- Free to start, no card
- Your data stays yours
- Suppliers respond free
Download the free questionnaire
Real .docx files in English and Arabic. No watermarks. Edit and send.
What is a supplier prequalification questionnaire?
A supplier prequalification questionnaire is a short, structured set of questions a buyer sends before inviting a company to price any work: who the company is, what it can actually deliver, whether its licences and certificates are current, what it has completed for others, and whether it is financially sound enough to finish the job. Answering it is what earns a company the right to be asked for a price at all. On a construction tender or a recurring supply contract, it is sent once, before the first RFQ, RFP, or trade package goes to a shortlist that has already cleared the bar.
What's inside
Company information block: license, establishment, size, contacts
Capability questions: categories, order sizes, coverage, capacity
Compliance table: license, tax, ISO, HSE, insurance, with expiry tracking
Track-record section: comparable projects, longest relationship, terminations
Financial standing: revenue band, payment terms, bank reference
- 1Company information
- 2Capability
- 3Compliance and certifications
- 4Track record
- 5Financial standing
Filter before the price, not after the award
A low price from a company that cannot deliver at your size, in your location, or with current certificates is not a real bid. Prequalifying first means the price you compare later is already from a company that cleared the bar.
Compliance you can point to
Trade licence, tax registration, ISO, HSE, and insurance, each with a document requested, not a box ticked from memory. A gap shows up before the contract does, not during it.
One list, not five inboxes
On VEXORS, every invited supplier answers the same required questions on the same request, so your team compares one list instead of five separate replies in five different formats.
What the five sections actually check
Company facts, checked before anyone owes you a price
Section 1 asks for the legal company name, the trade licence number and its issuing authority, the year established, headcount, a registered address, and a named contact for the questionnaire itself. None of it is difficult to answer, which is the point: it separates a company willing to put its details on record from one that would rather stay vague. Cross-check the licence number against the issuing authority before anything else moves forward. On VEXORS, this table becomes required fields on the request, so no supplier can submit a price without a complete, current answer to every one of them.
- Legal company name and trade licence number, checked against the issuing authority
- Year established and headcount, so a two-person outfit is not mistaken for an established contractor
- Registered address and a named contact for the questionnaire itself
- On VEXORS: required fields on the request, not an optional line in an email
Capability matched against what you are actually buying
Section 2 asks which categories a supplier actually delivers, their top five, not the twenty on a letterhead, the smallest and largest orders they have handled in the last 12 months, the cities and countries they cover, and the capacity they have free for new clients. A competitive price from a company that has never worked at your scale, or outside the one city it normally covers, is not a real option. On VEXORS, these become custom fields on the request, so every invited supplier answers the same questions, in the same place, instead of whichever ones happened to occur to them in an email.
- The categories they actually supply, not the ones on their letterhead
- Order sizes handled in the last 12 months, smallest and largest
- Geographic coverage: the cities and countries they deliver to
- On VEXORS: custom fields on the request, the same for every invited supplier
Compliance and certification, with the document requested, not assumed
Section 3 lists five documents: a valid trade licence, VAT or tax registration, ISO 9001 or an equivalent quality system, HSE certification where the category calls for it, and insurance for liability and workmanship. Each one gets a yes or no and a reference or an expiry date next to it, so a lapsed certificate is a fact on the page, not a fact nobody checked. A held box with nothing filled in beside it is the box worth asking about first. On VEXORS, the same list becomes required documents attached to the request, so a bid cannot be submitted until the actual file, not a promise of one, is there.
- Trade licence and VAT or tax registration, the two most disputed after the fact
- ISO 9001 or an equivalent quality system, where the category calls for it
- HSE certification for site-based trades, insurance for liability and workmanship
- On VEXORS: required documents attached to the request, not promised in an email
Track record, and the one answer worth a phone call
Section 4 asks for three comparable projects, with a client, scope, value band, and a contact who will actually pick up the phone; the longest continuous client relationship a supplier has; and whether a contract was terminated for non-performance in the last three years. That last question is the one worth verifying: call one of the three references and ask directly. Paperwork can be arranged. A client who answers honestly about what went wrong on a past job usually cannot. On VEXORS, the answers sit with the supplier's response to the request, visible to everyone on your team reviewing it, not filed away in one inbox.
