The “Project Details” screen is designed to create your “Invitation to Bid”. It’s important to enter as much information as you can. The more details that you share with your invited subcontractors, the faster and more positive their responses will be.
After you enter the project title, we recommend that you upload a photo, image, or architectural rendering of the project. It will be prominently displayed on your “Invitation to Bid” to get your subcontractor’s immediate attention.
Then enter – or copy and paste – the scope of work in the “Project Description” section. Editing tools are available to enable you to bold, italicize, underline, and change the font color and size of the text to help your subcontractors quickly focus on important information.
Make sure you identify your role on the project as negotiating, bidding, or awarded General Contractor. Your role is often a factor in a subcontractor’s bidding decision.
Add the “Structure” type. For example, is the project retail, healthcare, or is it residential? ONETEAM has over 80 selections to help make the identification crystal clear. Include the square footage too. Since subcontractors are very busy, many prefer to bid projects in their wheelhouse – structure type and size – because they can produce the bid quicker and be more competitive with their proposal.
The two most important dates to include on your bid invitation are the bid date and the approximate start date. Your subcontractor might have time to prepare a bid but they might not be available when you need them on the jobsite. That will factor into their decision.
If you would like to include more information that’s not required for your “Invitation to Bid”, click on the “Additional Fields” link.
Finally, you need to add the project’s trade categories. However, before you begin, you have the option to promote your project’s selected categories in BidScope – The Blue Book Network’s project lead platform. The BidScope option defaults to “No” but by checking “Yes” you will quickly and easily increase your coverage beyond direct messaging bid invitations to your private and, when needed, Blue Book Network subcontractors. Also, by checking “Yes”, your local Blue Book Business Development Consultant will be notified to begin contacting subcontractors for you in only your specified categories.
When adding the project’s trade categories, be very specific to keep your bid invitations targeted to the appropriate subcontractors.
To build your trade categories, your selection methods are the CSI groups and category labels, The Blue Book’s groups and category labels, select all trades from a previous project, and the category locator. Before saving your selected trades using any of the 4-methods, we recommend that you review all the trades to make sure only the project’s required trades are listed. Again, you want to keep your “Invitation to Bid” messages targeted and accurate.
An important note: At this point, you have only added the trade categories to the project. You have not yet selected any subcontractors or suppliers in these trades to be messaged. That is done on the “Project Contacts” screen.
After you save the information on the "Project Details" screen, you will see a button at the top labeled “Manage Team Permissions”. This will provide you with a list of registered ONETEAM users in your company. If needed, just check the team members that you want to provide access to your project from within their ONETEAM account. They will be granted the same project privileges that you have.
