Open your first tender

You start with the New Tender button at the top right of the Tenders screen. The wizard has three steps and at the end sets up the tender as a draft. A draft is visible only inside your company; invitations go to suppliers the moment you publish.

Step 1: Format

1. 1
   Answer the question about sending pre-qualification questions to suppliers before the tender starts. If you choose Yes, run pre-qualification, suppliers answer your questions before bidding; if you choose No, collect bids directly, everyone you invite bids directly.
2. 2
   For how bids are collected, choose Sealed Bid or Open Auction. For the difference: Tender types and which one to choose.
3. 3
   If you chose open auction, set the auction rules: minimum decrement, whether suppliers see the full price or only their rank, whether every bid must go below the lowest price, and last-minute extension. The "Example" box below shows what the setting means on the supplier side using an amount.

The box at the bottom summarizes your choice in one sentence. Once both questions are answered, Continue becomes available.

Step 2: Details

1. 1
   Fill from a specification (optional). If you upload your specification to the card at the top of the step, the title, description, currency and items are filled from the document; in a sealed bid, evaluation criteria are suggested too. Fields you filled are not overwritten: the document's value stays below the field as a suggestion with a Use link. While the document is being read, Continue waits.
2. 2
   Enter a Title. This is the only required field in this step. Example: "2026 Office Supplies Purchase".
3. 3
   In Description, write any additional information you want to give suppliers.
4. 4
   Currency is the currency in which bids are compared. In a sealed bid, you can open other currencies to suppliers with the other accepted currencies field; you see the comparison in your own currency at the exchange rate on the bid date.
5. 5
   Ceiling Price is optional. In a sealed bid you choose Hidden or Visible. A supplier sees a visible ceiling and cannot send a bid above it. It does not see a hidden ceiling; a bid above it is not rejected but is flagged in the evaluation. In an open auction the ceiling is always visible.
6. 6
   Purchase Type: One-time or Renewable.

The bid deadline is not asked in this step. The yellow box tells you when to choose it: in a tender without pre-qualification, before publishing; in a tender with pre-qualification, after pre-qualification ends.

Step 3: Items

1. 1
   Enter a name, quantity and unit for each item. Add a new row with Add Item. In a tender opened from a request, the items come pre-filled.
2. 2
   In a sealed bid, if criteria were suggested from the specification, the "Suggested evaluation criteria" list appears. Delete the ones you do not want; you edit the weights after the tender is set up.
3. 3
   Add the documents you will share with suppliers with Upload File: PDF, Word, Excel or image (JPG, PNG, WEBP), up to 20 MB per file. ZIP is not accepted; upload multiple documents separately.
4. 4
   Click Create Tender. The button waits while documents are uploading.

If your company has a workflow rule for tenders, it is checked at creation. If the rule raises a warning, the warning appears on screen; if it stops the tender, the tender is not created and the reason is shown.

After creating it

You move to the tender's detail screen. The person who opens the tender automatically becomes its owner. What to do before publishing:

1. 1
   Build the invite list from the Invite Supplier panel in the right column. Details: Inviting suppliers.
2. 2
   In a tender with pre-qualification, add the pre-qualification questions with Add Question.
3. 3
   If you will score a sealed bid, add criteria with Add Criterion. If you add criteria, the weights must total 100 and one criterion (only one) must be the price criterion.
4. 4
   In a tender without pre-qualification, choose the bid deadline with Edit next to the title.
5. 5
   When the checklist in the Publish Tender panel (Start Pre-qualification in a tender with pre-qualification) is complete, click the button.