Preparing and submitting an offer

The Offers page of the answering company

The project sidebar entry Offers (Оферти) is your company's workbench for every request you accepted in this project. It shows only your company's offers; you never see other bidders' offers or prices.

1. The view switch List / Grid.
2. The Requests box lists each request you accepted, with older revisions indented under it.
3. The selected request: "{name} - Bid request", its deadline and your status.
4. Create offer adds another offer for this request.
5. An offer card with its status band, version and total; this offer is already sent and contracted, so it also shows Open the contract.
6. The card menu (⋯) with open, compare, export, duplicate, rename, history and delete.
7. The card's main action changes with the status: Send to client for an unsent offer, here Export.

Page layout

• The left box Requests (Запитвания) has one row per accepted request: "{name} - Bid request" and "{count} offers". Older revisions are indented with "Revision {n} · superseded".
• The right panel shows the selected request: its name and note, deadline, and your status pill: Sent (Изпратена, waiting for your decision), Processing (Обработва се, you accepted), Received (Получена, you sent an offer), Declined, Withdrawn or Awarded to someone else. These pills use the client's wording.
• Show archive (Покажи архива) / Hide archive (Скрий архива) appears when something is archived: requests withdrawn from you or awarded to someone else, and offers withdrawn, superseded or not awarded. Archived items are never deleted.
• In the List view, the columns are Offer (Оферта), Version (Версия), Status (Статус), Value (Стойност), Difference (Разлика, compared with your lowest offer for the request) and Updated (Актуализация). Columns (Колони) shows or hides them. Right-click a row for its menu.

The buttons Individual offer (Индивидуална оферта) and New request (Ново запитване) are only for the company that created the project. As an invited bidder you add offers with Create offer in the request.

The offer card

• Header: offer name (click to rename), a lock icon and the menu (⋯).
• Status band: Bid request base (База на запитване), Processing (Обработва се, being priced), Completed (Завършена, version locked), Sent (Изпратена), Update requested (Заявена актуализация); the version; the total.
• Badges from the client's decisions: Contracted (Договорена), Contract being prepared (Договор в подготовка), Contract (part of the offer) (Договор (част от офертата)), Carried over from revision {n} (Пренесена от ревизия {n}), and archived Withdrawn (Оттеглена), Superseded by a revision (Заменена от ревизия), Awarded to someone else (Възложено на друг). Open the contract (Отвори договора) opens a signed contract.
• Footer: "Last updated · {date}" and one main action: Send to client while this offer was never sent; Start (Започни) or Send response (Изпрати отговор) while an update request is open; otherwise Export (Експорт).
• Menu (⋯): Open offer (Отвори офертата), Compare (Сравни, needs two offers), Export, Duplicate (Дублирай), Rename (Преименувай), History (История), Delete (Изтрий).

How to price your offer

1. Open the project from your project list. Its phase is Offering (Офериране).
2. In the project sidebar click Offers (Оферти).
3. Select the request in the Requests box and click the card "{Project name} - Offer 1".
4. The offer opens in the BoQ editor at /projects/{project}/offers/{offer}. The positions, quantities and categories come from the request.
5. Enter unit prices, or build them with resource analyses. See Working in the BoQ editor and Resource analysis.
6. Add your own positions if needed. Positions you add are kept apart from the requested ones; the client sees them as "Added by the bidder".

• The client's own prices are never visible to you.
• Version 1 of an offer created from a request is the locked snapshot of what the client requested, shown as Bid request base (База на запитване). Your first edit opens a working version. See Versions, comparing and locking.
• From your offer you can ask your own subcontractors for prices: Related (Свързани) → Outgoing bid requests (Изходящи запитвания). This needs a paid plan or trial. See Creating and sending an offer request.
• The project page shows what to do next, for example "Finalise the offer — to the client for approval".

Lock an offer version

Click the lock icon on the offer card. The dialog Lock offer (Заключване на оферта) says: "After locking you will no longer be able to make changes. To make edits you will need to create a new bill of quantities. Are you sure you want to continue?" Click Yes (Да). The status becomes Completed (Завършена). You do not have to lock before sending: sending locks the current version automatically.

How to send the offer to the client

1. On the offer card click Send to client (Изпрати към възложител). The same action is in the list row menu.
2. The dialog Select offers to send (Изберете оферти за изпращане) lists every offer of this request. The one you clicked is ticked. Tick more to send several variants in one response.
3. An offer whose current version is not locked shows an open lock with the hint "The current version is not finalized. When sending, the system will finalize it automatically."
4. Click Send to client (Изпрати към възложител).
5. Confirm in Confirmation (Потвърждение): "Once you send the offer, you can NOT withdraw it!" Click Send (Изпрати).

1. The ticked offer card. With several offers on the request, each has its own card.
2. Send to client (Изпрати към възложител) sends the ticked offers and locks their current versions.

The toast "Offer sent successfully" (Оферта успешно изпратена) confirms it. Make sure at least one offer is ticked; sending nothing fails with "Error sending offer".

