Tenderup is an Australian construction tendering platform built specifically for fire protection, electrical, hydraulic and mechanical contractors — including the security and communications sub-trades inside the electrical package. It guides you through the full tendering workflow — from uploading plans and marking up drawings, through to generating a professional quote — all in one place.
Four packages. Fire protection and electrical are live now. Hydraulic and mechanical are in early access. Security and communications are included inside the electrical package rather than sold separately. The active packages available to your account depend on your subscription plan.
Go to Settings → Company Info to enter your company name, ABN, address, phone, email, and website. You can also upload your company logo and set your quote prefix and starting number under Settings → Documents. Estimator profiles and signatures are managed under Settings → Estimators.
Creating & Managing Tenders
Click "New Tender" in the sidebar. The wizard walks you through six steps:
1. Select your trade package (Fire, Electrical, Hydraulic, Mechanical)
2. Enter project details — project name, client, location, and due date
3. Upload plans and any fire engineering reports (FER)
4. Mark up the drawings in the takeoff editor
5. Review and adjust costings
6. Generate and finalise the quote
Your progress is auto-saved at every step so you can safely close the browser and come back later.
Yes. Tenderup automatically saves your work as a draft every time you move between steps, and every 60 seconds during takeoff and costings. You can find your in-progress drafts in the Tender Register. Click the three-dot menu on any draft and select "Resume Draft" to pick up where you left off.
Open the Tender Register, find the tender you want to change, click the three-dot menu, and select "Edit". This reopens the tender with all its data pre-loaded — plans, markers, items, and markup — so you can update it and reissue the quote.
In the Tender Register, click the three-dot menu on any tender and select "Duplicate". You'll be asked to select the new client. All items, rates, and settings from the original tender will be copied across.
Tenderup uses the following statuses:
• Draft — in progress, not yet quoted
• Prospective — opportunity being considered
• Quoted — quote has been sent to the client
• Pending Approval — submitted internally for sign-off
• Approved — approved internally
• In Negotiation — actively negotiating with the client
• Won — tender awarded
• Builder Awarded — awarded via a builder
Statuses can be updated directly from the Tender Register.
Plans & Takeoff
Tenderup accepts PDF files for both plans/drawings and specifications or fire engineering reports. Multi-page PDFs are fully supported — each page is shown as a separate drawing in the takeoff editor.
The takeoff editor lets you mark up your uploaded plans directly in the browser. Select a markup tool from the toolbar (rectangle, circle, line, arrow, or freehand), then draw on the plan to count and identify items. Each marker is linked to a category and description. Markers from the takeoff are saved with the tender and can be exported as part of the ZIP bundle.
Hold the Space bar to activate pan mode — your cursor changes to a hand. Drag to move around the drawing. Release Space to return to your active markup tool.
Yes. In the takeoff editor, click the drawing name shown in the top-left corner of the canvas to make it editable. Type the new name and press Enter to save.
When you upload a Fire Engineering Report (FER) specification on the upload screen, Tenderup automatically extracts the relevant AS1670 scope items using AI. The results appear as a checklist in the upload panel and are also available in the takeoff editor. You can tick off items as you work through the drawings.
Costings
The costing screen (step 5) groups your items into sections — Bill of Quantities, Cable & Conduit, Conduit & Fixings, Fire Rating, Labour, and Sundry Items. Each section is collapsible. You can edit quantities, rates, and descriptions inline. A cost summary sidebar on the right shows your subtotal, markup, and total project value.
The Residential Tower Auto Calc panel (in the right sidebar on the costings screen) lets you enter building parameters — total levels, basements, typical levels, and FDCIE-to-riser distance — and automatically calculates cable lengths, conduit runs, and labour hours for common tower installations. Individual line items can still be manually adjusted after the auto-calc runs.
In the Cost sidebar on the costings screen, enter your markup percentage in the Markup % field. The marked-up total is shown immediately. The markup is applied to the total on the quote document but is never shown as a separate line item to the client.
Yes. In any section, click "Add Item" (or the + button) to add a custom line item. You can enter a description, quantity, unit, and rate. For cable, conduit, and fire rating sections, a popup lets you select from a pre-built catalogue or enter a custom description.
Quotes
Complete steps 1–5 of the New Tender wizard, then proceed to step 6 (Review & Quote). The quote is generated automatically from your costing data. You can adjust the opening paragraph, add notes and exclusions, select the signing estimator, and toggle the cover page on or off. Click "Finalise Tender" to save the completed quote.
In the Tender Register, click the three-dot menu on any completed tender and select "Resend Quote". A popup will appear with:
• The client's email address (pre-filled from the client record)
• An editable email body pre-populated with a professional message
• A checkbox to include or exclude the cover page
Edit the email body if needed, then click "Send Quote".
In the Tender Register, click the three-dot menu on any tender and select "Download ZIP". The bundle includes the quote PDF and all marked-up drawing PDFs with takeoff markers overlaid.
Quote numbers are assigned automatically when you start a new tender. The format is your configured prefix followed by a sequential number (e.g. BKS-143). You can set your prefix and starting number under Settings → Documents. The number is reserved immediately when you start the wizard, so it will never be duplicated even if you close the browser before finishing.
Clients
Go to Clients in the sidebar and click "Add Client". Fill in the company name, contact person, email, phone, and address. Clients added here will be available to select in the New Tender wizard.
Yes. On the Clients page, click "Import CSV". Download the template, fill it in with your client data (company name, contact person, email, office phone, mobile phone, address, notes), and upload it. The importer validates email addresses and handles Excel-formatted phone numbers automatically.
Settings & Account
Go to Settings → Estimators. Click "Add Estimator" and enter their name, position, and phone number. You can also upload their signature image, which will appear on the quote document. Estimators can be assigned to individual tenders from the Tender Register or during the quote step.
Go to Settings → Documents. Enter your desired quote prefix (e.g. "BKS") and the number you want to start from. New tenders will be numbered sequentially from there.
Go to Settings → Documents and upload your logo under the Company Logo section. The logo appears on the sidebar and on all generated quote documents.