A bid package is one scope of work you’re sending out for pricing: one trade, one closing date, a list of invited bidders and the documents they price from. Bidders get a link to submit their price online — they don’t need a Framework account — and the package’s recap lines the bids up for you.
Create a bid package
- Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows), type Bid packages and press Enter. The Bid packages log opens.
- Click New bid package. A package is created with the next number (BP-001, BP-002…) and opens.
- Give it a title, then fill in the details: Trade, Bids due, Budget, Scope and any Attachments.
Or click Ask AI on the log and finish the sentence “Put together a bid package for…”.
Track where it stands with Status: Draft, Issued, Closing, Closed, Awarded or Cancelled.
Write the schedule of prices
Under Schedule of prices, add one row per item you want priced (click the empty row at the bottom of the table): Item, Description, Qty, Unit and Notes. Every bidder prices the same list, so bids compare line for line instead of as lump sums read from different scopes.
Budget rate is your own number for each line. Bidders never see it — the recap uses it to show how each bid sits against budget.
Add the documents
Under Documents:
- New → start from Instructions to bidders, Scope of work, Special conditions or a Blank document. These are written for this package and stay with it.
- New → Copy an existing document… to reuse one from a previous package.
- Include to point at something already in the project, such as the specification, without copying it.
Invite bidders
- Under Bidders, click the empty row at the bottom of the table to add a row.
- In Vendor, pick a contact from the project, or choose Create new contact and enter their name, email and company.
- The vendor is emailed a link to the package. Use the bell in the Vendor cell to turn notifications off, or Send now to resend the link.
Through the link, a bidder can say they’re not bidding, or enter a rate against each line of the schedule of prices, add qualifications and attach files, then Submit bid. Their total is worked out from their rates. They can update their bid until the package is Closed, Awarded or Cancelled; after that the link is read-only.
Each bidder’s row shows their Intent (Invited, Bidding, Declined), Status (Pending, Submitted, Withdrawn), Bid amount, Submitted date, Qualifications and Attachments. If a price arrives by email instead, type it into the row yourself.
Compare bids in the recap
The Recap section at the bottom of the package shows:
- Coverage — how many bidders were Invited, are Bidding, Declined or are still Awaiting.
- Each bid’s Total, how far it is above the low bid (vs low), how it compares to your Budget (vs budget) and when it was submitted.
- A line-by-line comparison of every bidder’s rates against your budget rates.
When you’ve chosen, set the package’s status to Awarded.
