Items
- Each item has a name, quantity and unit. The supplier gives a unit price for each item; the item total is the unit price times the quantity.
- You enter items in step 3 of the wizard. After the tender is set up, while it is a draft, you can add a new item with Add Item or remove an item from the Tender Items list in the Tender tab.
- In a draft, an item's name, description, quantity and unit change in the Edit Item window opened with the pencil icon on its row. The quantity must be greater than zero; decimals are allowed (such as 2.5 kg).
- In a tender opened from a request, items that came from the request cannot be edited: they must stay the same as the record in the request. You can only remove them.
- After publishing, items are locked: they cannot be added, edited or removed. Suppliers bid on these items.
While there is an item with an empty or 0 quantity, the tender cannot be published and pre-qualification cannot be started: suppliers would assume different quantities and the bids could not be compared. The pre-publish check also shows this as a high-severity finding.
Must suppliers price every item
| Tender | Partial bid | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Sealed bid, independent of a request, several items | Allowed: the supplier prices the items it wants | Per item; items can go to different suppliers |
| Tender opened from a request | No, every item is priced | Single supplier |
| Open auction | No, every item is priced | Single supplier |
Documents
You add documents such as the technical specification, drawings or a draft contract in step 3 of the wizard, or while in draft with Upload File in the Documents section of the Tender tab. Invited suppliers see and download the documents in the portal.
- Accepted types: PDF, Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX) and image (JPG, PNG, WEBP).
- Up to 20 MB per file.
- ZIP is not accepted. Its contents cannot be previewed and a single document inside it cannot be superseded with an addendum; upload documents separately.
If a tender with more than 10 items has no documents, the pre-publish check warns you: without documents, suppliers have to guess from the item names.
Documents after publishing
In a published tender, documents cannot be added or deleted directly. A new document is added with an addendum; an old document is not deleted but withdrawn with an addendum, and appears struck through on the supplier's screen. Details: Publishing an addendum.
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