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vBid PROVIDER On‐Line Bidding User Guide Welcome to VirtuBid™ with the Quest Construction Data Network! VirtuBid™ (vBid™) is a state‐of‐the‐art electronic bidding service that streamlines the bidding process for owners and solicitors, allowing them to effectively and efficiently build and accept bids through a secure online network. On‐Line Bid ID Code You must create your On‐Line Bid ID Code to create your bid Prior to participating in On‐Line Bidding, be sure to set up your On‐Line Bid ID Code. Your On‐Line Bid ID Code is your digital signature. You may also need to update your password to higher security if needed (On‐Line Bidding new password minimum is 8 characters with at least one uppercase, one lowercase and one numeral). Updating passwords and creating an On‐line Bid ID Code can only be done by your System Administrator. Creating your On‐Line Bid ID code My Account – Located in the Green Title Bar in the functional menu User Info – Enter On‐line Bid ID Code (new minimum is 8 characters with at least one uppercase, one lowercase and one numeral) Confirm On‐line Bid ID Code – Re‐type your Bid ID Code to confirm Save – Click Save to update and save your code Add/Edit Additional User Access The administrator may also Add and/or Edit Additional Users and Give Permissions on the additional users. Options include: Member (downloading project information ONLY) and/or Provider (posting Project information), Project and/or Request Access and vBid Access. Also, set individuals access permissions, no access, access to just their projects or access to all projects per the screen below and if they can Submit/Publish the vBid. To edit users, click My Account ‐ User Info ‐ Edit Users Individual users can update their own passwords by using the Forgot Login Information? link on the login page of ---PAGE BREAK--- Project Set‐Up Add a New Project in the usual way, noting On‐Line Bidding Fee Selection, time zone and prequalification required. a. On‐Line Bidding Fee Selection – choose ‘No on‐line bidding for this project’ if you do not plan on offering on‐line bidding, otherwise select the correct method of payment for this project. A method of payment must be selected before setting up the on‐line bid. Important note ‐ once downloads of your plans and specs have occurred, you will not be able to change this area! OR if you want to add on‐line bidding after project documents downloads have occurred your only option will be Bidder Pays. Plan holder Pays – the fee is combined with the download delivery fee and is charged to every plan holder at time of bid document download – it appears as one total fee at the bottom of the bid advertisement (the example below of $30 is the solicitor selecting $20 for the download deliver fee and $10 for the Plan holder Pays on‐line bid fee selection for a Total $30). NOTE: For the City of Middleton, the Download Delivery Fee will be $15.00. Bidder Pays – the on‐line bidding fee is billed ONLY to the bidders who have a ‘submitted bid’ at time of bid close (the download delivery fee is still charged to every plan holder as they download the main documents) – it appears as two separate fees at the bottom of the bid advertisement. NOTE: For the City of Middleton, the Online Bidding Fee will be $10.00. b. time zone is the time zone in effect at the Bid Location and defaults to the time zone setting in the My Account section for the Soliciting Agent. c. prequalification required defaults to No – when set to Yes, bidders will not be able to access the vBid Online Bidding until the Soliciting Agent has Approved them on the Plan Holder list. Once the project has been added, if a vBid On‐Line Bid is going to be provided for this project, go to Modify, Select the Project and then click the Create Bid button at the top right of the Advertisement (you must have selected the method of payment for on‐line bidding first ‐ this button then changes name to View Bid). The bid definition has been created – now Create Bid displays as View Bid Once the bid definition has been created, the On‐Line Bid for the project can be accessed either by the View Bid button (which takes you directly to the project after logging into vBid) or by the On‐Line Bidding button on the Projects menu (this takes you to vBid and after logging in presents a list of all your vBid projects). ---PAGE BREAK--- Logging into vBid ‐ On‐Line Bidding Log into vBid ‐ On‐Line Bidding using your User Name and Password. (Password must = new security minimum of 8 characters with at least one uppercase, one lowercase and one numeral. If needed, go to ‘My Account’ at to update the password). Do not use your Online Bid ID Code here. On the Home page of vBid ‐ On‐Line Bidding projects are sorted by Bids Not Published, Bids Published, Bid History Select your project by clicking on the project name. If the selection box indicates a click on the box to view all projects in that section. Qualification Information Tab The Qualification Tab is where you place all necessary documents and forms requiring review and/or to be returned by the bidder. ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Qualifications and Bidder Certifications Vendor Number Required a. If a Vendor Number is Required check the box – if not, leave blank Require Bid Bond a. Complete the Bid Bond Percentage and choose Accept Electronic Bid Bond and/or Surety2000 You can offer both, but the bidder will only need to complete ONE option to submit their bid Electronic Bid Bond Bidders will upload a file containing their bid bond – typically pdf format. Surety2000 Bid Bond In order to use Surety 2000 All Parties to the Bond must first be registered with Surety 2000. In order to accomplish this, the Owner, The Insurance Carrier, the Broker and the Contractor each must go to www.Surety2000.com and select the appropriate link from the home page in order to complete their respective registration. For this document, we will assume the Insurance Carrier and Broker have already completed this process, if not they must do so. The Owner completes their own registration with Surety 2000 and then they (or their soliciting agent) can choose Surety 2000 as a method of receiving the Bid Bond on the project Qualification Information page. Verify download of addenda a. Keeping this box checked by default will ensure bidders have downloaded all addendums issued on the project prior to being able to submit their bid ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Qualifications and Bidder Certifications continued Upload of Required Documents a. Certify receipt of these documents i. cause your bidder to have to download only – read only. b. Attach and certify completion of these forms ii. cause your bidder to have to download, complete and return/upload a response file. c. Certify document uploads iii. cause your bidder to have to upload a document that you have requested be part of the bid submission e.g. a copy of their Business License. You can Upload or Save as you go or make a series of selections and then press Upload or Save – all uploads are then performed . ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Qualifications and Bidder Certifications continued Post letting information submittals a. The final section on this page allows you to call for some documents to be submitted after bid closing. You can specify the due date and time for these submissions, leave the due date and time blank. Choose whether you are providing a form or just specifying a document they already have ‐ If you DO NOT have Post Letting requirements please leave BLANK. EXAMPLE completed ‐ requiring a Subcontractor List be submitted by the Secondary Date selected NOTES ‐ You can continue making changes to this Qualification page, adding and/or deleting files & also renaming files after the upload is complete. Be sure to Save when finished. You can proceed to the Bid Worksheet and then come back and make more changes. The Bidder does not have access to your bid package until you have finished and chosen to Publish the Bid. ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Worksheet Setting up the Worksheet a. After clicking on the Bid Worksheet Tab, you are brought to a page where you can create your Bid Form. If you have created a Bid Form in Xcel (or some other Spreadsheet) you can modify it to fit our import format (see Exhibit B) and save it to a CSV format and choose Import from CSV on the vBid Bid Worksheet screen below, or you can use the following instructions to manually build your worksheet. b. First choose Add Section and select the type and fill in the Section Name. i. Section Types Required is a normal Bid Item – Bidder must fill in a price and it is added to Base Bid Total. Mandatory is Alternate/Mandatory – Bidder MUST bid, and the section is not added to Base Bid Total. Optional is Alternate/Optional – Bidder may or may not bid and the section is not added to Base Bid Total. Fixed – Items in this section must have an Engineers Estimate/Unit Price and All Bidders will be forced to bid the Engineers Estimate – Typically used for Allowances. c. Continue adding Section Headings as needed (you must have at least 1 Section). ---PAGE BREAK--- d. Click on any Section Heading and then select Add Item to add individual line items to your Bid Worksheet as shown below. e. When filling out Line Items i. The Line Item number must be unique for the entire Work Sheet. f. When completing Item Code i. You can choose an Item Code from your organization’s Standard Item Code List (see Exhibit C for building and maintaining the Item Code List) or create Item Codes as necessary. Item codes can be duplicated, and you can select text or numbers for your code. You must enter a item code in this field, leaving blank will cause the system to error and bid will not be published. g. Item Description i. Complete the item description as desired. h. Unit of Measure can be used as defaulted to, chosen from a drop-down menu, or changed as required. i. A quantity must be filled in (use 1 in case of Lump Sum items). j. Unit Prices i. Enter Unit Prices to create your Engineer’s Estimate is optional (except when using a Fixed Bid Section) and will never be seen by the bidder ii. Entering the Unit Price Fields Fill in the Unit Price Field by clicking on the appropriate line item in the worksheet. You can move from unit price to unit price by using your Enter key or the Up/Down Arrow. When finished being sure to click Save. ---PAGE BREAK--- Letting Close Options The system defaults to Base Bid Totals for both. These set the level of detail shown when first opening bids and when posting the Prelim Bid Tab directly to Publishing and Unpublishing vBids Publishing vBids a. When all pages are correctly filled out (Qualification Information, Bid Worksheet and Letting Close Options) you can choose Publish from the bottom of the screen. b. You will need to enter your organization’s On‐Line Bid id code and choose to accept