The tender list

Tenders in the Winning Work menu opens the tender list: every tender on the estimate, with the subcontractors invited to each and what came back. It is the screen to keep open while tenders are out.

Reading it

Each tender is a group. Its header carries the name, the stage it is at, how many are invited, sent and quoted, the budget for its items, and the lowest quote in so far with the difference against the budget — a saving in green, an overrun in pink.

Under the header, one row per subcontractor:

Column	What it shows
Subcontractor	The business and the contact, with their phone number. Under the name, what the supplier record already knows: a ★ 4.2 average rating, and a red expired or amber expires in 9d badge when a dated field on the record — licence, insurance, Work Cover — has run out or will within 30 days. Nothing shows when neither is recorded
Status	Not sent, Sent, Quoted, Awarded, Not interested — or Send failed with the reason the mail server gave
Sent	When the email went
Quote	The amount, their quote number and date. N quotes means they quoted more than once; the newest is shown

Across the top, the summary strip counts tenders, invitations, sends, quotes in (with the share received) and awards.

Who needs a chase

A subcontractor sent the tender a week or more ago with nothing back is flagged on their row — Sent 9 days ago, nothing back — worth a call — and counted in the pink to chase tile. Click the tile, or the Needs a chase chip, to see only those tenders. Once a tender is awarded, nobody on it is chased any more.

An awarded tender has a green border, and the winning subcontractor’s row is green with a star before the name.

Ring them. The help on sending and tracking explains why a second email rarely works.

Finding things

The search box matches tender names, subcontractors, contacts, quote numbers and notes; a match on a subcontractor keeps their tender’s header so the row stays in context.

The chips narrow the list by stage: Not sent, Waiting (sent, nothing back), Quotes in, Awarded. Show trashed brings back tenders in the trash so they can be restored.

Each tender folds up with the arrow at its left, and the list remembers which are folded when you come back. Awarded tenders start folded whenever the page opens — the work on them is done — and open with a click like any other.

Working from a row

Button	Does
Notes	Your running record on that subcontractor — rang Tuesday, pricing by Friday. The count shows on the button; the newest note is its tooltip
Envelope	Opens the email they were sent
Link	Copies their personal quote link, for the “I can’t find the email” call
PDF	The quote document they attached
Follow up	Chase a subcontractor who was sent the tender and has not replied. A polite email is prepared for you — the date it was first sent, a request for their price, and their quote link — with the tender’s files and the item list attached again, so “I never got the drawings” is answered in the same message. Change the words, Load one of your templates or Save as my template for next time, and What they’ll see shows the email with the placeholders filled in for that person. Send me a copy (ticked by default) puts a copy in your own inbox. Then Send follow-up: the dialog switches to the email as it was sent, it is recorded in their notes, and their “days since contact” starts again. The button turns blue once they are overdue
Add quote	Record a quote that came back by email or phone against this invitation
Read quote	Drop in the quote they sent — a PDF or a photo — and its lines are read into this tender’s items for you to check before anything is recorded. See Reading a quote with AI
Award	Give the tender to this subcontractor (needs the Accept a quote permission). It asks whether to update the estimate items too: ticked, every item they priced takes their quantity, their product and their quoted price, which is what puts their rate on the purchase order later; unticked, only the award is recorded. If the supplier record says their licence or insurance has expired, the dialog says so before you confirm. Once a tender is awarded the button leaves the other rows; changing the winner, or awarding item by item across two subcontractors, is done on the tender’s Compare tab
Undo award	On the row of the latest award on the estimate. Puts back the quotes that were chosen before and each estimate item’s quantity, product and price - except items edited since, which it leaves alone and tells you about. Orders already raised are not touched. Undo the newest award first; an older one shows its button once the newer ones are undone
Not interested	They have said they will not price it; they drop out of the counts

On the header: Open the tender, Items to add or check what is being priced, Invite to add subcontractors, and — once anyone has been sent it — Send update.

Sending an update to everyone

Every real tender gets at least one “the plans changed” moment: a revised drawing, a clarification a subcontractor asked for, a new closing date. Send update on the tender’s header sends one email to everyone already sent the tender, in one go.

