Requesting vendor bids

FullClarity lets you send the items from a cost estimate out to your suppliers and subcontractors for pricing, then collect their responses in one place. You raise a single bid request, choose the items and vendors, and each vendor receives an email with a secure link to an online bid form. As bids come back, you can compare what each vendor offered against the same set of items before deciding who to award the work to.

Several bid-management defaults are set once on the Project Financials Configuration record — the invitation and reminder email templates, the reminder lead time, and the acceptance mode and "add estimate lines as applied" behaviour that control how accepted or preferred prices flow onto the estimate. These pre-fill each new bid request and can be overridden per request. See Configuring bid management below for what each of these does.

The workflow has three parts:

1. Raise a bid request against an estimate, choosing the items and vendors
2. Send the invitations so each vendor receives a link to their online bid form
3. Review the responses as vendors submit their pricing (or decline), then prefer or award the work

What a Vendor Bid Request is

A Vendor Bid Request is a single record that ties together everything about one round of pricing: the estimate you're bidding, the items you want quoted, the vendors you're inviting, and — as they come back — every vendor's response. You raise one request, and FullClarity creates one bid underneath it for each vendor, so each supplier prices the same list independently.

The request record is organised into subtabs, so it helps to know what each one is for before you start:

• Overview — once bids arrive, a Bid Line Summary showing where every scope line stands. (The request's own details — estimate, title, due date, instructions — sit at the top of the record, just above these subtabs.)
• Bids — the individual bids, one per vendor, and their statuses. This is where you send invitations, and review, prefer or award responses.
• Categories — the scope lines you've chosen from the estimate for vendors to price.
• Mail Merge — the invitation and reminder emails that go out to vendors.
• Files — the supporting documents (drawings, specs, scopes) sent with the request.

You don't need to master these up front — the steps below walk you through them in order — but knowing the layout means you'll always know where to look.

When to use this

Use this when you want competitive pricing for the items in an estimate — for example, sending a list of materials to several suppliers, or a scope of work to a few subcontractors, and asking each to quote. Because every vendor bids against the same items and quantities, the responses are easy to compare side by side.

Prerequisites

• An existing project with at least one estimate that contains the items you want priced. Vendors bid on the items from that estimate, so the estimate must exist first.
• The vendors you want to invite exist in NetSuite with a contact email address.
• Access to the project record's Estimating subtab.

Configuring bid management

A handful of bid-management defaults live on the Project Financials Configuration record, set once per subsidiary. They aren't things you touch every time you raise a bid — instead, each one pre-fills the matching field on every new bid request, so raising a request starts from sensible defaults. You can still override any of them on an individual request. Getting these right up front means most requests need little more than a title, a due date and a list of items.

The settings are:

• Bid Invite Email Template and Bid Reminder Email Template — the email templates used for the invitation that goes out when you send a request, and for the reminder that chases vendors who haven't responded. Both pre-fill each new request and can be swapped per request. The invitation ships with a built-in default, so invites work out of the box; the reminder has no built-in default yet, so until you set a reminder template, reminders are sent without one.
• Send Bid Reminder Days Before — how many days before the due date the reminder is sent. It defaults to 15 and pre-fills each request's reminder lead time, which you can change per request.
• Acceptance mode — how accepting a bid flows onto the estimate. In Accepted mode, accepting a bid writes all of its priced lines to the estimate. In Preferred mode, accepting is only an acknowledgement — you then pick the specific lines you want to prefer, and only those reach the estimate. Choose the mode that matches how your team works: whole-quote comparison, or line-by-line selection across vendors.
• Add estimate lines as Applied — whether lines written to the estimate by Accept or Prefer count toward its totals straight away. When on, those lines are applied — they affect the estimate totals immediately. When off, they land unapplied, sitting alongside the estimate as comparison prices until you apply them yourself. In the Preferred + Applied combination, preferring a vendor's line supersedes the original estimate line it was raised from — the original is set to unapplied so the preferred price takes its place in the totals.

For the field-by-field detail, see Configuration record fields.

Walkthrough

Step 1: Raise the bid request

On the project record, open the Estimating subtab, then choose Bid Request → New Vendor Bid Request.

Fill in the request details:

• Estimate — choose the estimate you want to bid against. The items you can send out are drawn from this estimate.
• Title — a label for the request, e.g. "Concrete supply — CBD Office Fitout".
• Due Date — the date you want bids returned by. This is shown to vendors on their bid form.
• Reminder lead time — how many days before the due date a reminder email is sent. This defaults to 15 days.
• Instructions — free text explaining what you need. This text is shown to the vendor on their online bid form, so use it to set expectations (scope notes, site conditions, how to ask questions, and so on).

