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 Management > Project Bidding and Management > Manage Projects.
Here you will see a list of current projects the vendor has been invited to.
As a Marketplace Owner, you will be able to see all projects.
Select View from the Action column on the right
Once you select View, a new page will open up with the project details
Here the vendor has all the information provided by the customer. You can also see attachments provided by the customer and if needed, any existing proposal for this project in the Proposal Details tab. In this scenario, no proposal has yet been submitted. At this point, after the vendor receives the project, there will be no proposal created yet.
To accept the project and create a proposal for the customer, simply go to the top right button labelled Action > Respond.
This will take you to the proposal creation section. See below.
NOTE: Choosing Do Not Respond will essentially stop any progression with this project for the vendor and notify the customer that there is no intention to move forward. You will just need a reason to not respond then Send Email.
Creating a proposal
When you respond to a project, this will trigger the proposal creation screen. This page is where you can populate your offerings to the customer, and this will also be the section that you manage things with this project moving forward (if accepted).
Proposal Details
Field | Notes |
Proposal created on | This is the date the proposal was first created. This is an automated system date. |
Proposal status | Outlines the status of this proposal. The statuses are as follows: Draft: The proposal has not yet been submitted to the customer for review. Pre-Proposal: This status is only applicable when the vendor would like to communicate with the customer before submitting their proposal with any line items. Sent: The proposal has been submitted to the customer, and is pending approval. Accepted: The customer has accepted the proposal, but not yet paid the first milestone. Declined: The customer has explicitly declined the proposal. In Progress: The customer has accepted the proposal, and paid the first milestone. Awaiting Completion Confirmation: The proposal work is finished, and now pending the confirmation from the other party. Completed: Customer and Vendor both confirm the work in the current Proposal is completed. Expired: The expiry date has passed before the customer could accept the proposal. Withdrawn: The Customer hasn't accepted the Proposal and the Vendor decides to withdraw it. Please note, if the Proposal has been accepted by the Customer, Vendors can't withdraw the Proposal. |
Proposed from | This will dictate which website/marketplace this proposal comes from |
Expiry Date | Set the date this proposal can be accepted until. Once the date passes, this will no longer be acceptable by the customer. |
Reminder Date | This will allow you to set a date to send a reminder email to the customer that they have not yet accepted the proposal. |
Order Currency | This is the currency in which the milestones will be charged in. |
Customer Information
Customer information will be displayed here if you need to contact the customer for any additional details.
Items Quoted
Items quoted will show a line by line breakdown of the proposal. The fields are as follows:
| Field | Notes |
Rate Select (only available in Project Bidding v4.0.5 or later) | This is where you can select pre-created rates. You can manage your rates in Marketplace Management > Bidding Configuration > Manage Rates. This will allow you to pre-populate the fields for each line item. To create your own rates, please follow this guide: Project Bidding - Setting up your own Rates (as a Vendor) |
| Product Name | This will be the name of the product / line item This value will be automatically pulled in from the product if added from the catalog (or rate if applicable) but can be overridden. |
| Sku | This is the Sku for the product / line item This value will be automatically pulled in from the product if added from the catalog (or rate if applicable) but can be overridden. |
| Cost price (for products added from the catalog only) | This value will be automatically pulled in from the product if added from the catalog. |
| Original Price (for products added from the catalog only) | This value will be automatically pulled in from the product if added from the catalog. |
| Price | Set the price of the product (inclusive of tax if applicable). This value will be automatically pulled in from the product if added from the catalog (or rate if applicable) but can be overridden. |
| Quantity | Sets the quantity of the product line item |
| Discount | This value will be automatically calculated based on the Original Price and the Manually set price (if any) |
| Tax | You can set a custom Tax % for this line item. Note that this % will be of the Price value - and will be included in the price field if added. This can be pulled in from the Rate if applicable. |
| Tax Amount | This value will be automatically calculated based on the Price value and the Tax %. This can be pulled in from the Rate if applicable. |
| Row Total (incl Tax) | This will be the final amount inclusive of discounts and tax - with the quantity set. |
Here you can do one of two things.
