Create Bid Package

Create a bid package to facilitate the bidding/contracting process for a scope of work.

JD Williams avatar
Written by JD Williams
Updated over a week ago

Overview

Our Bid Packages module allows for more up-front bid leveling across all of your bidders and allows you to select the Bid winner and proceed to contract, enabling you to make quick and smart decisions while saving you time from data entry!

Pre-requisites

To add a bid package to a project, the Master Project Budget must be set up first, since you will be prompted to connect the bidder's quoted items to your budget's cost codes. This will allow you to see the bidder's costs within the budget for projecting and analyzing purposes. Please have a look at the Build Project Budget for instructions.

Process

Create the Bid Package

  1. Select the project or proposal that you wish to create the bid package within

  2. Navigate to the Bid Packages module from the dropdown menu

  3. Click Create Bid Package

  4. Select the Bid Package / RFP Workspace Recipient Type to identify the type of company you would like to request the proposal from:

5. Select the Contract Holder Type

For non-Owner / Owner's Rep workspace users, the RFP recipient types are limited to the following:

  • Architect / Engineer / Designer

  • General Contractor

  • Subcontractor

Note: companies added to your workspace are identified by their "Account Type", which determines which bid package types they can participate in. To view or edit this detail, navigate to the contacts > companies list in the lefthand navigation, choose the company and view the company account type.

Enter Bid Details

Once the bid p type has been determined, your next step will be to enter the bid details that you want your bidders to know about the scope.

For Bid Packages generated for existing projects and not within your company's Proposal, some of the Bid Details are auto-populated from the Project Settings. See Project Settings: Project Information for further detail on how to save time building bid packages!

  1. The first tab is the Details tab, where you'll enter Contract information. Enter required fields to define bid details
    -General Bid Details: enter RFP name, verify potential contract type and other relevant details. Note that the Estimated Construction Value field is not a required field, but if filled will be visible to bidders, and can be useful in some scenarios.
    -Project Schedule: provide dates for Services Commencement, Construction Commencement, and Anticipated Substantial Completion
    -Bidding Schedule: Bid Due Date is required to identify any bids received after the due date. You can also specify a Pre-Bid walk through if desired. You may also opt to enable email reminders and set the days before the due date that you would like this to be sent.

  2. Click Save

Enter Scope of Bid Package

Project description and scope of work provides detail to your bidders on what you are requesting their services for.

  1. Click the Scope tab to the right of Details

  2. Enter the Project Description, Scope of Work and Insurance Requirements (if applicable)

  3. Click Save

Enter Bid Quoted Items

Bid Quoted Items are a list of the products or services a vendor is to supply or perform within their scope of work. You can add quoted items manually or load them from a previously created template. The steps below will guide you through loading from a template:

  1. Click on the Quoted Items tab

  2. Click Load From Template to select the list of quoted items

  3. Select a quoted item template:
    Note: clicking Display Master Lists allows you to select all quoted items available for the selected RFP Type

  4. Click Load once list is selected, and the quoted items will populate to the screen

  5. Make any applicable edits to the quoted items: click 🗑 icon to delete, re-arrange the listing order by dragging and dropping the three-line icon to the right, or rename the quoted items by clicking on the pencil icon.

Pro-Tip: multiple quoted item templates can be appended on a single bid package. Simply click Load From Template again and Append an additional template. These quoted items will be added to the existing list. This is good for situations that you need to have vendors supply pricing for various scopes of work that may also be included in other RFPs (ex: RFP to drywall installers to provide pricing for Rough Carpentry and Acoustic Ceiling Tile)

6. Specify if any quoted items should be considered Alternates by clicking on the toggle next to the Quoted Item Description. Quoted Items specified as such will be broken out as separate costs from the main cost when leveling bids after receiving proposals.

7. Assign Cost Codes to Quoted Items from the drop-down list of options. You will have the option to Apply to All if necessary.

Upload Drawings, Files, and Specifications

Add Drawing sets, files, and Specifications (if applicable) that you want your bidders to receive within each respective tab.

  1. Click Upload or drag and drop a file to add documents within each tab

Enter Questions & Answers (Q&A's)

The Q&A's tab allows you to enter questions to qualify and differentiate bidders against each other. Each bidder's responses will be viewable in comparison to each other. You can either add manual questions or load from a Q&A template. It is recommended that you load questions from a prepared template to save time and provide a more standardized method of bidding.

  1. Click Add Question, then select the Type of response the bidder is allowed to respond to the question with:

    Yes/No: limits bidder to 1 choice
    Drop-down: allows bidder to choose one option from available options that you must enter
    Multi-select: allows bidders to choose multiple options from available options that you must enter
    Number: limits bidder to only input a numerical response
    Attachment: requires bidder to upload an attachment

  2. Type the question you want the bidders to answer

  3. You will also have the option to toggle on / off whether you want to see this Q&A prompt on the bid card or not

  4. Click Add Question to create more questions, or Load from Template:

 6. Once all questions have been entered, click Save. The next steps will be to select bidders and begin leveling bids. 

Next Steps

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