The sealed bid, with an envelope no one can steam open
Bids rest in a tamper-evident lockbox — invisible to vendors, to staff, even to administrators — until the scheduled public opening. The electronic equal of the sealed-envelope IFB, with a cryptographic seal instead of a paper flap.
When statute says sealed, this is sealed
Sealed electronic bidding gives you the legal footing of a formal IFB without the paper, the mail room, or the question of who saw what before the opening.
True lockbox
Submitted prices are encrypted at rest and unreadable by anyone — including your own staff and site administrators — before the scheduled opening.
Time-locked opening
Bids open only at the posted date and time, or on staff release after it — never a minute early, and the moment is logged.
No-peek guarantee, on record
Because no one can open the box early, the audit trail can prove it — a standing answer to any "was this seen first?" challenge.
Confirmed submission
Vendors get a timestamped receipt the instant they submit, so there's no dispute over whether a bid arrived on time.
Preferences at opening
Local, MWBE, and veteran credits apply to the evaluated ranking as bids open — the contract price stays the raw bid.
Public opening record
The opening produces a clean, timestamped tabulation you can post or read into the record without retyping a thing.
Post to public opening, in five steps
Post the IFB
Publish the invitation, specs, and the exact date and time the bids will open.
Vendors submit sealed
Each bid goes straight into the lockbox with a timestamped receipt — hidden from all.
Addenda, acknowledged
Any change requires bidder acknowledgment; affected bids are flagged to re-affirm.
Scheduled opening
At the posted time the box unseals and produces a clean bid tabulation.
Screen & award
SAM.gov and insurance/bond/license checks run before you record the award.
Whichever way you buy, the award holds up
The same integrity layer runs under sealed bidding as under reverse auctions and scored evaluations — one standard of documentation, no matter the method.
Tamper-evident audit trail
Every bid, addendum, and award decision timestamped to a record built for a protest or audit.
Binding addenda
Bidders must acknowledge each addendum; a new one flags active bids for one-click re-affirmation.
Not-debarred at award
SAM.gov exclusion screening plus insurance/bond/license status, checked before you record the award.
Statutory preferences
Local, MWBE, and veteran credits applied to the evaluated ranking — contract price stays the raw bid.
Qualified vendors
NAICS and commodity-code classification with targeted opportunity notices to matching vendors.
Public records, handled
Vendor-marked confidential material, staff-decided, released with a redaction log — never auto-exposed.
See a sealed bid open on schedule
We'll run a sealed IFB on a demo site — submit, hold, and open — so you can see the lockbox and the tabulation for yourself.
Bid Now Solutions · reverse auctions & sealed electronic bidding for government & organizational procurement · bidnowsolutions.com