- Three comparable projects: client, scope, value band, and a contact who will answer
- Longest continuous client relationship, a proxy for reliability paperwork cannot show
- Whether a contract was terminated for non-performance in the last three years
- On VEXORS: visible to everyone on your team reviewing the request, not one inbox
Financial standing, so the company is still there at completion
Section 5 asks for an approximate annual revenue band, the standard payment terms a supplier offers its own suppliers, and whether a bank reference is available on request. None of it needs to be exact; a range is enough to size the risk. A subcontractor that cannot fund its own mobilisation, or that pays its suppliers at 90 days while asking you for 30, is telling you something about how the rest of the project will go. On VEXORS, this sits with the same request as the rest of the questionnaire, part of the record if capability or delivery is disputed after award.
- Approximate annual revenue band, a range is enough to size the risk
- Standard payment terms they offer their own suppliers
- Whether a bank reference is available on request
- On VEXORS: kept with the tender record, not a separate file that goes missing
What changes once it is a tender, not an attachment
Reaching every supplier
- Emailed with the invitation
- One inbox at a time, chasing replies
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Sent to every invited supplier at once, with their status tracked
A required question
- Emailed with the invitation
- Left blank if a supplier skips it
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Blocks the bid until it is answered
Compliance documents
- Emailed with the invitation
- Attached separately, easy to lose track of which supplier sent what
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Required documents attached to the request, kept with the answers
Comparing answers across suppliers
- Emailed with the invitation
- Open several Word documents and read them side by side
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Every supplier's answers sit side by side for the team
Checking one reference
- Emailed with the invitation
- A sticky note or a personal call log
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Recorded with the tender, visible to everyone on the request
A revised question
- Emailed with the invitation
- Re-sent by email, hoping the last version is forgotten
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- One live version; every invited supplier answers the same one
Who cleared and who didn't
- Emailed with the invitation
- Tracked in a personal spreadsheet
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- One list: cleared, pending, not yet answered
The record after award
- Emailed with the invitation
- Buried in an email thread, if you can find it
- Sent as a tender on VEXORS
- Kept with the tender: answers, documents, and the approval
Who sends a prequalification questionnaire
Main contractors
Prequalifying subcontractors before a trade package goes out to tender, so the bids that come back are already from companies capable of doing the work.
Developers
Vetting main contractors and consultants before a project tender, where a licence gap or a financial shortfall is a far bigger problem to find after award.
Procurement teams
Qualifying a new supplier category before the first RFQ goes out, instead of discovering a supplier's limits mid-delivery.
Facilities and asset managers
Vetting service contractors and maintenance suppliers before a recurring contract starts, when a missed insurance renewal is expensive to find out about later.
How to use it
Send it before any pricing
Prequalification after bids arrive is theatre: the low number has already anchored you. Filter first.
Verify the two that matter
Actually check the license and call one reference. Most of the value of a questionnaire is that a few answers get verified.
Re-run it yearly
Certificates expire and companies change. A stale prequalification is a false sense of security with a date on it.
Attach it to the request
On VEXORS, add it as a required questionnaire on the RFQ, RFP, or trade package itself, so a supplier answers it as part of responding, not as a separate email before or after.
Questionnaires with required questions are part of the Scale plan. RFQs, RFPs, and RFIs run on every plan, including the free Explore plan.
Prequalification FAQ
Keep exploring
- Supplier management softwareOnboarding forms, questionnaires, and trust scores earned from completed work: the full lifecycle.
- Bid evaluation softwareHow every bid is levelled and evaluated against your criteria, with the reasons written out.
- Supplier evaluation scorecardAfter prequalification: the weighted scorecard for the bids that make it through.
- RFQ templateThe next document once your shortlist is qualified: line items, terms, and evaluation criteria in one request.