• To lists everyone who has the package, ticked. Those who have quoted are included — the message asks them whether their price still stands — and anyone marked not interested, or with no usable email address, is listed but not ticked.
• Attach shows the tender’s files. Upload a file puts a new document on the tender and ticks it; only the ticked files go, so the update carries what changed, not the whole package again. The item list PDF can be ticked too.
• The subject and message are yours to change. Replace the line in square brackets with what changed. The subcontractor’s quote link is included, so they can re-price online. As with a follow-up, you can Load a template or Save as my template, What they’ll see shows the email filled in for any one of the recipients, and Send me a copy puts one in your own inbox.

Each row shows Processing then Sent, a note “Update sent to everyone” goes on every row, and their “days since contact” starts again.

Reading a quote with AI

When a subcontractor sends their quote as a PDF, Read quote on their row saves it to the job’s Quotes Received folder and has it read against the tender’s items:

1. Drop the file in (PDF, PNG or JPG, up to 25 MB) and press Read it. It takes 20 to 60 seconds.
2. Check the lines. Each one shows the wording as printed on the document, the tender item it was matched to, the quantity and the price. Check and Guessed mark the lines the reader was unsure of, with its reason. A quantity that differs from the tender’s is flagged beside the item.
3. Lines the reader could not match are unticked with — not on this tender —. The item dropdown gives you two more choices for them: Choose another item from the estimate… (pick the cost code, then the item in it; one not yet on the tender is put on it with the quote) and Create a new item… (name, unit and a cost code; the item is made on the estimate and added to the tender). If the tender has no items at all, every line starts as a new item, prefilled from the document — use Cost code for the new items › Apply to all new items above the table to file them all at once, then change any single line with its Edit…, and the subcontractor’s breakdown becomes your tender. Creating items needs the BOQ edit permission.
4. Line by line or One lump sum — the default records one quote line per document line. Switch to One lump sum to record the whole quote’s value as a single line against one item (an item on the tender, another on the estimate, or a new one); the document’s lines stay on screen for reference and the price box holds the document’s total, ready to change.
5. The quote number and date come off the document. Tick include GST if the document’s prices include it — every price is then divided by the job’s GST rate on the way in, so the quote is ex GST like the estimate. Create a product for each line (ticked by default) does what Create new product does on the quote page: the subcontractor’s price becomes their product on each item, which is what carries it into the estimate when the quote is awarded.
6. Create quote records the ticked lines and attaches the document. The quote opens so the lines can be checked against the paper.

The document’s exclusions are listed under the table — read them; that is where a cheap quote hides its scope gaps. The reads count against the AI allowance on your plan, shared with AI take-off. The button is only there when AI features are switched on for your company.

Starting from a previous tender

Builders tender the same trades job after job. In New tender, tick Start from a previous tender and pick one — any tender on a job you can see, searchable by tender, project or estimate. The new tender takes its covering email, whether the item list is attached, and the subcontractors it went to, all unsent, so nothing goes out until you press Send. Items come across only when the source is on this same estimate (they are this job’s rows); files never — attach this job’s drawings before sending.

Across the whole list

New tender names one and opens it — or starts it from a previous tender, see above. New quote records a price that did not come through a tender — pick the subcontractor’s invitation if there was one, or the supplier if not.

Under More:

• Reports — All tenders, All quotes and Tender notes as PDF, and the tender list to Excel. The three with prices need the See quoted prices permission.
• Copy tender list and Paste tender list — carry every tender, with its items and subcontractors, onto another estimate. Copy on the source, switch estimate, paste. Nothing is sent, and files are not copied: attach this job’s drawings before sending.
• Expand all / Collapse all.
• Delete all unsent tenders — removes every tender on the estimate that has never been sent, with its items, files and notes. It asks first, and it cannot be undone.

Quotes with no tender

Other quotes at the bottom lists quotes recorded on the estimate without a tender — a price that came in on its own. Open one to see its lines.