Comparing offers

Where you find the offers you received

Offers you receive are not on a page of their own. You see them in four places:

• The request panel next to your BoQ: each partner card lists its responses, "Response #N", with Review (Разгледай). See Revisions, withdrawing and closing.
• The single offer page: one bidder's offer, read-only.
• The comparison: several offers side by side.
• The award screen: the same grid in award mode. See Awarding (whole or by line items).

The project page Offers (Оферти) is for the offers your own company prepares, for example a general contractor's offer to its investor. A general contractor does not find its subcontractors' offers there; they live under its outgoing requests.

All screens read each offer as sent: the version the bidder last submitted, never its unsent edits. A bidder's unsent draft never appears.

You are told about new offers: members with Edit on Outgoing bid requests get the notification "{partnerName} answered the offer request "{requestName}" with an offer — project …" with Open the offer (Отвори офертата). Your company e-mail gets „Получихте оферта от {company}“ for the bidder's first offer.

The single offer page

Open an offer from the request panel: expand the partner card and click Review (Разгледай) on a response. The notification about a new offer and the e-mail open the same page.

1. Offers (Оферти) with the back arrow returns to your BoQ with the request.
2. The title "{partner name} - {offer name}" and Total value (Обща стойност), always for the whole offer.
3. Compare (Сравни) opens the comparison with this offer selected.
4. Use prices (Използвай цени) copies the offer's prices into your BoQ.
5. Request update (Заяви актуализация) asks the bidder to revise this offer.
6. Search tasks (Търсене на задачи) and Controls (Контроли) filter the read-only grid.
7. The contract button, shown when your project is in the Execution phase.

• The grid is read-only and fully expanded. Right-click offers only filter categories; nothing in the offer can be changed.
• The floating buttons expand or collapse all categories and switch to full screen.
• The contract button: Propose contract (Предложи договор) for a bidder on BuildColab, or Create contract on their behalf (Създай договор от негово име) for a self-managed subcontractor. It appears only when your project is in the Execution phase. See Contract proposals.

How to ask a bidder for an updated offer

1. Open the offer on its page (Review on the response).
2. Click Request update (Заяви актуализация).
3. In the dialog type a Description (Описание) of what to change. It is optional but helps the bidder.
4. Click Send (Изпрати).

The bidder gets an in-app notification and an e-mail (in the recipient's profile language, Bulgarian or English, otherwise yours), „Заявка за актуализация на оферта от {your company}“, with your description. On your partner card the response timeline shows "Update request · To version {n}" with the status Update requested, then Processing when the bidder starts. When the bidder sends its answer, you get "{partnerName} responded to the update request for "{requestName}"" and the e-mail „Получихте оферта от {company}“, and a new "Response #N", "Update received", appears.

Request update is hidden while an update request for that offer is already open, when the page was opened without a response, and for self-managed subcontractors, whose offers you edit yourself. Only one open update request per offer version is allowed.

How to compare received offers

Open the comparison in one of these ways:

• On a single offer page click Compare (Сравни). That offer is selected.
• On a package page of the contracting schedule click Compare and award (Сравни и възложи) in Offers and award.
• On the project page, when one request has two or more offers, the banner "Finalise the offer" offers Compare the offers (Сравни офертите).

Compare and award in the request panel opens the same grid directly in award mode.

1. Include categories (Включи категории) and Colour highlighting (Цветово маркиране) toggles.
2. The color legend: new, changed, missing, unchanged, lowest and highest unit price.
3. Select to compare (N) (Избери за сравнение) opens the offer selector.
4. The frozen left part: Description, UoM and the first column's quantity.
5. One column group per offer: Qty, Unit price, Total value, Note, with the bidder and response number in the header.
6. The for comparison (за сравнение) column with the lowest price per row.

The toolbar

• Title Compare offers (Сравни оферти).
• Include categories (Включи категории), on by default, shows category rows.
• Colour highlighting (Цветово маркиране), on by default. The legend: New item (Нова позиция), Changed item (Променена позиция), Missing item (Липсваща позиция), Unchanged (Без промяна), Lowest unit price (Най-ниска ед. цена), Highest unit price (Най-висока ед. цена).
• Back (Назад) returns to the previous page.
• Select to compare (N) (Избери за сравнение) opens the selector.
• Compare and award (Сравни и възложи), while the request is open.
• On a revised request: Compare with the previous round (Сравни с предишния кръг) / This round only (Само този кръг), and Compare of the previous revision (history).

Choosing offers and versions

1. Click Select to compare (N) (Избери за сравнение).
2. The dialog Select offers and versions to compare (Избери оферти и версии за сравнение) groups offers by partner, with the Self-managed badge where it applies. Search with "Search by company or offer…".
3. Each sent answer is a checkbox Response #N (Отговор #N) with date and total. Only the latest shows until you click Show all (k) (Покажи всички).
4. The right pane For comparison (За сравнение) lists your picks; × removes one.
5. Tick Official comparison (Служебно сравнение) to add the lowest-price column.
6. Click Done (Готово). Nothing changes until you do.