the Terms and Conditions. Each organization has one On‐Line Bid ID code, which is entered and maintained under the My Account page when logged in at Check with your Account Administrator if you need this code c. Once Published, you can no longer make changes to the Online Bid without Unpublishing – see following page for information about Unpublishing. ---PAGE BREAK--- Unpublishing vBids a. You will need to Unpublish the vBid to make ANY changes to your Online Bid information, simply click the Unpublish button within vBid. b. Then the following will occur (also, if you issue an addendum the following automatically happens): Bidders that have submitted bids i. Will have their bids unsubmitted. ii. Will be notified via email and the Message Center that the Bid has been unpublished and that they will need to resubmit once you have published the bid or they have acquired the addendum. iii. The work they have already done will be saved and they will only have to work on areas that you have changed, unless you import a completely different bid worksheet. The bidder will then have to re-enter their work. iv. They will be able to see the project in their Bids Started list but will not be able to work on the bid until you have republished. c. Bidders that have not started a bid, will not be able to start a bid until you have republished. d. Your Advertisement will not show the On‐Line Bid button or the on‐line bidding: Available as shown in the advertisement below – these will be restored once the ad is republished. ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Letting The Bid Letting Menu is available once you have Published your bid a. Prior to the close time, the top 2 buttons (View and Show Bid Room Clock) are the only options available – continue to step d after bid closing time. b. The “View” button will allow viewing of the names of the companies that have submitted bids – but only the names and submitted time. Just like seeing the return address on an envelope. If a bidder chooses to Un-submit their bid, they will no longer show in this list. c. The “Show Bid Room Clock” displays a large screen with the Local Time and the time remaining till bid close, displayed prominently in Red. You can use this if you are doing a Public Bid Opening, either in person or virtually (On‐Line using GoToMeeting or a similar service). Remember, both you and your bidders are using the exact same clock when you use VirtuBid for your on‐line bidding. d. Once the countdown clock has hit 0:00, refresh your screen and the bottom 3 buttons will become active (Enter Paper Bid, Bid Acceptance and Review and Bid Display). Use these options to complete your actual opening of the submitted bids. ---PAGE BREAK--- e. First the Definitions i. Enter Paper Bid – if you are accepting paper (or manual) bids, use the Enter Paper Bid functions to enter their Bid Form and to scan and upload any documents that were provided as part of the bid submittal. You MUST manually add the paper bidder to the main plan holders list at Bidding documents can be uploaded after the bid opening in order to read results quickly. ii. Bid Acceptance and Review – this function allows you to review all the paper work that has been submitted as part of the electronic bids. You MUST at least come here and Accept the bid before you can display the Bid Worksheet. iii. Bid Display – this function displays the bids submitted for all bids that you have accepted under ii. above. They display from low to high automatically (no sorting allowed). f. Suggested sequence – If you are accepting paper bids, we would suggest that follow these steps: I. Use the Bid Acceptance and Review function to check any paperwork that you need to check before opening the actual vBid. Use the notes function in this section to record anything special that you want to recall later. Then accept those bids that you want to Open. II. Proceed to Bid Display and show and read the electronic bids that you have received. Once here, remember that you can change the level of detail being shown and/or turn on the Engineer’s estimate and analysis functions as desired. If all bids were electronic, you can complete everything now by selecting “Post Preliminary Bid Tabs”. III. Now proceed to open and read your paper bids and use the Enter Paper Bid function at your convenience. Bid Acceptance and Review a. This screen has a line for each bid submitted. Each line contains a column to indicate “Status”, a column for each document submitted as part of the bid and a column for notes. b. Review any of the documents by clicking on the link and make any notes that you would like to make about the submission in the provided column. c. Change the “Status” to Accepted or Rejected as appropriate. d. Leaving the bids ‘Under Review’ – will not show in the Bid Display, ONLY bids that have been Accepted will be displayed when you actually “Open Bids” in the Bid Display. ---PAGE BREAK--- Bid Display a. When you display the bids, they show at the level of detail you chose in the Letting Close Options section. The following is set to Detail. b. Thereafter, you can click on the “Show Evaluation Options” checkbox which will populate the Engineer’s Estimate and choose between evaluating the bids against the Engineer’s Estimate and against the average of the bids. As shown, you can choose your own percentage of variation. ---PAGE BREAK--- c. Once you are satisfied with the bids and which ones you are accepting for further evaluation, you can