Running Bid Now, end to end

1Your dashboard & how access works

The Overview is your command center; access is governed automatically by your role.

1. In WordPress admin, open Bid Now → Overview. This is your landing page: KPI tiles, "needs attention" action queues, quick actions, and recent audit activity.
2. Everything is scoped to your organizations. A site admin sees all organizations (with an org filter); an org admin sees only theirs — the same screen, different reach.
3. Use the action queues to work by exception: pending questions, compliance documents to verify, credentials to review, contracts expiring, protests filed, and anomaly flags.
4. The Inbox (the solicitation list) is now a separate tab — open it to work an individual solicitation.
5. There's also a front-end dashboard that renders the same staff view for signing in outside wp-admin.

2Set up your organization & users

Organizations keep each office's solicitations, vendors, and staff separated cleanly.

1. Open Bid Now → Organizations.
2. Create or open your organization and complete its details (name, contact, any branding/settings).
3. Add staff and assign a role: organization admin (can run solicitations for that org) or a limited role as needed.
4. Assign each user to the correct organization(s). This is what makes the dashboard and permissions work — an org admin with no org assignment can't see anything.
5. Site admins can move between and manage all organizations; there's nothing extra to enable.

3Manage your vendor pool

Vendors self-register and classify themselves; you review, match, and (where needed) verify.

1. Open Bid Now → Vendors to see registered vendors, their contacts, and classifications.
2. Vendors classify themselves by NAICS and (if enabled) commodity codes; matching drives who gets notified about an opportunity.
3. Review each vendor's risk indicators where shown, and their compliance status (section 4).
4. You can import an existing vendor list (for example via the Gravity Forms import) rather than waiting for everyone to self-register.

4Compliance & credentials review

Vendor-uploaded documents are proposals until a staff member verifies them — and unverified uploads land in your queue.

1. When a vendor uploads a COI, bond, or license, it's stored unverified, it appears in the "Pending compliance verification" dashboard queue, and staff receive an email (vendors never trigger a false "verified").
2. Open the document, check it against requirements and its expiration date, and mark it verified or ask the vendor to resubmit.
3. The system tracks expirations and sends reminders as documents approach lapse (typically 30/14/7 days and at expiry).
4. For a solicitation where current insurance is essential, turn on "require current COI" so a lapsed document blocks (or clearly warns at) award.

5Create a solicitation

Choose the method that fits the buy, then define the details once.

1. Open Bid Now → Inbox and choose Add / New solicitation.
2. Pick the type:
   • Sealed electronic bid — sealed prices opened at a scheduled time.
   • Reverse auction — a live, single-line/lot descending-price event.
   • Multi-line reverse auction — many line items at once (live or sealed).
   • Unpriced technical proposal — scored, best-value RFP.
   • Two-step reverse auction — technical qualification, then a live price auction (section 12; newer method).
3. Enter scope, terms, and upload the solicitation documents.
4. For multi-line or itemized buys, add the line items (description, unit, quantity).
5. Set the schedule: question deadline, submission/close time, and (for sealed) the opening time or (for auctions) the start time.
6. Set any credential requirements vendors must meet to participate.
7. Save as a draft while you build it; publish when it's ready (section 6).

6Publish & notify vendors

1. Assign the solicitation to the right categories (NAICS / commodity codes).
2. Publish. Matching vendors can receive a targeted opportunity notice, and the solicitation appears on the public opportunities list.
3. Confirm the schedule and time zone are correct before you announce it — changes after publishing must go out as addenda (section 7).

7Manage Q&A and addenda

Answer questions fairly, and issue any change as an addendum that bidders must acknowledge.

1. Watch the pending questions queue. Answer through the solicitation's Q&A.
2. Publish answers to all bidders (typically without identifying who asked) to keep the process fair.
3. When a change is needed, issue an addendum — it records the change and requires each bidder to acknowledge it.
4. Bid Now enforces lock-step acknowledgment: bidders can't submit without acknowledging, and a new addendum flags already-submitted bids for re-affirmation.

8Run a sealed electronic bid

1. Publish with a clear submission deadline and opening time.
2. During intake, bids sit in a sealed lockbox — no one, staff included, can see prices. This is enforced, and provable in the audit trail.
3. At the scheduled time, open the bids (or open early if your policy allows and it's logged). The system unseals all bids together and produces a tabulation.
4. Review the tabulation, then proceed to screening and award (section 14).

9Run a live reverse auction

1. Confirm the vendor field is eligible (profiles complete, any required credentials in place).
2. At the start time, the live event opens; vendors bid the price down and see only their own rank.
3. Monitor the event from the auction console — you can see activity as it happens.
4. Anti-snipe automatically extends the clock when a bid lands in the final moments, so the best price wins, not the fastest connection.
5. When the clock closes, the standing is final; proceed to screening and award (section 14).

