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Bid Requests in Ressio allow builders to request pricing from vendors directly from their estimate. This feature helps you manage the entire bid process in one place, including sending requests, tracking vendor responses, making updates, and approving final pricing.
With Bid Requests, you can:
• Select specific line items from your estimate
• Send bid invitations to one or multiple vendors
• Add instructions, attachments, and terms
• Update vendors even after a bid has been released
• Track submissions and maintain bid history
• Approve accepted bids directly into your estimate
Ressio keeps a clear record of submissions, preserves vendor history, and ensures that approved bid amounts automatically update your estimate.
Table of Contents
Understanding Bid Requests in Construction
Ressio's bid management feature allows builders to send requests to vendors for quotes, to manage the bid process, communicate, and update project pricing. Check out the bid feature overview in the video below!
Creating, Sending, and Receiving Bid Requests
Navigate to your estimate within Ressio, click on the checkboxes next to the line items you wish to include in the bid request, click Create, snd then select Bid Request.
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From here, you can add any relevant information such as descriptions, terms and conditions, attachments, instructions, and messages for the vendors.
You can also refresh line items before previewing while your bid is still in draft. Before releasing hit the "Refresh preview from estimate". It is located in the 'Cost Items' section of your bid.
Select the Vendor(s) you would like to send the bid to. Then, click Save and Release.
Updating a Released Bid Request
Adding and Removing Vendors After Release
You can still add and remove vendor after a release. Find the bid request that you need to edit. Use the Select vendors drop down to add or remove vendors even after releasing the bid. The system automatically updates pending vendor notifications if it is still in draft. You can also hit the 'x' next to the vendor name to remove.
When you do add or remove a vendor after it has been released, make sure to hit the 'Save' button when you are complete making changes.
A window will pop up with a review of changes. After reviewing you hit 'Confirm'. You also have the option of notifying the vendor or not by checking the box.
💡 Vendors who already 'Submitted '(or previously Declined/Canceled) keep that old record as history. New vendors receive an email, while removing a vendor cancels their submission and notifies them accordingly.
❗No need to unrelease or recreate the bid when adjusting vendors.
🗒️ While the bid is still 'in-progress', only newly added vendors get a new Pending/Draft bid; removed vendors’ get canceled.
Editing and Unreleasing Bid Requests
Unrelease a bid request to make changes to the scope of work or estimate data. Ressio tracks and preserves existing submissions.
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Submitted or declined bids generate new pending submissions for vendors.
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Pending vendors see their bid requests updated with the latest changes; no need to resubmit.
When you have unreleased the bid, you can add instructions, change the title, add/remove vendors and make changes to the estimate. Updates from the estimate automatically reflect in the bid once unreleased. Use the 'Refresh preview from estimate' to make sure.
After reviewing changes, hit 'Save' and then 'Release' again when ready.
View and Use Past Bid Submissions
View canceled and newly generated bids in a dropdown tray under each bid request. Under 'Bid Submissions', scroll down and you can expand the list that says "View past submission". You will find any canceled or pending submissions associated with that bid.
From here you can also approve past submissions if their information remains relevant, ensuring an efficient process without data loss.
After making changes and before you hit 'Accept', you have the option of checking or unchecking wether you want to:
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Update cost items with bid prices?
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Notify accepted vendor via email?
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Notify vendors of bid closure via email?
Reviewing and Approving Bid Responses
To check on Vendor responses, navigate to the Bid Request tab within the Approvals section. Select Review and then Approve.
Once a Bid is approved, the amount in the estimate gets replaced with the approved amount. The Vendor name gets added to the line item in the vendor column of the estimate.
📹 To watch a video on how to add/remove vendors and edit a released bid, watch "Bids Workflow Enhancement".
How It Works for Vendors:
1. Vendor fills out the bid while it’s still in a “pending/draft” state.
2. When the vendor clicks Submit, the bid moves to “submitted” and locks (no more editing in the bid itself).
3. The contractor can then Accept or Decline that submitted bid.
🗒️ If the contractor needs changes from the vendor, the workflow is to re-release the Bid Request so the vendor can submit a new bid (the old submitted bid stays as history).
Alternate Approval Methods
If vendors provide bid responses outside of Ressio, access the Bid Request tab in the Approvals section. Review the desired bid, enter the accepted amount for each line item, select Save, Submit, and then Approve.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, contact our support team at support@ressiosoftware.com. We're here to help.