Subcontractor Tendering

Run a trade package out to subbies, collect every bid against the same scope, level them on one screen, recommend the winner for sign-off, and convert the award into a subcontract with the value committed against budget. The whole tender lives in the platform now, from invitation to commitment. Not your inbox. Not a comparison spreadsheet. Before / After Before. Tendering lived in email and Excel. Scope went out as attachments, prices came back in different shapes, and the comparison was a manual re-key that went stale the moment a subbie revised a number. The award rested on a spreadsheet nobody fully trusted, the sign-off happened over email, and the winning figure was then re-typed into a subcontract by hand. After. One tender package per trade. Scope and documents share through a secure bidder portal that needs no login, every response lands in the same place, and a structured comparison engine normalises, scores and ranks the bids line by line. Recommend the winner, route it for approval, then award. The platform drafts the subcontract and commits the value against budget. No re-keying, no levelling spreadsheet. Why it matters A portal collects bids. Subcontractor Tendering levels them, scores them, recommends them for sign-off, awards them, and commits the cost, all against the same Tender object, so the package you sent is the package you award and the bid you award is the subcontract you deliver. Tendering stops being admin and becomes financial control. How it works, step by step It lives under Preconstruction > Subcontractor Tendering. The screen you work from most is Bid Package Management. You always work inside a project, so pick the project first. See every package on one board Bid Package Management opens on the Tender Packages board. Cards read out Total Packages, Will Tender, Time Remaining (overdue flagged) and Subcontractors invited. The table lists every package with its project, due date, value, status and subbie count. Create the package in a three-step wizard Click + Create New Tender. The wizard runs Package Details, Invite Subcontractors, then Review & Publish. Choose your Tender Mode first: Single-trade (subbies bid the whole package) or Multi-trade (one package across several trades, each subbie prices only their sections). Complete the required fields, set the dates, and the package is created as Draft until you publish. Attach scope, invite subbies, publish Add your scope of works and tender documents, select who bids, review and publish. Subbies bid through a secure link with no login and no account to create. The portal shows them only the description, quantity and unit, never your internal budget or target price. Track who is in, out, and still thinking The Overview tab shows where every invited subbie sits: Invited, Accepted, Declined, Submitted, Awaiting. Nudge anyone still out with Send reminder, and confirm what was sent with Email history. Catch the bids that came by email, too Click Record bid on behalf to capture an offline or emailed bid: pick the subcontractor, enter the headline price (or price the schedule as line items), add exclusions and notes, attach the documents, and record a Source note saved as provenance. Coming soon: Extract from PDF with KAI to pre-fill the price and line items automatically. Level and score the bids, line by line Compare Bids replaces the levelling spreadsheet. Each subbie prices against the same Pricing Schedule, so you compare like with like at the line-item level. Headline Price against a live Adjusted Total, an editable Adjustment column to add back exclusions, weighted scoring (Cost 50%, Lead Time 25%, Quality 25%, editable), a Procurement number and an internal CFO Recommendation. Adjustments and scoring are never shown to subcontractors. Recommend the winner, and route it for sign-off The Recommendation tab turns the decision into governance. Capture the recommended bidder and value, write the rationale (technical compliance, quality, delivery risk, commercial position, conditions), carry the weighted scores through, then Submit for approval. An audit trail records who recommended it and when. Award once, and convert without re-keying Set the winner to Awarded and Convert to SC/PO. The Award & Convert wizard shows the Bid Source (levelled or submitted value), the Budget Impact (Budgeted vs Awarding vs Delta) before you commit, what carries through (documents, addenda, scope, attachments), and archives the losing bids to Unsuccessful. Output is a Subcontract today, with Purchase Order conversion coming soon. The subcontract drafts in Procurement with the value committed against budget. Two things worth knowing The cheapest headline price is rarely the cheapest bid. Add back exclusions in the Adjustment column first, the Adjusted Total is the figure that matters. And invitations sent from a sender the subbie recognises get better response rates than generic system emails. If you cannot see the module, or Conditions and Tags shows a padlock, your role may not have it enabled yet. Check with your admin. Beta We are still building this with you. If a step does not match how your team tenders, or there is something you need that is not here yet, tell us. Leave a comment or request a feature and it goes straight onto the list. Your feedback shapes what ships next.