10Multi-line reverse auctions

1. Build the schedule of line items when creating the solicitation (section 5).
2. Choose whether to run it live (real-time per-line bidding) or sealed (all line prices submitted once).
3. Decide the award basis: line by line (lowest on each) or aggregate (lowest overall). State it in the solicitation so vendors know.
4. After close, review the per-line or aggregate results and award accordingly.

11Weighted RFP / technical evaluation

For best-value RFPs, a panel scores proposals against weighted criteria — independently, then by consensus.

1. When creating the solicitation, define the evaluation criteria and weights.
2. Assign evaluators to the panel.
3. Each evaluator scores independently; peer scores stay hidden until consensus (blind scoring is enforced — an evaluator can't see or overwrite another's scores).
4. Reconcile to a consensus, then, if the RFP blends price, open price and combine into the best-value ranking.
5. Scores are locked at award and a snapshot is stored with the award record.

12Two-step reverse auctions

Qualify vendors on the work first, then let only the acceptable ones compete on price. Modeled on FAR 14.5 two-step sealed bidding.

1. On a reverse or multi-line reverse auction, turn on two-step, choose pass/fail or scored acceptability, and set the Step-1 deadline (before the auction start).
2. Step 1: vendors submit sealed, unpriced technical proposals. Review them after the deadline and mark each qualified or not qualified (a reason is required for "not qualified").
3. If useful, request a revised technical proposal before the gate closes.
4. Finalize determinations. If fewer than two vendors qualify, you'll see an advisory warning — extend, revise, or proceed on the record.
5. Step 2: open the live reverse auction — only qualified vendors can bid; everyone else is blocked with a reason on record.

13Statutory preferences

Local, MWBE, and veteran credits adjust the evaluated ranking without touching the contract price.

1. Confirm each vendor's eligibility flags (staff-set) are correct before evaluating.
2. The system computes an evaluated amount for ranking, applying the configured preference credits.
3. Award ranking uses the evaluated figure, while the contract price stays the raw bid — this distinction is labeled throughout and preserved in the record.

14Award & award integrity

Before you record an award, Bid Now screens the apparent winner and documents the decision.

1. Identify the apparent winner from the tabulation or ranking.
2. Bid Now runs a fresh SAM.gov exclusion/debarment check at award. If the vendor is excluded, the award is blocked unless a staff member supplies a documented override reason.
3. A clear vendor earns a timestamped "no active exclusions" certificate stored with the award.
4. Required compliance documents are checked; a lapsed required COI warns (or blocks, if you set that).
5. Record the award. The full history — bids, addenda acknowledgments, screening, and the decision — is available as a protest-ready export.

15Protests

1. For solicitations with a pre-award protest window, an intended award is posted and a protest period opens.
2. Vendors file protests through the portal (intake is throttled and window-checked).
3. Review each protest and record your decision — acknowledge, deny, or uphold. Nothing is auto-adjudicated; the determination is yours and it's logged.
4. Any public tabulation shown during a protest is built from released-only items and fails closed — sealed content is never exposed.

16Public records & redaction

Confidential material is vendor-marked, staff-decided, and never auto-released.

1. Vendors may mark portions of a submission confidential; those are claims, not automatic redactions.
2. When preparing a records release, review each claim and decide what to redact — staff make the call.
3. Generate the release bundle — it includes only released items (fail-closed) plus a redaction log documenting what was withheld and why.

17Contracts & piggyback publishing

1. After award, create a contract record from the award to track the full lifecycle.
2. Manage milestones, performance reviews, attachments, and renewal exercises; renewal/expiry reminders run on a schedule.
3. To support cooperative purchasing, use piggyback publish to expose only released documents on a public cooperative page (publish-side only; disposition-checked).

18Analytics, exports & portability

1. Open the procurement analytics dashboard for metrics across your organizations (org-scoped automatically).
2. Export CSV and audit data for reporting and recordkeeping.
3. Use the agency portability export (staff) to produce a portable archive of your data; sealed files are included only when a lockbox is open and only for staff.

19Licensing & system health Site admin

These controls are for site administrators. Organization admins won't see them.

1. Check license & grace status. If a license lapses, Bid Now stays usable through a grace window and then goes read-only — it never deletes data or locks out an award in progress.
2. Confirm the SAM.gov API key, NIGP data (if used), and cron jobs are healthy from the system cards.
3. Manage Organizations, Settings, Import, and Users from the admin section.

20Getting help

1. Use the action queues on your Overview to catch anything waiting on you.
2. Point vendors to the Vendor Help guide for anything on their side.
3. For product or technical support, contact support@bidnowsolutions.com.

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