Project Bidding - Accepting a Proposal (as a Customer)
When a vendor sends a proposal,
the customer will receive an email notification to inform them of a new
submission for their project. Each proposal will have its own email notification (including if
multiple proposals were sent from the same vendor).
Navigating to the Proposal as a Customer
To view the details of the proposal, as a
registered customer, log in to the front end portal.
Once logged in as a customer, you will be able to see your
dashboard with a notification from the left under My Projects, where you can access all projects.
My Projects view will show all projects by default. You also have the ability to filter the projects by status’s on the right, and search by project name on the left.
In the Projects page, each project is broken down into its own row tile. You can see the number proposals that were submitted for each project. Select View Project to read the project details or View Proposals to navigate straight to the invited vendors page.
If a proposal has already been accepted, you will see an additional section in the project tile called Accepted Proposals. Here you can navigate directly to the accepted proposal as a shortcut.
Reading the Proposal Details
Once you selected View Proposals from the project tile, you will be taken to the Invited Vendors page (note the label of Vendor is configurable - in this example, vendors are called Suppliers.). You will see a list of vendors, with their Profile information, and if they have any proposals.
Vendors with a proposal will show all available proposals submitted.
When you select a proposal, you will be taken to the proposal details page.
Proposal Navigation and Vendor information
Here you will be able to see 3 tabs at the top
- Proposal Details - This is the main page which contains all of the information about the proposal submitted. If the proposal is still in a Pre-Proposal / Draft status, this will be empty.
- Messaging - This is a message thread feature where vendors can communicate with the customers for additional information or discussions.
- Files - This will contain any files added either during the beginning of the project submission, or provided during correspondence in the Messaging tab.
You will also see the Vendor's Profile information.
Proposal Overview
This will contain the line items added by the vendors. If there is cover letter attached, it will also show here above the table.
Proposal Details (if applicable - only available in Project Bidding version 4.0.5 and later)
This is where the Custom Proposal Questions Answers will be shown if it is available.
Milestones
This is where the milestone schedule is shown.
Each milestone will be able to show the different milestone line item with it's own table. You will also be able to see the status and cost.
Payment History
This table will only show information once a milestone has been paid - which will only happen when a proposal is accepted. Here you will be able to see the order details too.
Actions for the Proposal
There are 3 action buttons at the top of the proposal.
Accept Proposal
This is where you can choose to accept the proposal. A pop up will appear to confirm your acceptance.
Once you accept the proposal, you will be asked if you would like to Keep the Project Open or Decline other Proposals (if applicable). If you choose to decline the other proposals, you can choose to include an optional message that will be sent to all vendors who have already provided a proposal.
Once you select Submit, the Proposal page will update and now include additional information.
Total Proposal Cost: This is the total cost of all of the milestones.
Milestone Paid: This will show the amount that the customer has already paid for this proposal.
The first milestone will also be available to pay.
Decline Proposal
This will prompt a pop up where you can write a message to the vendor on why you wanted to decline the proposal. Simply select Decline Proposal to submit. This will notify the vendor of the action.
Request changes
This will open a prompt to provide information to the vendor on the details of the changes you, as the customer, require for the proposal.
This correspondence can be tracked in the Messaging and Files (if any attached) tab at the top of the Proposal Details. An email will then be sent to the vendor with the details of the request details.
Related Articles
Project Bidding - Creating Custom Proposal Questions
Marketplace Owners can create a set of questions for the Vendors to answer, based on the Project Type that the Registered Customer selected. These questions are asked during the proposal creation process, and can be used by customers to compare the ...Project Bidding - Submitting a Proposal (as a Vendor)
Accessing the Project as a vendor Once a customer has created a project, vendors that were invited would have received an e-mail notification to go to the backend and review the project details. Vendors can go from the backend to Marketplace ...Project Bidding - Managing Project Types
Creating Project Types (as a Marketplace Owner) Project Types in the Project Bidding module can be considered as categories. Registered Customers can have a much more tailored project creation experience based on their selection. Marketplace Owners ...Project Bidding - Paying for a Milestone (as a customer)
Paying a Milestone as a Customer When a project is accepted, the customer needs to pay for the first milestone. Customers can do this when logged in to the marketplace and in the Proposal Details view. To access this, log in as the customer and from ...Project Bidding - Overview and Workflows
Overview Project Bidding allows registered customers to create a project, with trackable payment milestones across multiple vendors in one place. Projects can be created by customers, and they can invite multiple vendors on the marketplace. ...