The structural bid for a roughly 32,000 square foot project was ready, but there was no engineering behind the structure yet. Legally that means it can't be turned into a signable contract as is.
I sent it anyway, framed as a probe, not a binding offer, to get a real client reaction while engineering caught up. But I double checked the takeoff behind it myself first.
Waiting for full engineering before showing any number just means losing weeks of feedback for no real benefit. A bid's job at that stage is to hold the client's attention and test their reaction, not to be signable. But that only works honestly if you've personally verified the numbers behind it first.
The bid went out the same day it was finalized. Sent it, honestly, to see what happens, and we started sourcing draftsmen in parallel so the next round wouldn't hit the same bottleneck.
You can move a deal forward with a number you can't sign yet, as long as everyone, starting with you, knows exactly why it isn't signable.
I was honest with myself about the limits of what I was sending, and that's what let me be honest with the client about it too.