Step 2: Add the items to bid out

Use Add Items from Estimate to choose which lines you want vendors to price.

• Tick a whole cost section or category to include every line beneath it, or
• Pick individual lines if you only want a subset priced.

Step 3: Attach supporting files (optional)

If you have supporting documents you want vendors to refer to — drawings, a specification, a scope document — attach them to the bid request so they appear on each vendor's bid form.

On the bid request (either while creating it, or by editing it afterwards), open the Files subtab. It lists the documents already held against the project; tick the ones you want to include with this request, then Save. Every invited vendor can then download the ticked files from their online bid form.

Once you've saved, the Files subtab switches to a simple list of what you've chosen, with a Name and Category for each document. The Name is a clickable link — click it to open a preview of that file, so you can double-check exactly what's being shared with vendors before you send. This is handy for a newcomer: rather than trusting the tick boxes, you can click through and confirm you've attached the right drawings or specification.

Step 4: Confirm the vendors

FullClarity automatically suggests the vendors who supply the items you've selected, so the list is usually pre-populated for you.

You can add any other vendors you'd like to invite, or remove suggested vendors you don't want to approach.

When you Save, the request creates one bid per vendor — each vendor gets their own copy to respond to independently.

Step 5: Send the invitations

You can send the invitations in two ways:

• Send Bid Emails — sends to every vendor on the request at once.
• Open an individual bid and choose Send Email — sends to just that one vendor (useful if you add a vendor after the first send, or need to resend to one supplier).

Each vendor receives an email containing a secure link to an online bid form. The link is unique to that vendor.

After sending, you can use Send Bid Reminders to nudge vendors who haven't responded yet. A reminder is also sent automatically based on the reminder lead time you set in Step 1.

What the vendor sees and does

When a vendor opens the secure link from their email, they see an online bid form showing:

• The job details and your Instructions
• The list of items you're asking them to price, with quantities — but not your costs
• Any supporting files you attached to the request, which they can download

For each line, the vendor enters a Rate, and the line Amount calculates automatically. A running total at the bottom of the form updates as they price each line, so they can see the overall value of their bid at a glance. They can also:

• Add Comments, Inclusions and Exclusions to clarify what their pricing covers
• Attach one or more supporting files — for example a PDF, spreadsheet or image of their own formal quote. They can drag files onto the upload area or click to browse, and they're sent along with their bid.

The vendor then either:

• Clicks Submit to send their priced bid back to you, or
• Uses Decline to opt out, choosing one or more decline reasons.

Once a vendor submits or declines, their response is locked — re-opening the link shows a Response Already Submitted message instead of the form. If a vendor needs to revise their bid, use Re-open on their bid in NetSuite (see Step 7).

Step 6: Review the responses

To pick your bid request back up at any time, reopen the project record, go to the Estimating subtab and open the same estimate's bid requests — the request you raised is listed there. Open it to see all the vendors and their responses in one place.

The Bids subtab

Open the Bids subtab and each vendor's bid appears as its own row against the request. For each one you can see:

• The status — see the plain-English guide below
• The amounts the vendor entered, along with any comments, inclusions and exclusions
• Any files the vendor attached — saved against their bid, showing the vendor as who uploaded them
• For a declined bid, the decline reasons they selected

Open an individual bid to see the full detail of what that vendor priced. Each bid has its own Files subtab, so you can also upload your own documents against a specific bid — for example a marked-up version of the vendor's quote or your notes on their response. Use Add New Files to attach them.

What each status means

As a request moves along, each bid carries a status so you can see at a glance where it stands:

• Initialized — the bid has been created but not yet sent to the vendor.
• Sent — the invitation email has gone out; you're waiting on the vendor.
• Received — the vendor has submitted their priced bid.
• Declined — the vendor opted out; their decline reasons are recorded.
• Rejected — you've rejected this bid (this is your decision, as distinct from the vendor declining). A rejected bid can still be re-opened later if you change your mind — it keeps its pricing and link (see Step 7).
• Accepted — you've accepted this whole bid. In Accepted mode this also puts all its priced lines on your estimate as candidate lines; in Preferred mode accepting is only an acknowledgement and nothing reaches the estimate until you prefer lines (see Step 7).
• Preferred / Partially Preferred — you've chosen some or all of this vendor's lines onto the estimate (Preferred mode); "Partially" means only some lines are preferred.
• Re-opened — you've reopened the bid for the vendor to revise (see Step 7); a fresh link goes out on the next send.
• Awarded / Partially Awarded — you've committed some or all of the vendor's lines to that vendor (see Step 7).

