What this is for
Your first free tender briefing is the fastest way to understand a new contract opportunity. You upload one tender document, and the system produces a concise briefing of what the buyer asks for, the social value they expect, and the key commercial terms to check. Every point quotes the exact page it came from. It is designed for suppliers exploring public contracts or private sector tenders, and you can generate your first briefing completely free with no payment card required.
Availability and plan limits
Free briefings are for organisations on the Free plan, and each organisation gets one. This offer is switched on and off by the service, so if you do not see it, it is not open yet. If your organisation is on a paid plan, a briefing for every tender is already included, so start a bid from your tender instead. Daily fair use limits also apply across the service: if free briefings are paused for the day, your entitlement is kept and you can try again the following day.
Step by step
- Open the free briefing from the first week list on your home page, or from the welcome panel on the Velstrian Bid home page. The welcome panel shows when your organisation has no bids yet. You can also go straight to /bid/first-briefing.
- Drop one tender pack document into the upload zone or choose a file from your computer. Accepted files are PDF, Word (.docx), text, Excel (.xlsx) and CSV, one file, up to twenty five MB. Scanned image documents cannot be read.
- Select what the work is under the sector list, and where the work is under the geography list.
- Choose Get my free briefing.
- Wait while the document is uploaded and read. Uploading and reading usually takes under a minute, and writing the briefing takes about another minute.
- Read your completed briefing. The tender is saved as a bid in your organisation's workspace, ready whenever you choose to proceed.
If it goes wrong
If the upload fails, verify that your document is an allowed format and not a scanned image, then try again. If the screen says the free briefing is not available right now or is paused for today, your free briefing is not lost and you can return tomorrow. If your plan already includes tender briefings, follow the prompt to start a bid directly from your tender instead.