1. The search field "Search by company or offer…".
2. A partner group with its offers and Response #N checkboxes.
3. The For comparison pane with the selected columns.
4. The Official comparison checkbox.
5. Done applies the selection.

Reading the grid

• Rows are aligned by your position. Each bidder's position was created from your request, so it sits on the row of your original position even if the bidder renamed it, changed its note or moved it to another category. One row is always the price of the same work.
• The left frozen part has Description (Описание), UoM (м.ед.; hide or show it) and qty #1 (к-во #1), the quantity of the first column.
• Each selected offer has the columns Qty (К-во), Unit price (Ед. цена), Total value (Обща стойност) and Note (Забележка), a header with the offer name and "{company} · Response #N", and a subtotal.
• Change marks (+/−) for quantity and total compare each column with the first column.
• With color highlighting, the cheapest unit price per row is marked lowest and the dearest highest; changed, added and missing positions are tinted.
• With Official comparison, the extra column for comparison (за сравнение) shows the lowest unit price per row and its total. On a tie, the lower total wins.
• Positions a bidder added itself are grouped at the end as Added by the bidder — {company} (Добавени от участника — {company}).

Comparing with the previous round

If you revised the request, the comparison of the new revision shows only its own offers. Click Compare with the previous round (Сравни с предишния кръг) to put each bidder's offer from the previous revision next to its current one. Columns read "Round {r} · Response #N". Rows only the old round asked for are struck through, "Dropped in the new round"; rows only the new round has are marked "New in this round". This round only (Само този кръг) returns. Compare of the previous revision (history) opens the superseded revision's comparison.

Empty states and messages

• "No received offers to compare yet": no bidder has sent an offer.
• "Please select offers for comparison" with "Found {n} offers of {m} companies": open the selector and pick columns.
• "The data is not available due to caching." with Try again (Опитай отново): one column failed to load; retry.

Withdrawn or superseded offers still appear in the selector if they had sent answers. Bidders never see this comparison; each sees only its own prices.

How to use an offer's prices in your BoQ

A general contractor often builds its own offer to the investor from its subcontractors' prices plus a mark-up. Use prices does this without retyping.

1. Open the offer on its page (Review).
2. Click Use prices (Използвай цени).
3. In Use the prices from the offer (Използвай цените от офертата), "Select how to transfer the prices", enter Profit percentage (Процент печалба), 0 or more; default 0.
4. Tick Include changes to the bill of quantities (Включи промените по количествената сметка) if the bidder's changes to descriptions, notes and added positions should come into your BoQ too.
5. Click Transfer prices (Прехвърли цени).

The transfer runs in the background, "Transferring prices", and you return to your BoQ. If it takes more than 5 minutes, you see "The operation is taking longer than expected. Check back later."

1. Profit percentage (Процент печалба) is added on top of the bidder's unit price.
2. Include changes to the bill of quantities also brings the bidder's structural changes.
3. Transfer prices (Прехвърли цени) starts the background transfer.

What Use prices does

• It reads the offer as the bidder sent it, even if the bidder has edited it since.
• Each of your matching positions gets the bidder's unit price as a service resource in its resource analysis, plus your profit percentage. See Resource analysis.
• Running it again for the same request replaces the earlier transfer instead of adding a second one.
• With Include changes…, the bidder's added positions, changed descriptions and changed notes are carried into your BoQ first.
• Positions under a signed contract are skipped. Positions you deleted are not brought back.
• It is not an award and does not create a contract. The bidder is not notified.

If several of the bidder's positions point to the same position of yours, nothing is copied: "Several lines of the offer point at the same line of yours ({count}) — prices were not copied, so none is picked at random." The screen has no way to choose; ask BORO to transfer the prices and tell it which of the bidder's positions to use. See What BORO can do.

Without Edit on Offers you see a permission message; without write access to your BoQ, "You do not have permission to perform this action."

Comparing your own offers and budget drafts

The same screen compares your own documents, not received offers:

• On the Offers (Оферти) page, a card menu (⋯) → Compare (Сравни). It needs at least two offers.
• For an investor, the budget drafts card → Compare; the title becomes Compare drafts (Сравни чернови). See Investment budget.

In the selector each of your offers offers Latest version (Последна версия) and every locked Version N (Версия N), with date and total. The current offer is fixed as current (текуща). Add version 1 of an offer created from a request to see exactly what changed against what the client asked for. With fewer than two documents you see "Not enough offers to compare — At least two BoQs are required for comparison." There is no award mode here.

Permissions and plan

Common questions

Related

• Awarding (whole or by line items)
• Revisions, withdrawing and closing
• Contract proposals
• Recording offers from companies outside BuildColab
• Versions, comparing and locking