What a capability statement needs for government buyers
A capability statement is the two-page document a government buyer reads to decide whether your business belongs on a shortlist: who you are, what you do, the evidence that you have done it, and how to reach you. It is written for a procurement officer who has forty of them on the desk, so it leads with the buyer's question (can this business do this work, here, at this scale, compliantly) and answers it with facts that can be checked, not adjectives.
← All guides · Published 12 September 2026 · Written by Helm. Helm is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any portal named here.
The sections buyers look for
A buyer scans for the same headings every time. Use them, in this order, and keep the whole thing to two pages:
- Who we are: legal entity, trading name, ABN, years operating, ownership (Indigenous-owned, social enterprise, regional, where true and relevant).
- What we do: the services or products, stated in the buyer's vocabulary (the category names the portals use), not your marketing names.
- Where we do it: the regions you can actually service, with the depots, crews or offices that make that true.
- Past performance: three to five recent, relevant contracts, each with the buyer, the year, the scope in one line, the value if you may disclose it, and a contact who will take a call.
- Compliance and capacity: insurances with limits, licences, certifications (quality, safety, environmental), prequalifications and panel memberships, workforce size, key equipment.
- Contact: one person, one phone number, one email that is answered.
Evidence, not adjectives
"Extensive experience" and "industry-leading" cost a buyer nothing to ignore. "Delivered 14 school refurbishments for the Department of Education between 2022 and 2025, each under the PQC system, all completed on program" is a sentence a buyer can check and remember. Every claim in the statement should be one you could evidence in a tender response: a contract, a certificate, a referee.
The same rule runs through Helm: when the AI drafts a response section from your profile, it draws on the evidence you have recorded and marks anything it cannot verify, rather than inventing experience your business does not have.
Keep it current
A statement with an expired insurance certificate, a lapsed certification or a referee who left the buyer two years ago does the opposite of its job. Put a review date on it and keep the underlying documents where you can find them: the insurances, the certificates, the past-performance references. In Helm those live in the evidence library, so the capability statement and the tender responses draw on the same, current set.
Mistakes that get a statement set aside
Seen often enough to list:
- No ABN or a trading name that does not match the entity on the portal registration.
- Services described so broadly that the buyer cannot tell what you would actually be engaged for.
- Past performance without buyers' names, years or a contact.
- Regions claimed that the business cannot service within the buyer's response times.
- Ten pages. The buyer stops at two.