Add a New Line
This will add a blank line which will allow you to populate the information in the grid.
Add Product from Catalog
This will be where you can pick from your products that you have already created. Selecting this option will show a pop up where you can select your products.
To add the products, select the tick box next to the product, then choose Apply at the bottom.
Once you choose Apply, it will prepopulate the product information in the fields set in the grid.
Proposal Cover Letter
In the Proposal Cover Letter, you'll be able to add a description or additional information for the customer. This will be in a WYSIWYG editor so you can format this to your liking.
Milestones (for Project Bidding version 4.0.5 or later)
The milestones feature allow vendors to create payment milestones in which the proposal can be broken down in multiple line items that can be paid individually. This will allow customers to be able to pay specific milestones depending on the due date and frequencies.
In the later versions of the Project Bidding Module, the Milestones are not tied to the cost of the Proposal Line items, and can be created and edited (unless it has already been paid for) after the Proposal has already been sent.
See our Milestones guide to learn more about this feature.
Milestones (for Project Bidding version 4.0.4 or earlier)
Earlier milestones versions allow vendors to set a basic price for the proposal in multiple payment milestones.
Milestones allow you to set the number of payments and when the due dates for the payments are.
Field | Notes |
Milestone | This is the label for this milestone payment |
Amount | This is the amount required for this milestone |
Est. Due Date | This is the due date for this milestone |
Payment Status | There are 2 Payment Statuses: Not ready to pay: Default status for milestones. The customer cannot action a payment with this milestone. Ready to pay: This milestone is ready to be paid, and the customer will be able to use the front end to action this payment. |
Invoice | This is for the Invoice number this milestone payment is associated with. This will appear only when an order has been placed, and an invoice has been generated. If this milestone is not yet Ready to Pay, this will show as "Unpaid". |
Order | This is for the order number this milestone payment is associated with. This will appear only when an order has been placed, and an invoice has been generated. If this milestone is not yet Ready to Pay, this will show as "Unpaid". |
Refund | This will display N/A by default if an order has come through and no credit memo is requested. |
When creating your milestones in Version 4.0.4 or earlier of Project Bidding, your total amount tallied up between all of the milestones, must be the same as the total for the proposal quote. Eg, if your quote is $5,000.00, your milestones (whether it be 1 or multiple items) must have a grand total to that $5,000.00 too. If not, it will correct the first milestone to contain the remaining or overflow amount. The error will appear if you try to save with the incorrect amount. Milestones MUST BE SET before the proposal can be saved as this is tied to the proposal quote.
Terms and Conditions
If the marketplace is configured to have Terms and Conditions enabled, the option will appear at the bottom of the Proposal Details page. Vendors will need to Accept Terms and Conditions before being able to send the proposal. Vendors can also View Project Terms and Conditions using the link to download the attached file.
Proposal Questionnaire (only available in Project Bidding v4.0.5 or later)
If applicable, this is where vendors can answer additional questions about the proposal that is specific to its Project Type.
Find out more here: Project Bidding - Creating Custom Proposal Question Answers Templates.
Submitting the proposal
Once you have populated the information, you can choose to either Save & Send Proposal, or Save and Continue if you'd like to work on adding some more things before sending to the customer.
Once the Save & Send Proposal is selected, the customer will then receive an email notification about the proposal. The next step will then generally be up to the customer to accept or reject the proposal.
Sending Multiple Proposals for the same project (only available in Project Bidding v4.0.5 or later)
If configured to do so, Vendors have the ability to send multiple responses for the same project. To do this, simply go back to the Project from Marketplace Management > Bidding Management, then select Action > Respond.
You can also check your different proposal under the Proposal Details tab on the Project Details page. You will see a grid with different proposals already saved.
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