# First-time setup in Tender Navigator

Source: Tender Navigator Knowledge Base, https://tendernavigator.com/knowledge-base/first-time-setup (canonical HTML). Category: Getting started. Published 2026-09-08, last updated 2026-09-08.

> First-time setup in Tender Navigator has five steps, shown as a checklist on the dashboard Overview: create your account, activate a plan, build your first filter, turn it on, and see your first evaluated result. The first evaluations arrive within about a day of activating a filter.

## The getting-started checklist

After you sign in for the first time, the dashboard Overview shows a **Getting started** card with five rows. The card is derived from your live data, so it ticks itself as you go and disappears once everything is done.

1. **Create your account.** Ticked as soon as you can see the dashboard.
2. **Activate a plan.** Done at checkout, including for the free Basic plan. Until a plan is active, the dashboard sidebar shows only Results, My Lists, Subscription and Account, and the checklist marks the remaining rows as locked.
3. **Build your first filter.** Opens the filter editor. See [Creating and editing a filter](/knowledge-base/creating-a-filter).
4. **Turn it on.** A new filter starts paused. Switch it to Active on its page. See [Activating, pausing, duplicating and deleting filters](/knowledge-base/activating-and-pausing-filters).
5. **See your first evaluated result.** Ticked when the first evaluated tender appears on the Results page.

You can dismiss the card. The **Product tour** dialog in the dashboard topbar offers a way to bring it back.

## The fastest route to a good first filter

The filter editor can be filled in by hand, but two shortcuts give a better starting point:

- **Search first, then save.** Open the **Pre-search tool** in the sidebar, enter a few keywords your buyers would use, add at least one classification code, press **Search** and check that the notices look like work you want. Then press **Save as Filter**. The filter inherits the keywords, countries and codes that just returned real tenders. See [Turning a search into a filter](/knowledge-base/save-search-as-filter).
- **Generate from your Business Profile.** Fill in the [Business Profile](/knowledge-base/business-profile) once and press **Generate filter**. The draft includes a structured AI prompt assembled from the profile.

Either way the filter is created **paused** with a prompt that needs your attention. A filter saved from a search carries a line starting with TODO in its prompt; replace it with your own words before switching the filter on.

## Four things make a filter work

The filter page shows a **Filter setup checklist**. A filter is ready to activate when it has:

- at least one keyword,
- at least one country,
- at least one CPV, NAICS or UNSPSC code,
- an AI prompt.

Keywords, countries and codes decide which tenders the filter picks up; the prompt decides how each of them is judged. A filter with no keywords matches on codes alone, which is usually far too broad.

## When the first results arrive

Filtering and AI evaluation run daily. After you switch a filter on, expect the first evaluated tenders within about a day; the Results page says "Your first evaluations are on the way" until then. Each filter also sends a digest email on the schedule you chose, daily by default. If nothing has arrived after a couple of days, see [No tenders found](/knowledge-base/no-tenders-found).

## The tours

Two short guided tours cover this setup: "Find tenders and save a filter" on the Pre-search tool, and "Finish and switch on a filter" on a filter's page. The second one starts on its own when you arrive at a filter you just saved from a search. See [The platform tour](/knowledge-base/platform-tour).