End-to-end: from BoQ to payment

The roles in one project

A BuildColab project is shared by every company that works on it. Each company sees the same project from its own side, with its own team, its own permissions and its own project phase. The roles are:

• Investor (инвеститор): the company that orders the building and pays. It creates the project as Investor, prepares budget drafts, accepts the investment budget and contracts a general contractor.
• General contractor (главен изпълнител): the company that builds for the investor. It prices the investor's BoQ, signs the contract with the investor, and contracts subcontractors for parts of the work. It is the contractor in one contract and the client in others.
• Subcontractor (подизпълнител) or supplier: a company that prices and does part of the work for the general contractor. It answers offer requests, signs a contract and bills it with payment applications.
• Self-managed subcontractor (самоуправляван подизпълнител): a subcontractor that does not use BuildColab. The client records its offers, contracts and payment applications on its behalf.

In every contract, the company that asks and pays is the client (възложител) and the company that does the work is the contractor (изпълнител). The same chain can repeat: investor → general contractor → subcontractor → the subcontractor's own suppliers. Each link uses the same screens.

The chain at a glance

Where the steps live in the project sidebar

1. Financial dashboard (Финансово табло) compares the budget with committed and certified costs.
2. Outgoing bid requests (Изходящи запитвания) lists the offer requests your company sent to subcontractors and suppliers, with their offers.
3. Budget (Бюджет) is the client-side budget; a general contractor sees Offers (Оферти) and Contract with client (Договор с възложител) here instead.
4. Contracts with contractors (Договори с изпълнители) lists the contracts you awarded.
5. Contracting schedule (График на договаряне) plans the packages; only the company that created the project sees it, and only from the Offer sent phase onwards.
6. Report Register (Регистър на отчети) lists every payment application of the project, in both directions.
7. Construction schedule (Строителен график) opens the Gantt view of the schedule.

The entries Budget or Contract with client, Contracts with contractors, Report Register, Construction schedule and Financial dashboard appear only in the Execution phase. Before that, open the schedule from the Construction schedule card on the project page or with the Schedule (График) button of a BoQ, which needs the company-level Schedule permission at View. See The project page.

The general contractor's path

The general contractor is in the middle of the chain: it answers its client and asks its subcontractors. These are the steps in order.

1. Get the project. If the investor uses BuildColab, it sends you an offer request; you get the e-mail „Нова заявка за оферта от {company}“. Open it under Requests (Запитвания) in the company sidebar and click Accept (Приеми). Your company joins the investor's project in the Offering phase, and a first offer "{Project name} - Offer 1" appears on the Offers page. If the client does not use BuildColab, create your own project as Contractor. See Incoming offer requests (subcontractor side) and Project list and creating a project.
2. Prepare the BoQ. For your own project, import the client's Excel file or build the BoQ by hand, and lock the received quantities with Finish base (Завърши база). An offer created from an accepted request already holds the client's positions as its base. See Importing a BoQ from Excel and Versions, comparing and locking.
3. Price it. Build a resource analysis for each position, reuse earlier prices through task templates, and set additional costs and profit. See Resource analysis, Task templates and price history and Profit, additional costs and totals.
4. Plan the subcontracting (optional). If you created the project, open Contracting schedule (График на договаряне) once your project is past Offering, split the BoQ into packages and check the deadlines. See Contracting schedule and packages.
5. Ask subcontractors for prices. Select positions in the BoQ (or start from a package), click Outgoing bid requests in the action bar, then Create bid request (Създаване на заявка за оферта), and send the request to your partners with Send to partner (Изпрати към партньор). For a subcontractor that does not use BuildColab, add a self-managed subcontractor and enter its offer yourself. See Creating and sending an offer request and Recording offers from companies outside BuildColab.
6. Compare and use their prices. Review each offer, compare them side by side, ask for updates, and copy the best prices into your own offer with Use prices (Използвай цени). See Comparing offers.
7. Send your offer to the client. On the offer card click Send to client (Изпрати към възложител). Sending locks the version and cannot be undone; your phase becomes Offer sent. If the client asks for an update, click Start (Започни), correct the offer and click Send response (Изпрати отговор). See Preparing and submitting an offer.
8. Sign the contract with the client. When the client proposes a contract, your phase becomes Contract proposal. Click Review the contract (Прегледай договора), check the terms and click Accept (Приеми). Your project moves to Execution, and the contract appears under Contract with client (Договор с възложител). If the client does not use BuildColab, click Turn into contract (Превърни в договор) on your own offer instead. See Contract proposals and Self-managed subcontractors and self-contracts.
9. Award the subcontracts. In the offer request panel click Compare and award (Сравни и възложи), give each position or section to a bidder and click Save the award (Запази възлагането). See Awarding (whole or by line items).
10. Propose the subcontracts. Open each winner's offer with Review (Разгледай) and click Propose contract (Предложи договор). This button appears only in the Execution phase, which is why step 8 comes first. Fill in the five terms and click Send to partner. For a self-managed subcontractor click Create contract on their behalf (Създай договор от негово име). See Contract proposals.
11. Follow the costs. Each signed subcontract line becomes a commitment against your budget line. Check the margin and link unmatched lines with Link lines (Свържи позиции) in the financial dashboard. See Costs and Financial dashboard: committed, certified, margin.
12. Plan and publish the schedule. Create the construction schedule of your contract BoQ, set dates and dependencies, and click Publish (Публикувай). Each subcontractor with a signed contract receives a read-only slice of its own scope. Report progress in whole percent during the works. See Schedule, Publishing to subcontractors (slices) and Reporting progress.
13. Handle changes. To change your contract with the client, open Contract changes (Промени по договор), click Make a change (Направи промяна), edit and click Propose change (Предложи промяна). To change a subcontract, click Request update (Заяви актуализация) and accept the subcontractor's proposal. See Change orders and extensions.
14. Bill and approve. Approve, counter or reject your subcontractors' payment applications. Then create your own payment application to the client from the Reports (Отчети) button of Contract with client, optionally with Pull from contractor reports (Изтегли от отчети на изпълнители), and click Submit for Approval (Изпрати за одобрение). See Payment applications.

