Competitive Bids

How do I enter competitive bids into Goldenseal?

Goldenseal estimating software tracks competitive and non-competitive bids from suppliers and subcontractors. It also lets you enter a rough estimate for a bid amount, and the replace it with actual price quotes, later.

Simple Bids

To enter a simple flat-price bid from one subcontractor or supplier, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Bids from the Income menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Enter the subcontractor or supplier who is providing the bid.
  4. Enter the amount of the bid, or leave the amount at zero if you have not yet received a price for this item.
  5. Enter the category under which to display the bid.
  6. Enter any other details about the bid.

To include the bid in an itemized estimate that you've already started, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
  2. Locate the estimate.
  3. Click in the bottom row, and hit the Return key or Enter key to add a row to the table.
  4. Click in the Cost Area cell and enter Bid.
  5. Click the Cost Item cell, and select the bid that you just created.

Competitive Bids

If more than one company is competing for the same work, follow these steps:

  1. Enter the first bid exactly the same as a simple bid, and include it in an estimate (see the previous section).
  2. Choose Bids from the Income menu, and locate the first bid.
  3. Choose Duplicate from the Edit menu.
  4. Enter the second subcontractor or supplier name.
  5. Enter the second bid amount (or enter zero if you have not yet received a price).
  6. Click in the Competes With field, and enter the first bid.
  7. For additional bids, repeat steps 2 to 6.

Goldenseal automatically includes the price for the lowest bid. It skips any bids that have zero for an amout.

NOTE-- Versions of Goldenseal prior to 2.45 do not skip bids with zero amount.

Rough Estimate Bids

Goldenseal lets you start with a rough estimate for bid work, when you are setting up a preliminary estimate. You can then replace the rough estimate with actual bids as you receive them.

To create a rough estimate bid that uses unit costs, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Bids from the Income menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Choose Category or Items in the Breakdown field.
  4. Click in the first row of the breakdown table, and enter details for a cost.
  5. Press the Return key or Enter key to add a new row.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each part of the bid work.
  7. Enter other details for the bid.
  8. Turn on the Rough Estimate button. HINT-- This feature is available in Goldenseal 2.5 and newer.
  9. Hit the Enter key to save the Bid.

To include the rough estimate bid in an itemized estimate that you've already started, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
  2. Locate the estimate.
  3. Click in the bottom row, and hit the Return key or Enter key to add a row to the table.
  4. Click in the Cost Area cell and enter Bid.
  5. Click the Cost Item cell, and select the bid that you just created.

To enter subcontractor quotes for the work, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Bids from the Income menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Enter the subcontractor giving the bid, and the amount of the bid.
  4. In the Competes With field, enter the rough estimate bid that you included in the estimate.
  5. Enter any other details for the bid.

When you enter actual bids that compete with a 'rough estimate' bid, Goldenseal uses the lowest actual bid and ignores the rough estimate. When there are no other bids, it uses the rough estimate cost.

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