The Overview summary (Bid Line Summary)

Once bids start coming in, the Overview subtab gives you a single, at-a-glance table — the Bid Line Summary — with one row per scope line you sent out. It sets the estimator's original figure alongside the preferred and awarded vendor prices, so you can compare all three side by side:

• Category — the cost category the line sits under.
• Item — the item you asked vendors to price.
• Description — the line description.
• Original Estimate — the estimator's own amount for that line, before any vendor pricing.
• Preferred Vendor — the vendor whose pricing you've preferred for that line, if any.
• Preferred Vendor Amount — that preferred vendor's price for the line.
• Awarded Vendor — the vendor you've awarded that line to, if any.
• Awarded Vendor Amount — that awarded vendor's price for the line.

A dash (—) in a Preferred or Awarded column means nothing has been preferred or awarded for that line yet. As you work through the responses and press Prefer or Award (Step 7), the dashes fill in with vendor names and rates. This is your one view of where every line stands across all the vendors at once — so at any point you can see which lines are settled and which still need a decision.

From here you review and compare the responses, then accept, prefer, or award bids — see the next step.

Step 7: Work with received bids

Once bids are in, you have a set of tools depending on how you want to work — Accept a whole bid, Prefer or Award individual lines, Reject a bid you won't proceed with, or Re-open one for revision:

Acceptance mode and applied lines

Two settings on the bid request control how your choices reach the estimate. Both default from the Project Financials Configuration record and can be changed on an individual request (see Configuration record fields):

• Acceptance mode — either Accepted or Preferred. This governs what happens to the estimate when you Accept a bid.
• Add estimate lines as Applied — on or off. This governs whether lines brought onto the estimate are counted in its totals straight away.

An applied estimate line counts toward the estimate totals. An unapplied line sits alongside your estimate as a candidate — a comparison price — without affecting the totals until you apply it. This is what lets you bring several vendors' prices onto the estimate to weigh them up, then decide which one actually counts.

Preferred mode with "Add as Applied" on. When you Prefer a vendor's line, that line is written onto the estimate as an applied line, and the original estimate line it was raised from is automatically set to unapplied. The result is exactly one applied line per estimate line — the preferred vendor's price takes the place of the estimator's original figure in the totals. (Each bid line remembers the estimate line it came from, which is what makes this swap possible.)

Preferred mode with "Add as Applied" off. Preferred lines are added unapplied — candidate prices for comparison — and your original estimate lines are left applied. Nothing changes in the totals until you apply the lines yourself.

Accepting a bid in Preferred mode writes nothing to the estimate. Only preferring specific lines brings pricing across. The Accept confirmation message spells this out: if you're in Preferred mode and want lines on the estimate, use Prefer, not Accept.

Accept (whole-quote)

Use Accept Bids on the bid request to mark one or more received bids as Accepted. You can select and accept multiple bids at once.

Accepting a bid:

• Sets the bid's status to Accepted.
• In Accepted mode, writes all the vendor's priced lines onto your estimate as candidate lines — the vendor and their rate appear in the Quote and Supplier columns. These lines are added unapplied (unless Add estimate lines as Applied is on), so they don't change your estimate's totals until you apply them.
• In Preferred mode, does not change the estimate — accepting is only an acknowledgement. To bring pricing across, use Prefer on the specific lines you want (see Acceptance mode and applied lines above).

Use Accept in Accepted mode when you want to bring a whole bid onto the estimate as candidate lines for comparison, then apply the winner later.

Prefer (line by line)

Use the Prefer button on an individual bid to choose specific lines to bring onto the estimate. This lets you split a package across vendors — for example, preferring one vendor's materials lines and a different vendor's labour lines. Prefer is available on any received bid, whatever the request's Acceptance mode — the mode only controls how Accept populates the estimate, not whether you can prefer individual lines. So you can accept several bids to compare them, then prefer the winning lines without having to commit the request to Preferred mode first.

To prefer lines:

• Open a received bid → Prefer. A popup lists that bid's lines with a tick box against each. Lines you've already preferred are ticked when the popup opens, and Mark All / Unmark All let you select or clear every line at once. Tick the lines you want and confirm.
• Or tick the Preferred column directly on the bid's lines.

Only the ticked lines land on the estimate. Un-preferring a line removes it from the estimate (unless it already has a purchase order against it).

Award (soft commitment)

Use the Award button (or tick the Awarded column on bid lines) to mark specific lines as awarded to that vendor. The Award popup works the same way as Prefer — already-awarded lines are pre-ticked, and Mark All / Unmark All are available.

