MF Automations · Reference

Guides

Four working reference documents on public bidding. They are written so that you can run this process yourself without hiring anybody, because a guide that withholds the useful part in order to sell you something is not a guide.

If you would rather not run it yourself, that is what the rest of the site is for.

§1 The library
§I · The sequence

How to respond to an RFP

The whole process in the order it has to happen: pull the issuer's own document, diary the question deadline, make the bid decision honestly, build the matrix, assign owners, write to the evaluation criteria, assemble the forms, verify the gates, and submit early enough to survive a portal failure.

After reading it you can run a response end to end on your own schedule and know which date actually binds you.

3,865 words · About 19 min

Read the response sequence
§II · The instrument

The compliance matrix

What it is, why it exists, and how to build one column by column — requirement ID as the issuer numbered it, verbatim text, gate or scored, where satisfied, owner, status, evidence. With a worked example and the rule that stops a requirement quietly disappearing.

After reading it you can build a matrix that a second person can audit, and close it against evidence rather than memory.

3,098 words · About 15 min

Read the matrix guide
§III · The screen

Why bids are rejected

Ten mechanical failures — late delivery, wrong channel, unexecuted forms, unacknowledged addenda, format violations, signature authority, bid security, conditional pricing, exceptions to mandatory terms, unmet minimum qualifications. For each: what it looks like, why there is no discretion, how to prevent it.

After reading it you can name every way your submission could be set aside before anyone reads it, and close each one deliberately.

4,152 words · About 21 min

Read the rejection taxonomy
Exhibit A · Vocabulary

RFP vs RFQ vs ITB

RFP, RFQ in both its senses, ITB and IFB, RFI, and sole source — compared across what the buyer already knows, award basis, whether negotiation is permitted, evaluation method, typical response length and where price sits. Plus the three clauses that override the title on the cover.

After reading it you can tell within five minutes whether a document will score your narrative or only your number.

2,714 words · About 14 min

Read the comparison

Word counts measured from the rendered pages · Reading times at 200 words per minute

§2 Where to start

Read them in the order your problem is in.

They stand alone, but they were written as one argument: procurement screens before it scores, the screen is mechanical, and mechanical things can be verified rather than remembered.

Which is also the whole thesis of this business. If you read all four and decide to run your own responses, that is a completely reasonable outcome and the guides will have done their job.

Suggested order
Start Work out which instrument you are holdingBecause it decides whether writing well can help you at all 14 min
Then Run the response sequenceThe dates, the bid decision, the drafting order, the submission 19 min
Then Build the matrix properlyThe instrument the whole sequence depends on 15 min
Before you file Walk the rejection taxonomyTen gates, checked against the rendered files 21 min
§3 On these guides
No fabricated figures

Principles, not invented statistics

Nothing here cites a percentage, a study or an agency finding. Every claim about how procurement behaves is argued from the mechanics of the process, so you can check the reasoning instead of trusting a number.

Actionable alone

Written to be used without us

The compliance matrix guide gives you the columns and a worked example. The rejection taxonomy gives you the prevention for each item. There is no withheld chapter that only arrives with an invoice.

Jurisdiction varies

Read your own document first

Procurement rules differ by state, county, authority and agency, and the same acronym means different things in different offices. These describe the common pattern. The solicitation in front of you always wins.

Next step

Or send us the solicitation.

Give us the number, the issuer and the due date. Maui reads the document and calls you to scope the actual work. No charge for that call, and no obligation after it.

Start an engagement Read the full method

Public-sector work — RFPs, RFQs, ITBs, grant applications and concession bids — is described on the government track page. Commercial proposals and statements of work, where there is no compliance regime to satisfy, are on the business track page.