This chapter covers the foundational ideas you need before you work your first tender: the objects you work on, the stages a tender moves through, and what material matching means. Field-level detail lives in the chapter for the page where you meet it.
In this chapter
B1.1 Tenders and frameworks — the two kinds of object, and which tab each lands on.
B1.2 How the tender flow works — the stages from upload to a won or lost bid.
B1.3 Material matching — how line items are matched to your catalog, and where you see the results.
The objects in one paragraph
A tender is a customer's request you respond to, started by uploading a bill of quantities. A framework is an approved supplier agreement with its pricing schedule — either one you have already won, kept as a reference, or one you are bidding on, which runs the same flow as a tender. Both draw on the shared Products catalog and Customers list.
Before your first tender
Confirm the following before you upload a tender.
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Products — the catalog is loaded; matching depends on it. See A3 Products.
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Customers — the customers you bid to are in the list. See A4 Customers.
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Frameworks — any frameworks you have already won are uploaded, so their pricing schedules are on hand. See B4.2 Adding a framework.
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Document intake — if customers send tenders by email, the email drop is set up so they arrive as tenders automatically. See A5.2.1 Document intake.
Then upload your first tender: B3.2 Uploading a tender.