Awarding a line:

• Sets the line's status to Awarded and rolls the bid to Partially Awarded or Awarded.
• Does not change the estimate — the estimate already reflects the candidate lines from Accept or Prefer.
• Locks the bid from being re-opened.

Awarded lines will be eligible for conversion to a purchase order in a future release.

Reject a bid

Use Reject on an individual bid to record that you're not proceeding with it — for example a bid that came in too high or didn't meet your requirements. This is your decision, and is separate from a vendor declining (opting out themselves). A rejected bid keeps its pricing and its portal link, so you can re-open it later if circumstances change (see below).

Re-open a bid

If you need a vendor to revise their pricing, use Re-open on that vendor's bid. What happens depends on the bid's current status:

• For most bids, re-opening resets the status to Re-opened and invalidates the old portal link so the vendor can't use it. You then press Send Email to issue a fresh secure link.
• A Rejected bid re-opens straight back to Received, keeping its existing pricing and its original link — because the vendor's response is still on hand, there's nothing to re-issue.

When you send a fresh link and the vendor opens it, their previously entered rates are pre-filled and any files they uploaded before are available for download. They can update their pricing and resubmit.

Resend Request (re-open and email in one step)

For a bid that's already been Received, Resend Request is a one-click shortcut: it re-opens the bid and immediately emails the vendor a fresh secure link, saving you the separate Re-open then Send Email steps. Use it when a vendor who has already responded needs to price the request again.

Mark as Received (for offline responses)

If a vendor sends their pricing back to you outside the online bid form — by email, phone or on paper — use Mark as Received on their bid to record that a response has arrived. It's available on a bid that's been Sent or Re-opened, and moves the bid to Received so you can enter and work with the pricing as normal.

After re-opening and re-accepting bids, use Apply on the estimate worksheet to make the chosen vendor's lines count toward the estimate totals.

Deleting a bid request

If you no longer need a bid request, you can delete it from the request record.

Deleting a Vendor Bid Request removes the request and all of its bids. Because a single request can hold many bids — each with its own priced lines linked to the estimate — the request itself is removed immediately, while its bids are cleaned up in the background (usually within a few minutes).

The estimate is reconciled for you automatically:

• Lines that came from the deleted bids are removed.
• Any original estimate lines those bids had superseded are set back to applied, so your estimate returns to the figures it held before the bids arrived.
• Lines that have already been turned into a purchase order are kept.

The full journey at a glance

Putting the steps together, a typical bid runs like this:

1. Raise a bid request against an estimate, give it a title and due date, and add the scope lines you want priced.
2. Attach any supporting files, and confirm the list of vendors — FullClarity creates one bid per vendor.
3. Send Bid Emails so every vendor gets a secure link to their own online bid form, and Send Bid Reminders to chase anyone who hasn't responded.
4. Vendors price their lines (or decline) and submit; their responses land back on the Bids subtab.
5. Review and compare the responses, using the Overview Bid Line Summary to see where each line stands.
6. Prefer the lines you want onto the estimate (or Accept whole bids), then Award the winning lines to commit them — the Bid Line Summary fills in as you go.
7. Apply the winning lines on the estimate worksheet, ready to raise purchase orders.

What success looks like

Each invited vendor has a bid against your request showing their status. Vendors who responded show the rates and amounts they entered (plus any attachments and notes), and any who declined show their reasons. The Overview Bid Line Summary shows, line by line, which vendor you've preferred and which you've awarded — with dashes only against the lines still to be decided. You have everything you need to compare like-for-like and decide who to award the work to.

Gotchas

• You need an estimate first. Vendors bid on the items from an estimate, so create and populate the estimate before raising a bid request.
• Vendors need an email address. A vendor with no contact email can't receive the invitation. Check the vendor record before sending.
• Vendors never see your costs. Only item, description and quantity are shared — this is by design, so don't expect your rates or margins to appear on the bid form.
• Don't see Bid Request on the Estimating subtab? The feature needs to be enabled by your administrator in the system settings.
• After deleting a bid request you land on the bid request list, not the project. This is a NetSuite platform behaviour that can't be changed — reopen the project and its Estimating subtab to carry on.
• Accepting in Preferred mode doesn't touch the estimate. In Preferred mode, only Prefer brings vendor pricing onto the estimate; use it rather than Accept when you want lines to count.

Related topics

• Creating an estimate
• Adding lines to an estimate
• Creating purchase orders from the estimate
• Configuration record fields