The six stages
Bids move left-to-right across the pipeline page. Each card carries title, buyer, value, deadline, assignees and badges; click in to edit. Every status change is timestamped and logged to the activity log, so you have an audit trail of when a bid moved between stages.
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1
Interested
Default landing stage for any bid created from a tender's Add to bids CTA. Parking lot — no commitment yet, team hasn't been pulled in.
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2
Pursuing
You've decided to bid. Pull in assignees, start the checklist — or seed it in one click from a tender-pack analysis — attach documents. This is where most of the work happens.
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3
In review
Draft is complete and ready for someone other than the author to read it before submission. Moving a bid into this stage signals “ready for sign-off”.
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4
Submitted
Sent to the buyer. The platform doesn't submit on your behalf — each portal has its own interface — but it tracks who signed off and when.
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5
Won
Buyer told you you won. Decision date is captured automatically and the bid value feeds the Pipeline Summary report's “value won” metric. Capture the win reason in notes.
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6
Lost
Always capture the loss reason — supplier feedback (price / quality / capability / past performance) is where your win-rate improvement comes from.
EOI tracking
Many tenders require an Expression of Interest before they'll send you the full bid pack. Each bid card carries three EOI fields:
- ≤3 days EOI deadline — when registration closes. Card shows a coloured pill: rose at ≤3 days, amber at ≤7, slate otherwise.
- Sent EOI sent date — when you registered. Filled in once you've actually done it.
- ? Shortlisted — tri-state: not yet decided / invited to bid / declined.
Any bid with a pending EOI shows up in the daily deadline digest. The cron runs every morning at the hour you've configured in Account settings.
The sign-off step
When a bid sits in In review, the detail page shows a Sign off → Submitted button. One click:
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1
Records your name and the timestamp as the reviewer of record.
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2
Moves the bid to Submitted at the same time.
After sign-off
An amber banner appears on the bid detail showing the reviewer name + timestamp. A Revert button reverses the sign-off if it was clicked in error — useful audit trail when a high-value bid's reviewer changes their mind.
Comments & discussion
Every bid has a Discussion section at the bottom of the detail page. Top-level comments + one level of replies. Author-only edits, soft-delete (so the audit trail survives). Quicker than a Slack thread that nobody can find later.
Clarification Q&A
Procurement portals all have a clarifications round — questions you ask the buyer, and questions the buyer asks you. The Clarifications section on every bid detail page tracks both directions in one place, with status (open → answered or withdrawn) and a permanent record once the bid is closed out.
Both directions
To buyer (outbound)
Questions you sent to the buyer through the portal. Log them here when you submit, then paste the buyer's reply into the answer field when it lands. Keeps the team aligned on what's been clarified vs. still pending.
From buyer (inbound)
Evaluation follow-ups the buyer asks you to clarify ("can you confirm the price excludes VAT?"). Record both the question and your response so it's findable later when the contract starts.
Workflow
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1
Log the question. Scroll to “Clarifications” on the bid detail, pick the direction, paste the question text. Optionally pre-fill the answer if you're recording an already-resolved exchange.
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2
Track open count. The section header shows “N open” — at a glance you can see whether anything's still waiting on a response. Open questions are amber-tagged; answered ones are emerald.
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3
Record the answer. Expand the “Record answer” panel inline on the row, paste the response, save. Status flips to Answered with the responder's name + timestamp captured.
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4
Withdraw or reopen. A duplicate question can be withdrawn; an answered question that the buyer responds to again can be reopened. Status changes are logged in the activity log.
Why bother — when you could just keep them in email?
Because clarification responses become part of the contract terms. If the buyer says "yes, that exclusion is acceptable" via the portal Q&A, you want a sober record of it 18 months in when the delivery scope is disputed. Discussion comments are for internal chat; Clarifications are the formal record.
Tips that pay off
Drag-and-drop works
On the kanban, drag a card between columns instead of opening it. Faster for triage sessions.
Win-loss reasons are gold
A 12-month bid book without reasons is useless for retros; a clean one is a strategy doc.
Sign off your own bids
Even as a single bidder. The stamp gives you a “what was the spec at submission?” anchor when the buyer changes the goalposts.
Discussion > Slack
Per-bid comments survive personnel turnover and don't get lost in channel history. Use them.