Overview
Once a bid request is sent, KonstructIQ tracks every response in one place, helps you compare bids that rarely arrive in the same format, and folds the winning one into your estimate. This guide covers everything after sending — reviewing responses, adding a bid a sub emailed you directly, comparing bids side by side, awarding, and what happens to the bids you don't award.
See Create and Send a Bid Request for building and sending the request itself.
Step 1: Track responses as they come in
Open the bid request and click the Responses tab to see every subcontractor you invited, with their Status — Pending, Awarded, or Rejected — their bid Amount, and the Date they responded.
The lowest submitted amount is flagged Lowest. An eye icon next to a pending response means the subcontractor hasn't opened your bid request yet — hover it for Not viewed yet. From the bid request's header, use Remind All Bidders (also available on the Analyze Bids screen) to nudge anyone who hasn't responded.
Step 2: Open a response for the full detail
Click any subcontractor's row to open their response. You'll see their Bid Amount tagged Lump Sum or Itemized, their Scope of Work and scope breakdown, and an Internal Notes field — text here is never shared with the subcontractor, so it's a good place to track bidder engagement, like "left voicemail 7/20, waiting on revised quote."
If a sub submitted a lump sum with no line-item breakdown, click Generate Breakdown to have the assistant estimate one from the scope.
Step 3: Add a bid you received outside KonstructIQ
Not every subcontractor uses the portal. From the bid request, click Add Bid → Add Bid Manually to log a bid that arrived by email, PDF, or phone.
Drop the bid document on the upload screen and KonstructIQ extracts the subcontractor, amount, line items, and scope automatically — Limits: PDF, PNG, or JPG, up to 25 MB.
Or click Skip to enter it yourself: pick the Subcontractor/Vendor, choose Bid Type (Lump Sum or Itemized), fill in Categories with a description and amount per line, and optionally add a Timeline, Exclusions, Scope of Work, Notes, and Internal Notes.
Click Save Bid. It appears on the Responses tab alongside portal submissions, ready to compare and award like any other.
Use Add Bid → Invite Bidder to send the same bid request to a subcontractor you didn't originally include.
Step 4: Compare bids side by side
Once at least 2 bids are submitted (up to 5), click Analyze Bids. The assistant compares Total Price, Scope Inclusions by category, Timeline, a Confidence rating, a Scope Summary, and Exclusions for every bid, side by side.
The panel on the left names a Recommended bid with its Key Drivers, and calls out Risk Flags — for example, when a sub's flat fee comes with no itemized scope, which raises the odds of a change order later. Ask the assistant follow-up questions about the bids directly from this screen.
Step 5: Award a bid — and reject the others
Click Award under a bid, either from Analyze Bids or from that bid's own response page. The confirmation tells you the amount, the category, and that the subcontractor will be notified by email — and that other submitted bids move to Rejected. This is how bids get rejected in KonstructIQ: there's no separate reject button, because awarding one bid on a request is what declines the rest.
Choose Award & apply to estimate to fold the pricing into your estimate immediately (see Step 6), or Award only to notify the sub and decide later — you can apply it any time from the bid's details page. Exporting the bid as a PDF stays available either way.
Step 6: Apply an awarded bid to your estimate
If you chose Award only, or want to review before applying, open the awarded bid and click Apply to Estimate. The assistant reads the bid and your existing estimate in four steps — reading the bid, matching it against your estimate, resolving exclusions, and building a preview — then asks how to handle any overlap.
A lump sum bid lands as a single line and is never split across your existing items, so if the category already has items, the assistant asks whether to Remove covered items (replacing the old lines with the lump sum) or Keep existing items (adding the lump sum alongside them). Review the proposed changes — additions, deletions, and their dollar amounts — then click Apply.
Applying always saves a version of the estimate first, labeled Before BID-# — [Subcontractor]. Find it under the estimate's Options → View All Versions if you need to see or restore what the estimate looked like before the bid was applied.
Editing or closing a bid request
Once a bid request is sent, its Options menu offers Preview, Edit, Duplicate, and Close Bid Request.
Clicking Edit moves the bid request back to Draft — subcontractors won't see your changes until you send it again, and any new responses are paused while it's in draft. Existing responses already submitted aren't lost.
⚠️ Important: Close Bid Request stops it from accepting new bids and cannot be undone — once closed, a bid request cannot be reopened. Use it once you've awarded (or decided not to award) and want to shut the door on further responses.
Duplicate creates a new bid request with the same categories, scope items, and settings — useful for sending a near-identical request to a different set of subs, or re-bidding a scope that changed.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
How do I reject a bid I don't want? Click on the bid you want to reject, click on options, and then reject.
Can I edit a bid request after I've sent it? Yes, from Options → Edit — but it moves the whole request back to Draft and pauses new responses until you send it again.
Can I reopen a bid request after closing it? No. Closing is permanent — the bid request can no longer accept new bids.
I awarded a bid without applying it to the estimate — can I still apply it later? Yes. Open the awarded response and click Apply to Estimate at any time.
Does applying a bid overwrite my estimate for good? No — applying always saves a version of the estimate first, so you can find the pre-bid version under Options → View All Versions.
Can I compare bids if only one subcontractor has responded? No — Analyze Bids needs at least 2 submitted bids (up to 5) to compare.
A subcontractor emailed me a PDF instead of using the portal — do I have to re-key it? No — use Add Bid → Add Bid Manually and upload it; KonstructIQ extracts the subcontractor, amount, line items, and scope for you.
Quick Reference
Path: bid request → Responses tab to track bids → Add Bid for one received outside KonstructIQ → Analyze Bids to compare → Award (other bids move to Rejected) → Apply to Estimate → Options → Close Bid Request when done.
Limits: Analyze Bids needs 2–5 submitted bids; manually uploaded bid documents up to 25 MB (PDF, PNG, or JPG).
Don't skip: reading the award confirmation before confirming — awarding one bid immediately rejects every other submitted bid on that request, and closing a bid request afterward cannot be undone.