Bid Leveling

Creating a Bid Leveling Sheet

A bid leveling sheet (also called an RFP in SCOPE) organizes your scope of work into line items so that multiple subcontractors can price the same structure — making bid comparisons apples-to-apples.

1. Open a job and click RFPs in the job toolbar.
2. Click Add RFP.
3. Fill in the header:
   • Trade — the trade being bid (e.g., "Electrical", "Mechanical").
   • Description — a brief summary of the scope.
   • Due Date — the bid submission deadline.
   • Status — the current stage of the bid process.
4. Click Submit. The leveling matrix opens automatically in Edit Matrix mode.
5. Click + Row to add line items. Each row includes: Item #, Description, Unit, and Quantity.
6. Build out all line items before adding bidders so that the structure is locked before invitations go out.
7. Click Done to save the matrix structure.

Inviting Bidders and Sending Invitations

Once the leveling sheet is set up, add bidders and send invitation emails directly from SCOPE.

1. With a leveling sheet open, click Add Bidder.
2. Search for a company by name and select it. The company is added as a bidder column in the matrix.
3. Click the contact icon on the bidder's column to add bidder contacts — these are the people who will receive the invitation email.
4. To add multiple bidders by trade classification at once: click Find by Trade → select vendor classifications → select vendors → click Add Selected.
5. To send invitations: click Invite to Bid.
6. Check which bidders you want to invite (you can exclude bidders already invited).
7. Review the email template — it is editable from Settings → Email Templates. The template includes the RFP details and the bidder's unique submission link.
8. Click Send. Each bidder receives their own tokenized link.

Comparing and Leveling Bids

Once bids are submitted, open the matrix to compare them side by side and make your award decisions.

1. Open the leveling sheet and click Edit Matrix.
2. Each bidder appears as a column. Submitted bid amounts populate the cells for each line item.
3. The lowest bid in each row is highlighted green automatically.
4. Column subtotals and grand totals calculate automatically at the bottom.
5. Below the subtotal, apply per-bidder adjustments as needed:
   • Tax overhead, markup, sales tax, freight, discount, insurance.
6. To award a row to a specific bidder, check the award checkbox in that bidder's column for that row.
7. Split awards are supported — different rows can be awarded to different bidders. Awarded columns are tinted green.
8. Click Done to save the matrix.

Using the Public Bid Submission Portal

Bidders do not need a SCOPE account to submit. The public portal is accessible to anyone with the invitation link.

When a bidder receives the invite-to-bid email:

1. They click the tokenized link in the email.
2. The public portal opens showing the RFP line items and the bid form.
3. They enter their unit prices for each line item.
4. They can upload supporting documents (PDFs, images, etc.) as attachments to their submission.
5. They click Submit. Their bid appears in the leveling matrix immediately.

SCOPE automatically tracks:

• When the invitation link was first opened.
• When the bid was submitted.
• Which bidders have not yet responded.

Tokens expire on the leveling sheet's Due Date. Bidders cannot submit after the deadline.

Managing Bid Reminders and Deadlines

SCOPE automatically follows up with bidders who have not yet submitted, so you spend less time chasing responses.

The reminder schedule is configurable — set the number of reminders and the frequency (days between each) in the RFP settings.

To customize the reminder schedule:

1. Open the leveling sheet and click Edit on the header.
2. Adjust Reminder Max Count — the maximum number of reminder emails per bidder.
3. Adjust Reminder Frequency Days — how many days between each reminder.
4. Click Submit to save.

Reminder behavior:

• Reminders stop automatically as soon as a bidder submits their bid.
• Bidders who have not opened the link at all are flagged in the bidder status column.
• The leveling sheet list shows each bidder's status: Opened, Responded, or Bid Submitted.