Coming soon — early 2027
Tender Builder.
Run your own tender.
With AI guidance.
Tender Builder is a guided, self-serve tendering tool for schools and trusts. Expert templates, AI-assisted guidance take you from specification to contract award, with a full audit trail at every step. Built for Education Buying frameworks and DPSs — starting with catering.
Be first in when Tender Builder opens to members. Free to register.
✅ Expert templates, with fields filled in for you
✅ Scoring guides that make evaluation fair and clear
✅ Letters and board report pre-filled from your tender
✅ Every action recorded, so you can defend your decision if challenged
Be first in line for Tender Builder.
Register your interest and we will let you know the moment it opens. Early members get first access.
Prefer to talk? Call 0330 9125 039 or email help@educationbuying.com
The problem
Tendering shouldn't take over your term.
You're responsible for getting your school or trust the best catering, cleaning or facilities contract. You're also running finance, HR, premises and a dozen other things before lunch.
And then there's the tender itself:
It's complex.
Specifications, evaluation criteria, clarifications, standstill, award letters. Every stage has rules, and the rules have changed.
It's slow.
Tender documents get rebuilt from scratch, version after version in email threads, and scoring lives in spreadsheets nobody else can follow.
It's costly.
Bring in consultants and you pay for it. Do it alone and you pay in time and risk.
Most schools don't have a procurement team. It's you, a deadline and a nagging worry that you've missed something that could come back to bite you.
Every school should get best value for its pupils, and that shouldn't depend on whether you can afford a procurement department.
Why Education Buying
We've sat where you're sitting.
We know how much pressure schools and trusts are under. Procurement feels complicated and time-consuming when you're already juggling a hundred priorities. That's why Education Buying exists, and it's why we built Tender Builder.
Education Buying is part of 2buy2, a procurement specialist for schools and multi-academy trusts.
We run compliant frameworks and DPSs that schools and trusts already use for catering, cleaning, energy and more.
Our team works with the Procurement Act 2023, the regime for new public procurements since February 2025, as well as the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 that still cover older procurements.
We've put that experience into the templates, scoring guides and checkpoints inside Tender Builder.
“I've been very impressed with Education Buying's support, knowledge and level of documentation.”
Oasis Community Learning
How it works
Three steps from “we need a new contract” to “contract awarded”.
1
Build your tender
Pick your category, for example catering, and build your specification and tender documents from expert templates. Fields fill in automatically, and AI-assisted guidance explains each section as you go.
2
Run it with suppliers
Invite suppliers and collect their bids in one place. Supplier questions come through a managed clarification Q&A, with Education Buying experts reviewing and posting answers through our tendering system.
3
Evaluate and award with confidence
Score bids against clear criteria using 0–5 rating guides, with space for evidence-based reasons, autosave and live totals. Your board report and award, unsuccessful and not-to-award letters are pre-filled from your tender data and approved before anything is sent. Tender Builder then takes you through standstill, contract award and close-out.
Every action along the way goes into a full audit trail.
What you get
Everything you need to run a tender you can stand behind.
Never start from a blank page
Specifications and tender documents built from expert templates, with fields auto-filled from what you've already entered.
Know what comes next
A step-by-step workflow covering the whole journey, from specification to close-out. No guessing at the next stage.
Supplier questions under control
A managed clarification Q&A keeps every question and answer in one place, reviewed by Education Buying experts before it goes to suppliers.
Score fairly, and show your working
Clear criteria, 0–5 rating guides with examples, and evidence-based reasons for every score. Autosave and live totals mean no lost work and no spreadsheet maths.
Board-ready in minutes, not evenings
A board report pre-filled from your tender data, ready to review and approve.
Letters you can send with confidence
Award, unsuccessful and not-to-award letters drafted from your tender data. You approve each one before it's sent.
Standstill and award, handled
Tender Builder guides you through the standstill period, contract award and close-out, so nothing slips at the final stage.
Defensible if challenged
A full audit trail of every action: who did what and when, and why each score was given.
Support
Self-serve doesn't mean on your own.
Tender Builder gives you two kinds of help, so you're never stuck and never guessing.
Our experts, at the moments that matter
Education Buying procurement specialists review and support at key points in your tender. Supplier clarifications, for example, are posted through our tendering system. You stay in control, and we have got your back. And as on the rest of the portal, you are dealing with real humans who reply within a day.
AI-assisted guidance, as you work
Built-in AI guidance helps you draft content, explains what each section means and why it matters, and points you to the next step. It supports your judgement and doesn't replace it. You and our experts make the decisions.
AI-assisted guidance helps with drafting and explanations. Review all content before you approve it.
Who it's for
Built for schools. Ready for trusts.
For schools: school business managers and bursars
✅ Run a compliant tender without a procurement team behind you.
✅ Templates and guidance written for schools, not procurement lawyers.
✅ A clear record for your governors and auditors.
For multi-academy trusts: CFOs, COOs and heads of estates
✅ One consistent, repeatable tender process across your trust.
✅ Board reports and an audit trail ready for trustees and auditors.
✅ Keep control in-house without adding headcount, with Education Buying experts on call at key stages.
✅ Plan ahead for retendering cycles, such as the Academy Trust Handbook 2026 expectations on external audit retendering.
First category at launch: Catering, with more to follow (such as cleaning).
The difference
The difference a good tender makes.
Without a clear process
✖ Budget wasted on a contract that was never properly tested against the market.
✖ Exposure to supplier challenge if your decisions aren't documented.
✖ Missed deadlines, rushed extensions and contracts that roll over by default.
✖ Evenings and weekends lost to spreadsheets and email chains.
With Tender Builder
✅ A confident, compliant contract you can stand behind.
✅ Better value from a fair, competitive process.
✅ A complete record that backs up your decision.
✅ Time back to focus on what matters: your pupils.
From the person who dreads the tender to the person who runs it.
Audit trail
Every step recorded. Every decision explained.
Tender Builder logs every action in your tender: approvals, invitations, clarifications, scores and letters. If a decision is ever questioned, the evidence is already there.
TENDER RECORD · EVERY ACTION LOGGED
Specification approved
Who, what and when — recorded
Suppliers invited
Invitations tracked
Clarification answered
Reviewed by an Education Buying expert, posted to suppliers
Bids scored
Scores with evidence-based reasons
Board report & letters approved
Approved before anything is sent
Standstill complete · contract awarded
Close-out recorded
Not ready to tender yet? Get ready now.
Download our free School Tender Checklist: the key stages, documents and decisions in a compliant tender, written for schools and trusts.
FAQ
Your questions, answered.
Be first in line for Tender Builder.
Register your interest and we'll let you know the moment it opens. Early members get first access.
Prefer to talk? Call 0330 9125 039 or email help@educationbuying.com