Auto-attaching to bids and orders

Two settings under Options on a document:

• Auto Attach to all new Bids
• Auto Attach to all new Orders

Turn one on and the document is included with every new tender package, or every new purchase order, on that project.

What deserves auto-attach

Documents that genuinely go with everything.

Document	Bids	Orders
Site plan and access details	●	●
Site safety requirements	●	●
Your standard subcontract conditions	●	—
Insurance requirements	●	—
Delivery instructions	—	●
Soil report	●	—
A-101 Floor Plan	—	—

The floor plan is the interesting row. It feels like it should go to everyone, and it should not — the painter does not need it, and a package with four irrelevant drawings buries the two that matter.

Auto-attach everything and nobody reads anything

A subcontractor sent the full 40-sheet set has to find their drawing before they can start. One sent three relevant sheets starts pricing. Attach the specific drawings per package by hand; reserve auto-attach for the genuinely universal.

Site access and safety

The best candidates for both settings.

Every subcontractor pricing the job and every supplier delivering to it needs to know how to get in, where to park, whether there is crane access, and what the site requires. Attaching it once means nobody has to remember.

It also means the information is in writing on every document you issue, which matters if there is ever a question about what a contractor was told.

Standard conditions

Your subcontract conditions, insurance requirements and payment terms belong on every bid.

Sending them with the invitation rather than at award means subcontractors price knowing them. A subcontractor who discovers your retention terms after winning has a reason to renegotiate.

Review it per project

Auto-attach is set per document on a project, so it carries the settings you gave it on that job.

Worth a look when a job starts: what is set to auto-attach, and is it still right? A document that made sense to attach to every order during construction may not make sense during the defects period.

Attaching by hand

Everything else. On a tender, Attach Files adds the drawings that package needs. On an order, the same.

Two or three relevant documents per package, chosen deliberately, beats twelve sent automatically — every time.