Procurement: offer requests and offers

What procurement covers

Procurement (офериране) is the part of BuildColab between a priced BoQ and a signed contract. A general contractor uses it to get prices from subcontractors for each trade. An investor uses it to get offers from general contractors. A subcontractor uses the same screens to answer its client and, if it wants, to ask its own suppliers for prices before it answers.

The screens call an offer request a "bid request" (in Bulgarian „запитване“). This guide uses "offer request" in the text and quotes the exact screen labels in bold.

There are always two sides:

• The asking company (the client, „възложител“). It owns the BoQ, creates the offer request, chooses the partners, compares the offers and awards the work.
• The answering company (the contractor, „изпълнител“). It is invited as a partner, accepts or declines, prices its offer and sends it to the client.

The answering company never sees the client's own prices, and never sees the offers of the other bidders. Each bidder sees only its own offer.

How the work goes for the asking company

1. Prepare and price the BoQ for the project. See Working in the BoQ editor.
2. Optional: plan when each trade must be requested, chosen and contracted. Split the BoQ into packages in the contracting schedule. See Contracting schedule and packages.
3. Create an offer request from a selection of BoQ positions, or from a package. Set the deadline, the note and the attached files. See Creating and sending an offer request.
4. Send the offer request to one or more partners. Each partner with an e-mail address gets one e-mail on the first send to it and, if it is already on BuildColab, an in-app notification. A self-managed subcontractor gets no e-mail.
5. For a subcontractor that will never use BuildColab, add a self-managed subcontractor and enter its offer yourself. See Recording offers from companies outside BuildColab.
6. While the request is open, change its name, deadline, note or files, revise its positions, withdraw it or close it. See Revisions, withdrawing and closing.
7. Review each offer you receive, compare offers side by side, ask a bidder for an updated offer, and copy offer prices into your own BoQ. See Comparing offers.
8. Award the whole request to one bidder, or split the positions between bidders. See Awarding (whole or by line items).
9. Propose a contract to each winner. See Contract proposals.

How the work goes for the answering company

1. You receive an e-mail „Нова заявка за оферта от {company}“ and, if your company is already linked to the client, an in-app notification "Received an offer request". See Incoming offer requests (subcontractor side).
2. Open the request under Requests (Запитвания) in your company sidebar. Read the quantities, the deadline, the note and the attached files.
3. Click Accept (Приеми) and choose the colleagues who will price the offer, or click Decline (Откажи). Declining is final.
4. After you accept, your company joins the client's project. A first offer named "{Project name} - Offer 1" is created with the requested positions and no prices.
5. Price the offer in the BoQ editor and send it with Send to client (Изпрати към възложител). A sent offer cannot be withdrawn. See Preparing and submitting an offer.
6. If the client asks for an update, start it, correct the offer and send the response.
7. If the client chooses your offer, you get a notification. A contract proposal follows. See Contract proposals.

The overview screen

1. The Outgoing bid requests (Изходящи запитвания) entry in the project sidebar opens the list of every offer request your company created in this project.
2. The Grouping (Групиране) selector switches between By bill of quantities (По КСС) and No grouping (Без групиране).
3. A group heading shows the BoQ name, its current version and the number of requests cut from it.
4. The Bid request (Запитване) column shows the request name, the revision tags and the tag from v. {n} (от в. {n}), the BoQ version the request was cut from.
5. The Recipients (Получатели) and Responses (Отговори) columns count invited partners and received offers.

Which e-mails and notifications the other company gets

BuildColab sends e-mails only at a few key moments. Everything else is an in-app notification in the bell. E-mails go to the company e-mail address of the partner, not to individual people. Every e-mail is in Bulgarian or English: the recipient's saved profile language when the address belongs to a BuildColab account that has one, otherwise the language of the person who sent it, otherwise Bulgarian. Self-managed subcontractors get no e-mails.

Plans: what the Free plan can and cannot do

A company on the Free plan can receive offer requests, accept or decline them, price its offer, send it to the client and answer update requests. This is enough to work as a subcontractor for clients who use BuildColab.

Sending your own offer requests, comparing and awarding offers, the contracting schedule, partner management, contracts, change orders and payment applications need a paid plan (Starter, Professional, Business or Enterprise) or an active trial. On the Free plan these entries show a padlock and the message "This feature is in a higher plan". See Subscription, plans and billing.

Permissions used in procurement

See Permission reference for every permission.

Pages in this section

• Contracting schedule and packages: plan when each package must be requested, chosen and contracted, with reminders.
• Creating and sending an offer request: cut a request from the BoQ or a package, pick partners and send it.
• Revisions, withdrawing and closing: change a sent request, revise its positions, withdraw it or close it.
• Incoming offer requests (subcontractor side): receive, read, accept or decline a request; record a tender received outside BuildColab.
• Preparing and submitting an offer: price the offer, send it to the client, answer update requests.
• Recording offers from companies outside BuildColab: self-managed contractors whose offers you enter yourself.
• Comparing offers: review one offer, compare offers side by side, ask for updates, use offer prices.
• Awarding (whole or by line items): choose a winner or split positions between bidders, then contract.

Common questions

Related

• Partners
• Contract proposals
• Self-managed subcontractors and self-contracts
• Notifications and their settings
• End-to-end: from BoQ to payment