ROLECE and classification, step by step.

The two registers at a glance

Part 1: ROLECE

Who can register

Any company that applies and proves its legal personality and capacity, whatever its nationality. Classified firms and contracting bans are entered automatically.

Registration is voluntary, except in the open simplified procedure, where bidders must be registered on ROLECE or the relevant regional register.

Step by step

1. Get an electronic certificate. ROLECE accepts the Spanish electronic ID, an FNMT certificate, or another certificate expressly accepted. Foreign eIDAS certificates aren’t mentioned in the official guidance. The practical route is an FNMT personal certificate for your representative, which needs a Spanish foreigner’s ID number (NIE) and an in-person identity check.
2. Apply online at registrodelicitadores.gob.es, on the form for companies, signed with AutoFirma.
3. Upload the documents:
   • your deed of incorporation and later amendments;
   • proof of entry in the commercial register (or the foreign equivalent);
   • powers of attorney, with their registration;
   • ID of the people involved;
   • last year’s annual accounts (as an XBRL file of the filed accounts, plus proof of filing);
   • business or professional licences.
4. Foreign documents:
   • provide an official translation into Spanish (or the region’s co-official language);
   • non-EU companies prove their capacity with a report from the Spanish consulate.
5. Wait up to three months. If you hear nothing, the application counts as refused. Registration is free.

Bidding with ROLECE

• In a tender, submit your ROLECE certificate plus a sworn statement that the registered data haven’t changed. You don’t resend the documents.
• Applying while a tender is open: for the open simplified procedure, an application filed before the bid deadline counts if you attach the register’s receipt and a sworn statement that you filed the documents and haven’t been asked to correct them.
• Report every change in your registered data. Failing to do so can suspend your registration and lead to a contracting ban.

Regional registers

• Regions may keep their own registers. Entry there counts only with that region’s own buyers and its local authorities.
• Catalonia’s RELIC is electronic, free and valid indefinitely. Buyers check it directly, so you don’t need a certificate.

Part 2: Contractor classification

When it’s required

• Works of €500,000 or more: classification is mandatory for Spanish and non-EU firms. EU and EEA firms can prove solvency instead.
• Works below €500,000, and services: classification is optional, an alternative to meeting each tender’s specific solvency criteria.
• If no classified firm bids, the next call may drop the requirement.

Groups and subgroups

Works classification runs by group and subgroup:

• A tender can require at most four subgroups. A subgroup is required only if its part exceeds 20% of the price.
• To be classified in the whole of group C, you need C2 or C3 and completed whole buildings.
• Groups I, J and K have no group-level classification.

Categories

Groups I, J and K go up to category 4. For contracts longer than a year, the tender requires the category matching the mean annual value: the price divided by the months, times 12.

How your category is calculated

1. Base figure: the larger of your highest annual amount on a single work in the subgroup, or your best year (counting up to six works).
2. Uplifts on that base, totalling between +20% and +320%:
   • a fixed +20%;
   • up to +50% for staff;
   • up to +70% for machinery;
   • up to +80% for net equity relative to output;
   • up to +100% for experience.
3. No track record in the subgroup means category 1 only.
4. Works by controlled foreign subsidiaries count in full; works by affiliates you don’t control count in proportion to your stake. That helps international groups.
5. Experience period: the last five years for works and three for services. From 28 April 2026, 22 works subgroups can count the last ten years plus the current year (see below).

Step by step

1. Register your company at eclasificacion.hacienda.gob.es.
2. Fill in the electronic form, one annex at a time. You can save and come back.
3. Sign with an X.509 certificate or Spanish electronic ID through AutoFirma, in Chrome or Edge.
4. Upload the supporting documents through the same system. Paper is accepted only exceptionally, and USB or CD isn’t. The file isn’t opened until the documents arrive.
5. Wait up to six months. The decision is notified through the government’s notification service (DEHú), and certificates then come from ROLECE.

Help: clasificaciondeempresas@hacienda.gob.es, tel. 900 567 765 (option 3).

The documents include:

• capacity documents, with a business purpose covering the subgroups requested;
• a statement of no contracting ban, and proof you’re up to date with tax and social security;
• shareholders, directors and powers of attorney;
• annual accounts for two years and turnover for three years;
• technical staff lists and average headcount over three years;
• machinery and equipment, with proof you can use it;
• for each subgroup, a list of works with certificates of good execution, signed by the works director and endorsed by the client.

Foreign firms provide equivalent documents, officially translated. Non-EU firms also need the consular capacity report.

Keeping it valid

Classification lasts indefinitely, with two filings:

• Every year: a sworn statement on economic and financial solvency, with data from your accounts, filed before 1 September for calendar-year companies.
• Every three years: an update of your technical and professional solvency.

Missing a filing automatically suspends your classification. Report changes too, or risk a contracting ban.

To add subgroups or raise categories, file a revision listing all the subgroups you want.

Joint ventures, groups and borrowed capacity

• Joint ventures (UTEs): when classification is required, every Spanish and non-EU member must be classified; EU and EEA members prove solvency instead.
  • One member holding the required subgroup and category is enough.
  • Categories in the same subgroup can be combined if each member holds at least 20%.
  • So a non-EU firm can’t ride on a classified Spanish partner without its own classification.
• Group companies: your parent’s or group companies’ resources can count towards your classification if they’re genuinely available to you. Staff alone isn’t enough.
• Borrowed capacity for one contract: you can rely on another firm’s capacity with a written commitment, but borrowed experience counts only if that firm performs the work.
• Non-EU winners may be required to open a registered Spanish branch.

See consortium and joint venture bidding rules.

What changed in 2025–2026

• Order HAC/34/2026 (in force 28 April 2026) lets 22 works subgroups count experience from the previous ten years plus the current year, instead of five. They include earthworks (A05), large structures (B03, B04), all railway subgroups (D01–D04), hydraulic (E02, E03, E06), maritime (F01, F02, F04–F06, F08), roads (G01), pipelines (H01, H02), electrical (I03) and special works (K01, K03). The finance ministry expects about 1,200 revision requests in 2026–27.
• Classification processing is now up to six months, the ministry said in January 2026.
• The LCSP’s qualification and register articles haven’t changed since August 2024.

For the wider process, see how to bid for public contracts in Spain and the Spanish procurement glossary.

Live Spanish tenders

Questions

Sources

• ROLECE: the official register of bidders and classified companies
• Public Sector Contracts Law 9/2017 (BOE consolidated text)
• General Regulation of the Public Administrations Contracts Law (RGLCAP)
• Order HAC/34/2026 on experience periods for classification
• Ministry of Finance: electronic classification (eclasificacion)
• Generalitat de Catalunya: RELIC register

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.