You can upload and attach supporting documentation to your bid submittal.
To add an attachment to a bid proposal
- In your open Requests for Bid record, click the Add Attachment button in the record tool bar. The File Upload window opens.
- Click the Browse button. The Choose File to Upload window opens.
- Browse to the file that you want to attach to your bid. You can only select one file at a time.
- Click the Open button. Unifier displays the file path and name in the File Name column.
- Click the Add Row button to browse to and select additional files.
- Select a row and click the Remove button if you do not want to upload a selected file.
- Click the OK button. The Attachments link shows the number of record attachments.
Active Bids in Bidder log
When you open the Attachments tab, the following blocks and sub-blocks will be present, depending on the bid status:
- Unpublished Attachments
- Addendums
- Published Attachments
- Original Attachments
All of the active bids can receive additional attachments, from the requester. When the bidder opens or views the bidding in the log, the new or additional attachments will be shown under the Addendums block.
When a bid receives a new attachment, as addendums, then Unifier sends a new email to all of the bidders. Unifier sends a similar email when an existing bid attachment is removed.
Refer to the "Audit Log in Requestor BP (Private Bid and Public Bid)" section of the Unifier Business Processes User Guide for details about the information captured in the Audit Log.
If the checkbox to add the winning contract Record attachments to Requestor Record Attachments is checked in admin mode, then the winning bidder documents from the record level (upper form of bidder BP) is displayed in a separate section.
The name of the sub-section depends on the “Winning Bid” Detail Form tab name appended with “Documents,” at the end.
Example
If the “Winning Bid” Detail Form tab name is “Winning Contract,” then the name of the sub-section (under which the documents are displayed) would be “Winning Contract Documents."
Since the bidder documents are always external (outside of Unifier), the documents will always be categorized as "Unpublished category" (until the RFB moves to the next step, and the documents are published to Document Manager.
Other documents, similar to the requestor attachments added while creating a bid request or any addendum, will be listed in order.
All the options which are generally available for any attachments added to a record are available for the winning bid documents, once the documents are added.
If the option to attach the winning bid documents to the detail form is checked in the admin mode, then, the winning bid documents (of the winning bidder detail form) will be added against each winning bidder line item (the respective line item attachments against each line item).
If the following options in uDesigner are checked, and the winning bidder is allocated on the upper form, then Unifier will automatically add the winning bidder documents to the upper form, or the detail form, or both forms, based on the selected checkboxes:
- Add all Record Attachments of the winning bid to Requestor's Record Attachments
- Add only Line Item Attachments from the winning bid to the Line Items of <Winning Bid Tab Name>
Here are the steps:
- Step 1 (Admin mode)
Both of the options are checked to attach the winning bidder documents to the requestor record, and the detail form.
- Step 2 (User mode)
The requestor initiates a bid package and sends invitations.
- Step 3 (User mode)
Bidder submits the response. The winning bid is selected from the responses received.
- Step 4 (User mode)
Once the winning bidder is selected, the attachments from the bidder upper form are copied over to the requestor record (upper form), and the attachments from the bidder detail form (for each line item) are copied over to the requestor detail form against the same line items.
- Step 5a (User mode)
The bidder saves the bid package and does not send the bid package to the next step in the workflow.
In the Admin mode, the admin requestor unchecks the checkboxes for copying the winning bid attachments.
- Step 5a Result (User mode)
The winning bid documents will not be removed automatically, upon changing the selection in admin mode. The selection in uDesigner, while a winning bidder is selected, will only be considered as available options.
- Step 5b
The bidder sends the bid package to the next step.
In the Admin Mode, the admin requestor unchecks the checkboxes for copying the winning bidder attachments after sending the bid package to the next step.
In the User Mode, once the requestor opens the bid record, the winning bid attachments are available, and Unifier will not remove the attachments, automatically.
If the requestor deletes the winning bidder (picker data) and re-selects the winning bidder again, then Unifier will add the attachments to the upper form, or to the detail form. Since the trigger event is selecting the winning bidder, Unifier considers the uDesigner options at the time of selecting the winning bidder.
If the requestor changes the winning bidder before concluding the RFB record, then the attachments would change to the attachments belonging to the latest winning bidder.
Note: RFB records that are created through auto-creation will remain as before.
Generally, the contract records are auto-created through RFB once the RFB is finalized. When this happens, Unifier copies any newly added attachments (winning bidder documents) based on the options selected in the auto-creation setup.
Once the winning bidder documents are added to the upper form, or the detail form, the documents are subject to Audit. The Audit log tab captures the addition of attachments in the log.