The subcontractor's path

1. Receive the request. You get the e-mail „Нова заявка за оферта от {company}“ at your company e-mail address and, if your company is already linked to the client, an in-app notification. Open the link, sign in or register, and choose the company that will answer. See Incoming offer requests (subcontractor side).
2. Read it and decide. Check the quantities, the deadline, the note and the attached Files. Click Accept (Приеми) and choose the colleagues who will price the offer, or Decline (Откажи). Declining is final for that request.
3. Price the offer. Open the client's project from your project list and go to Offers (Оферти). Price "{Project name} - Offer 1" in the BoQ editor. You may ask your own suppliers for prices with your own offer requests. See Preparing and submitting an offer.
4. Send it. Click Send to client (Изпрати към възложител). The version is locked and a sent offer cannot be withdrawn. The client gets the e-mail „Получихте оферта от {company}“.
5. Answer updates. If the client asks for an update (e-mail „Заявка за актуализация на оферта от {company}“), click Start (Започни), correct the offer and click Send response (Изпрати отговор). If the client revises the request, your offer is carried over with the prices of unchanged positions.
6. Wait for the decision. If your offer is chosen, you get the notification "Your offer for … was chosen". If the work goes to someone else, your request shows Awarded to someone else (Възложено на друг) and nobody notifies you.
7. Accept the contract. Click Review the contract (Прегледай договора) on the project page, check the terms and click Accept (Приеми). Your project moves to Execution. See Contract proposals.
8. Follow the schedule. When the general contractor publishes its master schedule, you receive a slice with your scope. With Schedule at Edit you can report progress on it. See Publishing to subcontractors (slices).
9. Change the contract when the scope changes. When the client sends a Request update, or when you need a change yourself, click Make a change (Направи промяна) in Contract changes and send Propose change (Предложи промяна). See Change orders and extensions.
10. Bill your work. In Contract with client click Reports (Отчети), then Create report (Създай отчет), enter the quantities of the period and click Submit for Approval (Изпрати за одобрение). Work that is not in the contract can be added as positions outside the contract. See Creating and submitting and Positions outside the contract.

The investor's path

1. Create the project as Investor. On the project list click Add project (Добави проект) and choose the investor role. The project starts in Budgeting (Бюджетиране). The role step appears only if your role has Budget preparation (Изготвяне на бюджет) at Edit. See Project list and creating a project.
2. Prepare budget drafts. On Drafts (Чернови) create one or more drafts, import or build the BoQ and price it. Compare drafts with Compare (Сравни). See BoQ documents and versions list.
3. Ask general contractors for offers. Send offer requests from a draft, compare the offers and copy prices into your draft. See Creating and sending an offer request and Comparing offers.
4. Accept the budget. Click Budget acceptance (Приемане на бюджет) on the draft card, or accept only the priced part with Accept part of the budget (Приемане на част от бюджета). Your project moves to Execution and the Budget (Бюджет) page appears. See Investment budget and Partial acceptance.
5. Award and contract the general contractor. Award the request, open the winner's offer with Review and click Propose contract (Предложи договор). After the contractor accepts, the contract appears under Contracts with contractors (Договори с изпълнители) and its lines become commitments against your budget. See Awarding (whole or by line items) and Contract proposals.
6. Change the budget or the contract. Budget changes go through Budget changes (Промени по бюджет); contract changes through Request update on the contract. See Change orders and extensions.
7. Approve the payment applications. The general contractor's payment applications arrive by e-mail and in the Needs action (Изисква действие) tab of the bell. Review them and click Approve (Одобри), Counter (Насрещно предложение) or Reject (Отхвърли). See Reviewing, approving, countering, rejecting.
8. Watch the money. Open Financial dashboard (Финансово табло) and the cost columns of the budget for committed, certified and margin. See Financial dashboard: committed, certified, margin.

When the other company does not use BuildColab

Nothing is e-mailed to a self-managed subcontractor at any step. Contact it directly and give it copies, for example an Excel export.

Who does what

What becomes locked or binding along the way

E-mails along the chain

Most events reach the other company as in-app notifications in the bell. E-mails go to the e-mail address of the other company at these moments. Each 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 whose action sent it, otherwise Bulgarian. The subjects below are the Bulgarian ones.

• An offer request is sent to a partner for the first time: „Нова заявка за оферта от {company}“. Later changes, revisions and withdrawals are in-app only.
• An offer is sent, or an update request is answered: „Получихте оферта от {company}“ to the client.
• The client asks for an updated offer: „Заявка за актуализация на оферта от {company}“.
• A contract proposal is accepted or declined, and change-order proposals and their answers. A new contract proposal itself is in-app only.
• A payment application is submitted, countered, approved, rejected or withdrawn, and when someone is assigned to it.

Award decisions are in-app only; bidders that lose are not notified. See Notifications and their settings.

Common questions

Related

• All statuses explained
• Glossary
• Procurement: offer requests and offers
• Contracts and changes
• Payment applications
• Budget, costs and reports