How does bids&tenders work for suppliers?

What is bids&tenders and who uses it?

bids&tenders describes itself as a digital procurement platform that streamlines reviewing, registering for and submitting bids. Its help centre calls each buying organization an agency, and defines agencies as "municipalities, school boards, and other public sector entities." Its website groups buyers into education, engineering and construction, government, healthcare and utilities.

Many agencies run their own bids&tenders site, often at an address like agencyname.bidsandtenders.ca. The City of Oshawa uses oshawa.bidsandtenders.ca, the City of Saskatoon uses saskatoon.bidsandtenders.ca and the District School Board of Niagara uses dsbn.bidsandtenders.ca. You can also search open bids across agencies, by keyword or by buyer, on the bid opportunities page at bidsandtenders.com.

How do I register as a supplier?

Start with a free account. The steps below follow bids&tenders' help article on creating an account in Canada.

1. Go to bidsandtenders.com and click Login, then Create Account. You can also click Create Account on the bids&tenders site of the agency you want to bid with.
2. Enter your legal company name carefully. bids&tenders says it cannot be changed from your account later, and a change requires a request to support from your primary contact.
3. Select the categories that match your services. When an agency posts a bid in one of your categories, you are notified.
4. Select the agencies you want notifications from. The help centre warns that if you choose categories but leave the agency selection blank, you will not receive any new bid notifications.
5. Add contacts. An account can hold up to 10 contacts, so colleagues can follow bids while you are away.
6. Agree to the Terms of Use, complete the CAPTCHA and click Continue.

There are exceptions. bids&tenders says Newfoundland Hydro and the City of St. John's require a separate Canadian account, with categories set up specifically for those agencies.

How do I find, follow and download bids?

Search the bid opportunities list or an agency's own site and click View to open the bid details. Agency lists can be filtered by status, such as open, closed or awarded.

To follow a specific bid, register for it. In the bid details, click Register for this Bid and agree to the Terms of Service. bids&tenders then confirms you are registered as a plan taker, and the bid appears under My Bids, in My Active Bids. Being a plan taker is what ties you to that bid's updates: the City of Oshawa's site, for example, says bidders who have registered for a bid opportunity will be notified by email of addendums.

You can look before you commit. With a free account, PDF documents are available as watermarked previews without any obligation to bid. To get unwatermarked copies, you must register for the bid. bids&tenders notes that prequalified bids may not always offer a preview.

Some agencies also charge their own bid document fee. bids&tenders marks it with a dollar sign next to the View button, shows it under Bid Pricing in the bid details, and says the fee is paid to the agency, separate from any bids&tenders subscription or pay-per-bid fee.

How do I submit a bid online?

First check the bid details to see whether the agency wants an online submission or a hard copy. For online bids, the steps below follow bids&tenders' How to Submit a Bid article.

1. Log in, go to My Bids, select My Active Bids and click Start Submission.
2. Work through the steps the agency has set up. They can include Schedule of Prices, Questions and Specifications, References and Subcontractors, Documents and Bonding, Addenda, Terms and Conditions, Preview Bid and Submit Bid. They do not have to be completed in order.
3. Watch the indicators. A red exclamation mark means mandatory items are incomplete, a green check mark means the step is complete, and a blank circle means the items are optional.
4. In the Addenda, Terms and Conditions step, check the box next to each addendum posted to acknowledge that you reviewed it.
5. Use Preview Bid to catch errors and view your bid as a PDF.
6. Click Submit my Bid Now and confirm. Then download a copy of your submission, which includes a time stamp and IP address.

A web clock shows the time remaining. bids&tenders says a bid cannot be submitted once the clock reaches zero, and the system blocks submissions after the closing date and time. The system saves progress automatically, but the help centre still recommends clicking Save My Bid, because information may not be retained after a power outage or lost connection.

How are addenda handled on bids&tenders?

bids&tenders says changes to a bid are emailed to the addresses on the account that registered for it. If the agency revises a bid after you have already submitted, you are notified, the agency posts an addendum, and you log in, click fix my bid, make any required changes, acknowledge the addendum and resubmit.

Agencies add their own rules on top. Oshawa states that "Bidders shall acknowledge all addendums that may be issued." The District School Board of Niagara asks suppliers to add noreply@bidsandtenders.ca to their safe senders list so they receive system emails. Saskatoon reminds registrants that it is their responsibility to monitor and respond to its procurement opportunities.

Is bids&tenders free for suppliers?

Partly. bids&tenders' help centre says a free account lets you:

• Browse and view all publicly listed bid opportunities and their full details.
• Download and read PDF documents attached to opportunities.
• Register as a plan taker for free (non-subscription) agencies.
• Register as a plan taker for subscription-required agencies by paying a one-time pay-per-bid fee.
• Submit bids at free agencies at no cost.

Agencies are either subscription-required or free. You can see which is which by looking for the "subscription required" label on your Manage Account page or the Create Account page. Paid subscription tiers differ only in how many subscription-required agencies you can submit bids to, and bids&tenders says subscriptions do not renew automatically. Registering for a bid from a subscription-required agency uses one of your agency slots even if you never submit.

Notifications differ too. bids&tenders says free accounts receive notices from subscription-required agencies as a weekly digest, while paid subscriptions get daily notifications for all selected agencies. Agency document fees are separate from all of this and are paid to the agency.

Where do suppliers commonly miss bids on bids&tenders?

What I see most often is not a missing skill but a missing setting. These are the gaps worth checking in your account today:

• Choosing categories but no agencies. With the agency selection blank, no new bid notifications arrive at all.
• Relying on a weekly digest. On a free account, notices from subscription-required agencies arrive weekly, which can be well into a short bidding window.
• Trusting categories completely. bids&tenders notes that an agency can select an unrelated category when posting, so categories are a useful filter but not a perfect one. Keyword searches catch some of what categories miss, and the reverse is also true.
• Previewing without registering. A watermarked preview does not make you a plan taker, and addendum emails go to registered bidders.
• Registering under one person's email. If that person is away, nobody sees the addendum. Add colleagues as contacts.
• Filtered email. Add noreply@bidsandtenders.ca to your safe senders list.
• Watching only the platform-wide list. Some agencies need separate accounts, and some advertise on a provincial site while documents and addenda sit on bids&tenders.