By Doreva · Published 1 November 2026 · Doreva Articles

Won a Government Tender? Your First 30 Days of Contract Management

You have won the tender. Now the first report is approaching, finance wants to know when it can invoice, and the delivery team needs to understand exactly what was promised.

After winning a government tender, confirm the contract’s commencement requirements, appoint a contract manager, and turn the agreement into a list of obligations, owners, deadlines and evidence requirements. Then establish how you will manage reporting, payments, changes and communication with the buyer.

This first-30-days checklist helps Australian government suppliers put those arrangements in place. The timing is a suggested workflow: anything required before commencement needs to happen earlier.

What is post-award contract management?

Post-award contract management is the work of managing an agreement after it has been awarded. For a supplier, it includes delivering the agreed scope, tracking obligations, meeting performance standards, submitting reports, managing changes and satisfying payment requirements.

It continues through renewal, expiry and closeout, including any obligations that survive the contract’s end.

The practical aim is straightforward: your team should know what it must do, when it must act and how it will demonstrate completion.

Days 1–5: Confirm the agreement and appoint an owner

Start with the final contract documents.

Bring together the executed agreement, schedules, statement of work, pricing and any documents incorporated into the contract. Confirm the commencement date and any prerequisites, such as insurance evidence, access approvals or a mobilisation plan.

Arrange a handover between the people who negotiated the agreement and the people delivering it.

What should a contract handover include?

Your handover should cover:

• Scope: deliverables, exclusions, locations and service requirements.
• Dates: commencement, milestones, reporting deadlines and expiry.
• Responsibilities: supplier owners, buyer contacts and client dependencies.
• Performance: KPIs, service levels and acceptance requirements.
• Money: agreed pricing, invoicing triggers and supporting evidence.
• Changes: variation procedures, approval authority and formal notice requirements.
• Open issues: unresolved questions, assumptions and immediate risks.

Check which tender commitments form part of the final agreement. If documents appear inconsistent, use the contract’s order of precedence and obtain clarification where needed.

Appoint one person to coordinate the contract, supported by owners for operations, finance and other specialist responsibilities. Identify a backup for absence.

Australian Government supplier guidance says suppliers need to appoint someone to manage the contract from their side and actively manage obligations, risks and delivery issues. Source: Selling to Government

By day five: the delivery team can find the governing documents, identify the contract owner and explain what must happen before work starts.

Days 5–10: Build a contract obligations register

A contract obligations register records what must happen, who is responsible, when it is due and what proves completion.

Include reporting, certificates, approvals and notices alongside the main deliverables. Keep a reference to the relevant contract clause or schedule so the team can check the original requirement.

Use these fields as your starting point:

Example: turn a reporting clause into a task your team can complete

Imagine a facilities maintenance agreement requires a monthly performance report by the fifth business day of the following month.

Recording “monthly report” in a spreadsheet leaves several questions unanswered. A useful entry would specify:

This is a fictional example. Use your agreement’s actual requirements and definition of “business day”.

The internal preparation target helps the team organise its work. It does not change the contractual deadline.

Also record obligations triggered by events. A notification requirement activated by discovering a delivery problem needs an escalation process, even though it has no fixed calendar date.

By day ten: each identified obligation has a source, an owner, a deadline or trigger, and a completion requirement.

Days 10–15: Agree how delivery will be measured

Hold a mobilisation meeting with the buyer to confirm how the contract will operate.

Discuss deliverables, reporting formats, performance measures, acceptance, communication and dependencies. Record unresolved questions and assign someone to follow them up.

For each KPI, establish:

• What is being measured?
• How is it calculated?
• Which records provide the evidence?
• Who checks the data?
• When and how must results be reported?

For a response-time KPI, for example, the team needs to understand what starts the clock, what counts as a response and how those events are recorded. Collect the evidence from the start of delivery.

WA Government guidance recommends a meeting soon after award to establish a shared understanding of the contract. Although written for buyers, it gives suppliers a useful indication of the arrangements their government customer may expect. Source: How to Manage Your Contract

By day fifteen: your team understands how delivery will be measured and which records it needs to maintain.

Days 15–20: Make the first invoice ready before it is due

Ask finance to review the payment requirements early.

Check the invoicing trigger, purchase order details, submission channel, required attachments and any acceptance conditions.

Can you invoice as soon as the work is complete?

That depends on the agreement. Payment may be linked to a date, delivery, a milestone or an acceptance requirement. Check what must happen before an invoice can be submitted.

Australian Government supplier guidance explains that contractual payment points may relate to products, milestones, outcomes or dates. Source: Selling to Government

For each billing event, record:

• What makes the work ready to invoice.
• Who confirms that requirement has been satisfied.
• Which evidence finance needs.
• Where the invoice must be submitted.
• Who follows up questions or missing information.

For example, if invoicing requires buyer acceptance of a deliverable, give someone responsibility for obtaining and storing that acceptance.

By day twenty: finance knows what it can invoice, when it can invoice and which records support it.

Days 20–30: Establish a weekly review and a change process

A short weekly review keeps the obligations register useful as delivery progresses.

Focus on five questions:

1. What is due in the next fortnight?
2. What is late, blocked or awaiting approval?
3. Has anything changed in the requested scope?
4. What work is complete but still missing evidence?
5. Which approaching dates require a decision now?

Include insurance expiries, review meetings and renewal or extension notice windows. The date someone needs to act may be well before the contract’s end date.

What if the client asks for extra work?

Compare the request with the agreed scope and check the variation procedure. Record the request, its likely effect on cost and timing, and the approvals required.

Make the approval status visible. A team member should be able to distinguish a requested change from an authorised variation.

By day thirty: your team has a regular review routine, a record of changes and a clear process for escalating decisions.

How Doreva Contracts helps you manage the work after award

Doreva Contracts gives Australian government suppliers a shared place to manage obligations, deadlines, documents, approvals and renewals.

For the monthly reporting example above, that means keeping the contract documents accessible, assigning responsibility for the report, tracking its deadline and retaining the supporting records with the contract.

Across your portfolio, Doreva Contracts helps your team:

• See upcoming obligations and who owns them.
• Keep agreements, certificates and correspondence together.
• Track certificate and renewal dates.
• Maintain visibility of variations and approvals, with features depending on your plan.
• Identify contracts that need attention.

Your team still needs to check the agreement, confirm its requirements and make the necessary decisions. Doreva provides a shared place to organise that work and keep its progress visible.

Doreva Contracts is live with a 14-day trial. Start your 14-day trial with an active contract and organise its upcoming obligations, key documents and responsible owners.

Your first-30-days contract management checklist

Before the first month ends, check that you have:

• The final agreement and its incorporated documents.
• A named contract owner and backup.
• An obligations register with sources, owners and deadlines.
• Clear reporting, KPI and acceptance arrangements.
• An invoice checklist tied to the contract’s requirements.
• A process for variations, approvals and formal notices.
• A calendar covering reviews, certificates and renewal decisions.
• A weekly review of upcoming work, blockers and missing evidence.

Someone covering the contract should be able to answer: What have we promised? Who owns it? What is due next? What proves completion? What needs a decision?

Those answers give your team a practical foundation for delivering the contract with confidence.