use the buttons at the bottom of the screen as follows: i. Choose Post Prelim Bid Tabs – Automatically posts the “As Received” pending results to the system, allowing bidders to get the Bid Results right away at your Quest Custom private Interface or on directly through the website. The level of detail posted is based on the level you have selected in the Letting Close Options tab for this project. This level can still be changed by going to this selection screen at any time and changing it. ii. Export to CSV – This will export a CSV file of the entire Bid Abstract including the Engineer’s Estimate column. This file can then be brought into Excel for further evaluation of possible bid award and can also be imported into any software you might use for managing the construction process. Posting FINAL Results – Post your final results after your boards have approved. LOGIN to your account at Select ‘Modify’ from the ‘Projects OR Requests’ functional menu Select the Project/Request for which you want to add FINAL Results Select ‘Add Plan holder/Post Results’. Select ‘Post Results’ at the bottom of the plan holders list. If awarding, you can select the Check Box for the appropriate bidder and also complete the Award Date Field. If needed, choose a final bid abstract from your computer and upload to the results window under “Attachment”. Click ‘Post Results’ to Save your work – wait for the ‘Results have been Saved’ message (in the top left). ---PAGE BREAK--- • Enter Paper Bid a. Choose the company you are entering the paper bid for. You can select from an existing Plan Holder or enter a Quest Member number. i. If the plan holder does NOT appear in the drop down, they MUST be added as a manual plan holder for the project via the ‘Add Plan Holder/Post Results’ section of the Modify screen in ii. If they appear on the plan holder list as an eBidDoc™ or manually added plan holder but are not listed in the vBid drop-down window, then they need to be added again as a manual plan holder to appear in vBid. (This will occur when the plan holder has started a vBid by logging into the system but choosing not to submit their bid electronically.) b. Complete the qualification page by Checking the completed items and uploading (the scanned paper) documents. i. Paper documents do not need to be uploaded to submit a paper bid, you may upload documents later, but you will need to un-submit the paper bid entry, add the documents and re-submit the paper vBid followed by step to complete the paper vBid entry. c. Complete the Bid Worksheet by filling their unit prices into the form below d. Once both Qualification information and the Worksheet are completed, click the Submit button. Your entries will be checked for completeness and you will be notified of missing information or given a Successful Completion message. e. Continue to Bid Acceptance and Review. ---PAGE BREAK--- Exhibit A – Bid Bond Information Bid Bond Set-up The system provides 2 options for receiving a Bid Bond – first set the bond % then choose: 1. Accept Electronic Bid Bond – this option allows the Bidder to upload a file as their Bid bond. This most likely is a PDF from their Insurance provider. 2. Accept Surety 2000 bid bond code – Surety 2000 is a third-party certifier of Bid Bonds. This firm is used by many DOT’s around the country. See the following information on how to use Surety 2000. 3. You can choose either one of the above, or both. If you choose both, the bidder can provide a Bid Bond by either method. Surety 2000 Documentation In order to use Surety 2000, “All Parties” to the Bond must first be registered with Surety 2000. In order to accomplish this, the Owner, The Insurance Carrier, the Broker and the Contractor each must go to Surety2000.com and select the appropriate link from the home page in order to complete their respective registration. For this document, we will assume the Insurance Carrier and Broker have already completed this process, if not they must do so. The Owner completes their own registration with Surety 2000 and then they (or their soliciting agent) can choose Surety 2000 as a method of receiving the Bid Bond on the project Qualification Information page. That is all they need to do unless they issue their own Vendor Numbers to the bidding community. If they issue their own Vendor Numbers, they need to check the Check Box at the Vendor Number Required – this affects which number the Contractor will use with their Insurance Broker. The following page shows what the bidder and Insurance Broker must do to fulfill the transaction. ---PAGE BREAK--- Instructions related to fulfilling Surety 2000 Bid Bond Contractor must be registered with Surety 2000. There is a small annual fee for this registration that varies by state. If the bidder only bids on one contract a year requiring a Surety 2000 authentication, they can request a single use registration at a reduced cost. Contract Number –This number is supplied by VirtuBid System automatically and is the eBidDoc# from The Bidder must give this number to the Insurance Broker. Contractor ID – This number will be either the Member number or the Owner’s vendor number if the owner requires a vendor number. In either case it will be auto filled. This number must also be provided to the Insurance Broker by the bidder. Bond ID – This item is provided by Surety 2000 to the Insurance Broker who in turn provides it to the Bidder. This is the only item the Bidder inputs. Steps to follow: 1. Bidder (already registered with Surety 2000 as above) contacts Insurance Broker and requests a Bid Bond certified by Surety 2000. 