QuickTenders Resource
How to improve your tender matching
Matching scores every open tender against your Company Profile. Here is exactly which fields it reads, and what to change when the matches are wrong or thin.
~2 min read · Updated 16 September 2026
Tender Matching ranks the open tenders QuickTenders has collected by how well each fits your Company Profile. It is a score, not a verdict: it decides what you see first, and each match shows why it scored as it did. Improving it means giving the score something accurate to read.
What the score reads
| Factor | Read from | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Province | Your province under Profile | 20 |
| Category | Your categories under Profile | 20 |
| CIDB grade | Your CIDB certificate on file | 15 |
| CIDB contract value limit | The value limit for your grade | 10 |
| B-BBEE level | Your B-BBEE certificate or affidavit on file | 15 |
| Turnover | Your financial documents | 10 |
| Certifications | Registrations and accreditations on file | 10 |
| Closing buffer | Days until the tender closes | 5 |
Two bonuses sit on top: a category-interest bonus for the categories you chose to be shown, and a services match bonus where the tender's text overlaps your services description.
A factor the tender does not specify is left out of the denominator — a tender that names no CIDB grade is not scored on CIDB. That is why a match can show 100% on only province and category: the score says how well the factors the tender did specify were met. The "checked on" count beside each match tells you how many factors that was.
A tender is a match at 70 or above. A tender whose document QuickTenders could not read cannot reach 70 on its own, so an unread tender never outranks one that was read.
The changes that move matching
- Set your province and categories precisely. These are the two heaviest factors. Pick the categories you actually deliver in, not the ones you might.
- Write a specific services description. The services-match bonus reads your own words against the tender's text. "Recruitment advertising, media buying and desktop publishing" matches tenders that "IT services" never will.
- Upload the documents that carry a factor. CIDB grade, B-BBEE level and turnover are read from documents on file, not from a box you tick. A missing certificate means the factor scores zero on every tender that asks for it.
- Keep the TCS PIN current. Expired compliance caps your matches — a business with a lapsed PIN is not shown tenders it cannot bid for.
- Use Saved Searches for the edge cases. A filter you saved on Browse tenders is emailed every morning with anything new — useful for a buyer or a keyword matching does not weight.
What matching does not do
It does not assess whether you can meet a specific tender's compulsory requirements — that is Tender Fit, which runs when you apply. And it never reads the matching categories back into your Company Profile: what you chose to be shown is not a statement about what your business is.
Related
- Understanding Match Score
- How your Company Profile works
- Tender Matching and Tender Alerts in Platform Terms
Frequently asked questions
- Why do I get tenders from the wrong sector?
- Matching reads the categories you selected under Profile and the services description you wrote. If the category is broad or the services text is thin, adjacent sectors score well. Narrow the category and describe your services specifically.
- Why do I get no matches at all?
- Usually a missing province or category, or documents that have expired — an expired TCS PIN caps every score. Check the Readiness page for what is missing.