Engagement terms

Last updated 2 October 2026

What you are buying

One of the three products on the services page, at the price published there, or the scope and price set out in a written proposal where the work does not fit one of the three. Where the proposal and this page disagree, the proposal wins. Where the services page and this page disagree, the services page wins on price and this page wins on everything else.

Every engagement is fixed price and fixed scope. If you ask for something outside the scope, we quote it before doing it. There are no hourly charges and nothing extra at the end.

No success fees, ever

We do not take a percentage of a contract you win and we do not charge more when you win. A fee tied to the outcome would give us a reason to tell you to bid things you should not, and the first thing you are paying for is an honest bid or no-bid. The price is the price.

One client per tender

Once you engage us on a tender, application or panel round, we do not assist anyone else responding to it: not a competing bidder, not a partner in a competing bid, and not a subcontractor pricing into a competing bidder's submission. If another business engaged us on it first, we tell you before any work or payment, without naming them, and decline.

We work with many businesses, some of them in the same trade, on different tenders. Your information, documents, approach and pricing are never shared with another client or used in their work, during the engagement or after it.

If you are a subcontractor pricing into more than one head contractor's bid, that is one engagement, and we take none of those head contractors on that tender.

Fee and payment

Half the fee is payable on acceptance and books the dates. The balance is payable on delivery: for a review, when the marked-up draft is returned; for an application, when it is lodged; for a registration, when the platform accepts the submission; for a retainer, monthly in advance. A Bid Check is paid in full on booking. Invoices are due within 7 days.

We are not registered for GST, so no GST is charged: the fee in your proposal is the whole fee. If we register, we will tell you in writing before GST applies to any invoice.

Moving or cancelling

Accepting an engagement means blocking out working days we then cannot offer to anyone else, which is the only reason any of the following exists.

You can move the dates once at no cost with at least 3 business days notice. After that, moving is treated as a cancellation and a rebooking.

If you cancel before the work has started:

• 7 or more business days notice: your deposit is refunded in full.
• 3 to 6 business days notice: half the deposit is refunded.
• Less than 3 business days notice: the deposit is retained.

Once the work has started the deposit is not refundable, and the balance is payable only if the work is delivered. If we have to cancel or postpone for any reason, you choose: new dates, or a full refund of everything paid.

A retainer runs for a minimum of six months and then month to month, ending on a month of notice from either side.

Credits: a Bid Check fee comes off a Live Bid Review on the same tender booked within 7 days of the check, and fees for a Bid Check or Live Bid Review in the month before a retainer starts come off its first month. A credit is used once and has no cash value.

Deadlines

A tender closes when the buyer says it closes, and that date is the one that governs. A Bid Check needs your draft at least 2 business days before the close, and a Live Bid Review at least 5. An application needs your material at the start of the three weeks. If the material arrives late, we will tell you straight away whether the deadline can still be met, and what it would take.

What we need from you

A bid runs on your business's evidence: insurances, financials, safety and quality documents, past projects, referees, and time with the people who know the work. If the material has not arrived within 30 days of the agreed start, we will pause the engagement and tell you. A paused engagement restarts whenever you are ready, subject to our availability. If it has not restarted within 90 days of the original start date, we will close it, keep the deposit for the work already done, and not charge the balance.

What we do not promise

We do not promise you will win. A submission we have reviewed or written will be compliant, scored against the criteria and lodged on time, and that is what you are buying. The decision belongs to the buyer. We do not publish a win rate and we will not quote you one.

It is also not regulated advice. We are not a registered tax agent, we do not perform audits, we are not licensed to give financial product or investment advice, and we do not give legal or insolvency advice. Where a question belongs to your accountant or your lawyer, we say so.

Your rights under Australian Consumer Law

Under the Australian Consumer Law, services must be provided with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose you told us about, and be delivered in a reasonable time. Those guarantees apply to every engagement and cannot be excluded by anything on this page. If something goes seriously wrong you are entitled to cancel and to a refund, and to compensation for reasonably foreseeable loss. For problems that are not major, we will put it right.

Confidentiality

Everything we see during an engagement is confidential and stays that way, with no time limit. Your pricing, your evidence, your draft and your result are yours. We will not name you as a client or describe your business publicly without your written permission, and where you give it, you approve the wording first. How personal information is handled is set out in the privacy policy.

Who owns what

The submission, the application, the response library and anything else we make for you are yours, to use inside your business however you like. The templates, checklists and methods behind them remain ours, and we reuse them with every client. You are not buying exclusivity over how we work or over your trade; what is yours alone is set out under One client per tender, above.

Questions

Ask before you book rather than after. hello@lawlor.au.