Run tender — cut-offs and tenders

Open this screen in Saral/projects/subcontractors/procurement

Each package's start on site worked back through lead-in, samples, design approval and design to the appointment cut-off, and back through procurement to the date procurement must start — against when it actually started and when the firm was appointed. Each row opens onto its tender list; Appoint puts the winning firm on the package.

You enter

Start on site, the durations that differ from the default, procurement started, appointed on, the method of appointment
The tender list: bidder, dates, amount and terms

Saral fills in

The appointment cut-off and procurement start-by dates; RAG and early / late days
The levelled amount and rank of every bid, and the line-by-line comparison

It produces

The procurement schedule with the Tenders and Code book sheets
The bid comparison (Excel with live formulas, PDF)

Procurement: the arithmetic and the tender list

Cut-off = start on site less lead-in, samples, design approval and design (the design terms only where the package carries contractor design); start by = cut-off less procurement weeks. A blank duration uses the account's default and shows in italics. The same code runs the Overview alerts, so the two never disagree. Each bidder's terms — adjustments with a £ effect, advance payment, liability cap, latent defects, alternative product, preferred — level the amount, and the levelled figure ranks the bids. Appoint marks the others unsuccessful, dates the appointment today and offers the bid as the subcontract sum. On Item schedules the returns are compared line by line: our quantity × their rate, an included item costs nothing, an excluded or missing line is a gap levelled at the other bidders' median — never zero — and a gap nobody priced is counted, not filled.

How a package is paid

The edit form carries 'How this package is paid'. Left at 'Not set' it is decided by the account's ladder (Projects → Settings → Applications) from the method of appointment and whether the firm works on site, and the option names the rule that decided — a sub-contract is valued and noticed monthly, a professional appointment is a fee account, a supply-only order is paid on invoice, and work on site of 45 days or more is valued and noticed whatever the form. Set it only where this package is paid differently; a value set here always wins. Only a package valued monthly gets a month on Applications; one paid on invoice is paid through BillScan and must never be noticed.

Next screen: /projects/subcontractors/orders

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