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Bid leveling

Compare subcontractor bids line by line in BuildX Studio, review each bid's exclusions, set bid status, and award a bid to create a draft purchase order.

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Bid leveling lives at studio.mybuildx.com/bid-leveling (“Level every bid side by side”). Open it from a project with Leveling, or from the Costs tab’s Open bid leveling. It shows one job at a time.

What you can do

  • Pick a job with Select job and see Bidders, Bids in, Line items, and Lowest total.
  • Enter a bid or edit its line items, total, and exclusions.
  • Compare bids line by line, with the lowest total marked Lowest.
  • Change a bid’s status: Invited, Submitted, Leveled, Awarded, or Rejected.
  • Tick off each bid’s exclusions under Exclusions, checked.
  • Award a bid, which creates a draft purchase order.
  • Export CSV of the line items.

Who shows up as a bidder

Bidders are the companies you added to that job on the Subcontractors page. Each bid column shows the company, its trade, its prequal badge (Pending, Qualified, or Rejected), and the bid’s status.

Enter or edit a bid

  1. Select the job and click Enter a bid.
  2. Choose a bidder already on the job, choose a company from your library, or choose New bidder… and enter its company name.
  3. Add the quoted scope as line items with quantities and unit rates, or enter a lump-sum total. Workbook scope suggestions can supply starting descriptions and quantities.
  4. Add the bid’s exclusions, then click Enter bid.
  5. To correct a saved bid, use its Edit bid control and click Save bid. The bid and its line items save together. Awarded bids cannot have their lines replaced.

Collect the quote from the bidder first. This form records a quote; it does not send a bid invitation.

Read the leveling table

  • Rows are line items; columns are bids. A dash means that bid has no amount for the line.
  • The Total row uses the sum of a bid’s line items. If a bid has no priced line items, it uses the bid’s lump-sum amount.
  • Search line items with Search line items….

Review exclusions

Under Exclusions, checked, each bid lists what it excludes. Tick each one as you review it; the card shows “N of M reviewed”. A bid with no exclusions says “This bid covers the full scope as listed.” Ticks are saved in your browser only.

Award a bid

  1. In the bid’s column, set the status to Awarded.
  2. Award this bid? shows the company and total and warns it can’t be undone.
  3. Click Confirm award. Studio records the award and creates a draft purchase order for that company (or links an existing one). See Purchasing.

Delete a bid

Click the trash icon in the bid’s column, then Confirm delete. Awarded bids can’t be deleted: cancel the linked purchase order instead.

Good to know

  • Subs can’t submit bids to you through this page. Use Enter a bid to record quotes you receive.
  • To compare prices from subs today, collect their quotes outside BuildX. BuildX doesn’t send bid invites to subs.
  • Awarded bids feed the project’s Costs tab (awarded bid total versus purchase orders, by trade).
  • The company directory pages show each sub’s bid history and win rate once 3 bids are tracked.