What happens when you send:

• Each ticked offer becomes Sent (Изпратена) and its version is locked. The card's footer action becomes Export.
• Your status on the request becomes "Received" for the client and Accepted (Прието) on your Received list. Your project phase becomes Offer sent (Изпратена оферта).
• The client gets an in-app notification "{your company} answered the offer request "{requestName}" with an offer — project …" and an e-mail to its company address, in Bulgarian or English by the BuildColab e-mail-language rule (the recipient's profile language, otherwise the sender's, otherwise Bulgarian); the Bulgarian version reads „Получихте оферта от {your company}“, with a button „Отвори офертата“.

Changing an offer after sending

You cannot send the same offer again on your own. Trying gives "An offer is already recorded for this list; request an update to revise it". There are two ways:

• The client asks for an update. You get an update request on that offer. See below.
• You send another variant. Make a new offer from the sent one and send the new one. The client then sees two offers from you.

How to create another offer variant

1. Duplicate: on the sent offer's card open the menu (⋯) → Duplicate (Дублирай). In Duplicate offer (Дублиране на оферта) choose Version to duplicate (Версия за дублиране), for example "Version 3 (latest)". The copy runs in the background and stays linked to the same request.
2. Create offer: in the request panel click Create offer (Създай оферта). In Create new offer (Създаване на нова оферта) type the Offer name (Име на оферта) and click the card of an existing offer to use it as the base: "The new offer can be created based on an existing one and will use its work items." Click Create (Създай).

On a request you received, pick a base offer in Create new offer. Without a base, BuildColab returns your existing first offer instead of creating a new card.

Update requests

The client can ask you to revise one specific sent offer. You correct the same offer and send the new version back as the answer. In the client's history it appears as "Update request" followed by "Update received".

How you learn about it

• An in-app notification "{client} requested an update for "{requestName}"" (поиска актуализация по…), category "Needs action".
• An e-mail to your company address, in your profile language (Bulgarian or English) or otherwise the client's: „Заявка за актуализация на оферта от {client}“, with the client's note and a button „Отвори оферти“.
• Your project phase becomes Update requested (Заявена актуализация). The project page shows "An offer update was requested — The client requested an update to the offer. Apply the corrections and send it again." with Update the offer (Актуализирай офертата).
• The offer card shows an update banner with the status, the date and the client's description (up to 160 characters; click the banner for the full text in the History panel).

How to answer an update request

1. On the offer card click Start (Започни). There is no confirmation. The update status becomes Processing (Обработва се).
2. Open the offer and make the corrections in the BoQ editor. The BoQ header shows There is an update request (Има заявка за актуализация); click it to read the request (status, "Created on: {date}", description) in a side panel.
3. Click Send response (Изпрати отговор) in the BoQ header, or on the card footer.

The client gets an in-app notification "{your company} responded to the update request for "{requestName}"" and the e-mail „Получихте оферта от {your company}“. Your project phase returns to Offer sent.

Only one open update request can exist per sent offer version.

When the client revises the request

If the client changes the positions after sending, it sends a revision: a new version of the same request. You get the notification "The offer request "{requestName}" was revised (added: {added}, removed: {removed}, unchanged: {kept})". There is no e-mail.

• On the Offers page the new revision shows in the request, the old one is indented below it as "Revision {n} · superseded".
• A card says "The client revised the request: +{added} added, −{removed} removed, {kept} unchanged."
• If you had accepted before: "We carried your offer over from revision {n} automatically — unchanged lines keep their prices; new lines are unpriced." The carried offer has the badge Carried over from revision {n}.
• If you had not accepted: "This is revision {n} of the request. Accept it to prepare an offer." Accept the new revision from Requests in your company sidebar.
• Review the changes (Прегледай промените) lists Added lines (Нови позиции, "new · unpriced"), Removed lines (Премахнати позиции, with "previous price: {price}") and Your own lines, carried from the previous offer (Ваши позиции, пренесени от предишната оферта).

Price the new positions, then click Send the offer (Изпрати офертата) on the revision card. It opens the same send flow. Your old offer is not deleted; it is labeled Superseded by a revision.

Your project phases

Your company's phase on the client's project shows on the project card and drives the project page's banner and next steps.

A project shows its most advanced request. The project page's Incoming requests (Входящи запитвания) card lists each request from the client with a status pill (Offering, Update requested, Offer sent, Contract proposal, Contract), "received {date}", "offer due {date}" ("expired" once passed, for information only) and a filter All / Offering / Offer sent / Contracted.

Deleting and archiving offers

• Delete (Изтрий) in the card menu asks "Delete offer — Are you sure you want to permanently delete this BoQ? This action cannot be undone." Use it only for unsent drafts you do not need.
• Offers withdrawn by the client, superseded by a revision or awarded to someone else are archived automatically. Show archive displays them.

Permissions and plan

The colleagues you add when accepting a request get their project permissions from their roles. If someone cannot price, check that their role has Offers at Edit level. See Project team and access.

Error messages

Common questions

Related

• Incoming offer requests (subcontractor side)
• Working in the BoQ editor
• Exporting
• Contract proposals
• Comparing offers