Questions

Bid Managers and Bidders can send questions to one another to get clarification on project details. These questions can either be public or private.

If your company uses sealed bidding, the names of bidders will be anonymized.

Public vs. Private Question Behavior

• If a question has been made private when it was previously public, it will be hidden from all users except the Bid Manager and the Bidder who originally asked the question. This means that even if another Bidder replied to the question, they will no longer be able to see it.

• If a question is made public when it was previously private, both the question and its replies will be made visible.

• Bid Managers can change the value of the Private? field.

• If a Bid Manager asks a private question, it is only visible to other Bid Managers.

• Replies to a question inherit the setting of the Private? from the parent question.

• Shared questions cannot be private.

Shared Questions Behavior

• When a question is shared, all bidders and assignees on the entity receive a notification.

• All assignees and the creator of the shared questions will receive notifications about replies to the shared question.

• Notifications are not sent to bid packages on the entity that have already been awarded.

• Shared questions cannot be private.

If you want to set the Shared? flag for a question to No when it previously had been set to Yes, navigate to the bid package where you want the question to be saved, and then update the flag.

Questions can be assigned to one or multiple users:

• System Administrators can configure bid package templates to have default assignees for questions.

• When a question has been assigned to a user, the question is shown in the Bid Q&A table of the My Form Assignment dashboard widget and the Forms page.

  The question is only visible to other Bidders on the bid package if the question is made public.

• If your firm has sealed bidding, bidder names will be anonymized in the Assignments field.

• You can assign a question to multiple users and you have the option to send the question as an email to users.

• Notifications go out in real time when the assignee is added.

Add Q & A

If the enableQandAPublish feature switch is turned on, questions created by the capital project manager or bid administrator are locked and cannot be modified by vendors once they are published. Contact your Accruent representative for more information.

A notification is sent to you when someone replies to your question.

1. Click Add Q&A in the Actions menu on the rightmost side of the page.

2. Complete the Add Question dialog that opens:

   • Title: Brief summary of your question.

   • Question: Displays in the Bid Q&A table with Title.

   • Document:

     1. Click Add Document.

     2. In the Documents window, select an existing document using the folder tree or Upload a new document.

   • Shared: Select whether the question is to be shared:

     • Yes: The question is visible to all bid packages on the entity. You can use this when the information in the question is beneficial to bidders on all bid packages. This reduces the amount of time needed to disseminate information and keeps answers consistent across the entity.

       Shared questions cannot be private. Private?, must be No if you select this option.

     • No: The question is not visible on all bid packages.

3. Add the question:

   • Click Add to save the question to the Bid Q&A pane so that you can edit and publish it later.

   • Click Add and Publish to save the question to the Bid Q&A pane and publish it to vendors so they can provide answers.

     Once a question is published, it cannot be edited.

4. When the confirmation window opens, click Yes

   The window closes. Your question appears in the Bid Q&A table.

Edit Q & A

If the enableQandAPublish feature switch is turned on, you can only edit questions that have not been published.

1. Click Edit in the Actions column of the record.

   The Edit Question window opens.

2. Make your changes.

3. Select whether the question is to be Private.

4. Select whether the question is to be Shared:

   • Yes: The question is visible to all bid packages on the entity. You can use this when the information in the question is beneficial to bidders on all bid packages. This reduces the amount of time needed to disseminate information and keeps answers consistent across the entity.

     Shared questions cannot be private. Private?, must be No if you select this option.

   • No: The question is not visible on all bid packages.

5. Do one of the following:

   • Click Update to update the question to the Bid Q&A pane so that you can edit and publish it later.

   • Click Update and Publish to save the updated question to the Bid Q&A pane and publish it to vendors so they can provide answers.

     Once a question is published, it cannot be edited.

6. When the confirmation window opens, click Yes.

   The window closes. Your updated question appears in the Bid Q&A table.

Filter Bid Q&A Table

The Bid Q&A table lists questions submitted by bidders about the bid package. These questions can either be public or private.

• Select Question Visibility:

  • Both: Display both public and private questions.

  • Public: Display public questions.

  • Private: Display private questions.

• Select an option from Filter Options:

  • All: Display all questions.

  • Unanswered: Display questions that have no reply.

  • In Progress: Display questions that have a reply.

  • Answered: Display questions marked with an accepted answer.

• Select Assignees:

  • All: Display all questions.

  • Select an assignee to display questions assigned to that user.

Replies

Once questions have been posted on a bid package, the person responsible for the bid package can add replies. Bidders will receive a notification when replies are added to their questions. Replies to a question inherit the setting of the Is Private? field from the parent question.

If a Bidder asks a private question and the question is subsequently made public, both the question and replies display.

Member List in the Add Reply window displays only for members with View Private Issue Allowed? set to Yes .

1. Click Reply link in the Actions column of the record.

2. Enter your Reply in the Add Reply window that opens.

3. Attach a document:

   1. Click Add Document.

   2. In the Documents window, select a document:

      • Select an existing document:

        1. Use the folder tree to navigate to the folder where the document is saved, then select the document.

        2. Click Select Document.

      • Upload a new document.

4. Send an email with your reply:

   1. Select the members you want to send the email to in Project Members or All Members / Contacts.

      Press and hold CTRL on your keyboard to select multiple values.

   2. In External Contacts, enter the email address of an external contact to email.

   3. Click the arrows >> next to External Contacts to move the contact to Attention Email To.

5. Click Add.

   Your reply is attached to the question in the Bid Q&A table, and an email is sent to the selected contacts.

Edit Reply

1. Click Edit in the Actions column of the record.

   The Edit Reply window opens.

2. Make your changes.

3. Click Update.

   The window closes. The updated reply appears in the Bid Q&A table.

Accept Reply

Depending on your security settings, you may be able to select a reply as the accepted response for an answer.

1. Click Accept in the Actions column.

2. Click Yes in the dialog that opens.

   The answer you selected is marked as the accepted reply.