutes. The fact gathering before it can run over a day if the bid window allows. Keep the decision short and specific, and make it before serious estimating time is spent.
Who should make the go/no-go call at a trade sub?
The owner or principal decides, with input from the estimator and the project manager. Capacity and field risk need someone who knows the crews. Write down who owns the decision and what happens next.
How do I know my go/no-go criteria are working?
Log the score, the decision and the reason for every invite. After about 12 months, compare logged scores with the margin on jobs you won. Raise the weight on criteria that predicted profit and lower the ones that did not.