Bid requests

A Bid Request sends your scope of work to one or more vendors and collects each one's prices. You list the items — quantities and units, but no prices — and every vendor fills in their own numbers on their page. Their quotes come back side by side, and the totals feed the budget's Bid Requests column. It's the fifth record type, numbered BID-001, and it goes to vendors only.

Create a bid request

1. From Records, click Create Record.
2. Pick the Project, then choose Bid Request under Bid Requests.
3. The builder opens.

Build the scope to price

1. Give the request a title (for example, "Site concrete package") and an optional Description for anything the vendors should know.
2. Under Scope to Price, click Add line items from budget and pick the budget lines you want priced. Every scope row comes from the budget, so each vendor's numbers stay linked to the right budget line — that's what feeds the Bid Requests column.
3. Quantities and units come from the budget lines. You don't enter prices — that's the vendors' job.

Set a due date

Set a Due Date on the document so vendors know when you need their numbers.

Add vendors and send

1. In the side panel, add recipients with Add a vendor... — bid requests go to vendors only.
2. Flip the Signature? toggle on a vendor to require a binding signature — they'll adopt a signature when submitting, agreeing that their prices are their bid for the scope.
3. Add every vendor you want competing on the scope; each one prices it independently and never sees the others' numbers.
4. Click Send. Each vendor gets a link to their own quote page.

How a vendor responds

On their page the vendor sees your scope table with Unit Cost and Total columns — both typeable. Entering a unit cost computes the line total; entering a total (say, a $1,000 lump sum) works too, and the unit cost is derived. They can also add Inclusions, Exclusions, and Comments to qualify their bid. If you required a signature, they adopt one before submitting — it binds them to their numbers. When everything's in, they click Submit Quote.

Compare the quotes

1. Reopen the bid request from Records.
2. Until anyone responds you'll see "Awaiting quotes". As vendors submit, the body becomes a comparison table — one row per scope item, one column per vendor.
3. The lowest price on each row and the lowest grand total are highlighted, so the best number is obvious at a glance.

You can also see the bids from the budget sheet: the Bid Requests column shows the low–high range of quotes on each line (and how many are still pending). Click it to see every bid — each vendor, their price, and their status — and click Use cost on a quote to set that line's Unit Cost to the vendor's number.

Award the winner

1. In the comparison table, click Award under the winning vendor's column.
2. Foreman creates a draft Purchase Order to that vendor, pre-filled with their quoted prices and linked to the same budget lines — you review and send it from the PO builder. Once the vendor accepts, the amounts land in the budget's Committed Cost column.
3. In the confirmation you choose what happens to the other bids: remove them from consideration (their links stop working and bidding closes — they aren't emailed) or leave bidding open to keep collecting quotes.
4. You can also Decline any single vendor from the list below the comparison at any time.