2. Bidder provides Insurance Broker the Contractor ID, the Contract Number, the Bid Bond % required and the estimated Bid Amount. 3. Insurance Broker logs into Surety 2000 and fills in the data for this Bid Bond. 4. The Surety 2000 System gives the Insurance Broker the Bond ID Number 5. After getting the Bond ID number from the Insurance Broker, the Contractor completes the transaction by filling in the Bond ID number field on the Qualifications page. ---PAGE BREAK--- Exhibit B Importing a Bid form CSV If you already have a Spreadsheet of your Bid Form, you can choose to import it instead of filling in the Worksheet manually. 1. First modify your spreadsheet to fit this format: 2. All items must be in the correct columns. Leave no blank lines. 3. Special Definitions for section headings (most others are self-explanatory) . a. The Section Heading goes in column 1 and the Type of Section goes in column 2. b. Required adds to base bid total and the bidder must provide a unit price in order to submit. c. Mandatory is Alternate/Mandatory – Bidder MUST bid, and the section is not added to Base Bid Total. d. Optional is an Alternate and does not add to base bid total – a bidder does not have to provide a unit price in order to submit a bid. e. Fixed - you provide the unit price for Fixed and every bidder will be that price as it is filled in for them. Fixed adds to the Base Bid total. 4. You then save this spreadsheet as a CSV. 5. On the Worksheet page, select Import and then choose the file to be imported – it will replace any data already there – it does not append to existing data. 6. You can Export the existing Worksheet, make changes in Excel and reimport. ---PAGE BREAK--- TIPS for Importing .csv into vBid Bid Worksheet vBid Bid Worksheet .csv imports - our system requires ‘basic plain text’ examples ‘special characters’ in the .csv file…any errors can be resolved by following the steps below within the .csv prior to importing “ need to change to plain text so the " doesn’t curve é change to a regular e – change to a single - ½ change to 1/2 so it doesn’t shrink it ° change to the word degree quick fix – find and copy the character causing the issue within the .csv then click ‘Ctrl-F’ to open the Find/Replace window – click Replace and then in the ‘find’ box paste the character causing the issue – in the ‘replace’ box type the replacement character and click Replace All ---PAGE BREAK--- Exhibit C – Building the Item Code List 1. You can build your own Item Code List as follows a. One option is to build it off line in and Excel Spreadsheet. Here is a sample of the format: b. Once you have built it, you do a Save As in the file menu and save it as a .csv file. You can then go to the “Item Codes” menu in VirtuBid and use the Import from CSV option to create your database. Note that importing will replace any item codes that were already there. c. The other option is to use the onscreen buttons on the Item Codes menu to add, delete or modify (just double click on any previously entered field) as shown below: d. Be sure to save your work when finished. ---PAGE BREAK--- Exhibit D - Adding a Manual Paper Planholder PRIOR to Bid Closing – Allowing the Paper Bidder to submit a bid in VirtuBid (vBid online bidding). 1. If a bidder picks up Paper Documents directly from your office, they will ONLY have access to VirtuBid (vBid online bidding) if you add them using their Member ID Number on the Planholders list from the Modify screen. a. Accessing the Member ID Number. • The bidder should login to their Account and click on ‘My Account’ to access their Member ID. If they do not have an account with they must register and give you the Member ID Number. **Best Practice is to have the bidder login and give you their member number which ensures you are using the correct Account. 2. Once you have the bidders Member ID Number, follow the steps below to add the bidder to the Planholders list. a. Select ‘Modify’ from the ‘Projects or Requests’ functional menu. (located at the top of the screen). b. Select the Project/Request for which you want to add manual Planholder. c. Select ‘Add Planholder/Post Results’. d. Select ‘Add Planholder’ at the bottom of the Planholders list. e. At the top of the screen you’ll see ‘Load by Member Number’, enter the Member ID Number the bidder gave you and click ‘submit’. The company information will populate into the template automatically. f. Make sure to leave the ‘bid amount’ field blank, this is will be used for posting results and is not meant as a place to record for fees or deposit for the paper plans. Use the ‘Notes’ section for this type of entry. g. Click ‘Save’ when you are finished. ---PAGE BREAK--- h. The Paper Planholder will now have access to VirtuBid. The bidder should log into VirtuBid using their login to access the qualification information and bid worksheet. They will be able to submit their bid using their Online Bid ID code. (If needed, bidder should contact Customer Support for assistance with their Online Bid ID Code.) 3. If the Online Bidding Fee is set to ‘Planholder Pays’ and the manually added Planholder submits a vBid after the bid closes, there will be no charge to the Planholder and no revenue sharing for the Online bid. If the Online Bidding Fee is set to ‘Bidder Pays’, the bidders Credit Card would be charged for the fee only if they have a submitted a bid at bid close.