The Bid tab

1. Select File › New project….

   On the Projects page, enter the project name and its location, who it's Bid to (the GC or customer) and when it's Due, with the time (2:00 PM unless you change it).

2. Select Create project.

   The project opens on its Bid tab, with the GC you named already under GCs you're bidding to.

Later, a project opens on Bid while it has no plans yet or came from an invitation, and on Takeoff otherwise. The header shows when the bid is due, how long is left and who it's to. Templates and engineering firms' opinions of cost have no Bid tab.

Rate each factor from 0 to 5 (What 0–5 means explains each). The weights give a score out of 100: Score says bid at 60 or more, Score says pass under 45, and Close call between. A factor marked Rules it out stops a bid on its own. Beside the score is what's already known: your record with this GC, the pre-bid meeting and the other bids due the same week.

Then choose Bid it or Pass, with why. Passing moves the bid to Passed. Change the scorecard sets your company's own factors and weights.

One job is often bid to several general contractors. Select + Add a GC, pick or type the General contractor, its contact, its own due time and any Price adjustment for this GC, then Add GC. Each row then shows what it needs next, with its Follow up and Award expected dates.

• Once the bid is locked as submitted, Send to 3 GCs… (or Send for signature to one GC) sends each its own proposal at its own price. See Proposals.
• Mark submitted (sent outside Aggrado) records a number you sent another way; Pass on this GC drops one GC.
• When the result is in, Won…, Lost… or Canceled or re-bid… closes that GC's bid and asks why.

With no GCs, Set the due date here; it starts at 2:00 PM. With GCs, the project's due date is the earliest open GC's due time, so change it on the GC. The due date drives the countdown, the bid board and the reminders.

Add pre-bid and question dates records the Pre-bid meeting (and whether Going is required to bid) and when Questions close.

Log an addendum with its number, what it changes and when it was issued, then Add its PDF. The PDF goes in Plans and documents, and its revised sheets are matched by number to the plan set: replace them in the takeoff in one click (Replace 3 sheets), or Keep both; Put the old one back undoes it. Check each addendum off as Changes the work, Reviewed and Acknowledged on the bid form, and select Email subs and suppliers about it to tell everyone you've asked for a price.

Pre-bid questions (RFIs) → opens Bid › Pre-bid RFIs: questions to the engineer, GC or customer, numbered for the project. Add and email it sends one, and RFI log (PDF) prints the log.

Price requests go out from the estimate's Quotes. Once they have, this card lists each sub or supplier who hasn't answered, marked Not opened yet or Opened, no price yet, with its due time. Open Quotes → goes to the requests.

Set the Kind of work, Public or private (Private, Public or DOT), the Estimator (the follow-up reminders go to them) and the Hours spent estimating it. Once the job is built, how it came out shows here from Job's closeout review, or a company without Job types it in. Bid results reads all of it.

Nobody has to tidy the Projects list. A bid moves between its tabs by its status:

• Open: still bidding, or submitted and out for award.
• Waiting on award: every GC's bid that's out, the most pressing first, with what each needs next (a follow-up due, an award overdue, a proposal nobody opened) and who to call.
• Closed: won, lost, passed or no award.
• Hidden: projects you've hidden with Hide, to clear clutter. Nothing is deleted; Show again puts one back on its list.

Bid results → beside the tabs has the company's numbers across every bid.

Once there's an estimate, Go to bid day → opens the last hours on one screen, built for a phone: the countdown, the number and what it's made of, the GCs, the prices still out with a number to call, what's Still plugged, what the review rules block or warn about, the Adds and cuts, and Lock as submitted. It prints as a one-page bid summary. Until there's an estimate, the Bid tab offers Start the estimate instead.