A returned tender is not a number. It is a number sitting on a set of assumptions.

One bidder includes scaffolding. Another excludes it and prices it as a provisional. One covering letter qualifies the programme. Another qualifies the specification. Prime cost sums hide in different lines. Until those differences are pulled onto one sheet, an award is a guess.

Levelling is the unglamorous work of putting every bid on the same scope: decompose each return against the package it priced, tabulate inclusions and exclusions, extract qualifications, flag PC and provisional sums, and write the questions that close the gaps.

Do that before the award meeting. Not during it.