Question

As a subcontractor, what is the best way to track opportunities sent to multiple bidders?

  • 15 June 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 132 views
M
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We are a subcontractor working on our initial Acumatica set-up. We send out multiple quotes daily to several customers and need a way to track/follow-up on the progression of the quote from bid to project award. This could mean reaching out to several different tiers (Arch, GC, EC, etc).  Additionally, we need to be able to see all opportunities that have been sent to a specific customer, whether they were awarded the project or not. 

We looked at setting up the bidders under Opportunity/Relations, however the only opportunity records that show under the Opportunities tab, in the Business Account, are the ones that the customer is specifically listed as the Business Account in the Opportunity. 

Are there any other subcontractors that have dealt with this? What was your workaround? 

8 replies

Laura02
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Hello, 

Are you saying you are soliciting bids from Vendors, and you need a way to track the bids through to purchase order? If yes, then you are looking for purchase order requisitions. Requisitions is a feature that can be turned on in Enable/disable features screen; it adds new screens to purchasing module.

Laura

Laura ~ Klear Systems, Inc. Irvine, CA. ~ Please remember to "Mark Best Answer" to help those who are facing the same problem.~
M
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@Laura02 Thanks for your response.

Actually, it’s the other way around. We are the ones bids are being solicited from. We discussed the possibility of using Requisitions with our Acumatica Rep, but we would need it to work in the opposite direction. 

We’re a lower tier contractor, so most of our project quotes are going to be sent to several different companies. 

For example, say there are three different General Contractors bidding on a project. They all have four Electrical Contractors bidding to them. We will send our quote to all of the Electrical Contractors. Which in this instance could be anywhere from 4 to 12 different companies. 

We are looking for a way to see what opportunities/project quotes are pending with any specific EC that we have provided a price to. 

 

T
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Have you made any progress with tracking multiple contacts on a single opportunity? We too are a subcontractor and we first create leads from a construction tracking service like Dodge. We convert to an opportunity when we decide to bid the project and need to track all the general contractors (contacts) to whom we plan to submit a quote. 

K
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I’m not sure it’s exactly what you’re looking for, but you can create quotes with different business accounts against a single opportunity.  The Business Account on the opportunity updates from the quote set as the primary.

 



 

T
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Our problem is tracking the bidders prior to creating the quotes. If we convert a Lead for construction of a new building coming up for bids, we need to track all of the requests we receive from general contractors asking us to bid the project prior to creating any quotes. Without the ability to have multiple business accounts or contacts on a single opportunity, we cannot track the opportunities we quoted or may be quoting to a specific entity.

K
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Well, I did say it may not be exactly what you are looking for.  

T
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Thank you! We are new to Acumatica and still in the implementation stage. I did not know if a custom table was possible or whether someone has already gone through this exercise.

M
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@TheDoctor We actually decided to table Opportunities shortly after my initial post. We hope to jump back in the next couple of months to see how we can make it work for us. Many of the other subcontractors I have talked to aren’t using Acumatica for bidding purposes. What we’ve found is, for use in construction, Acumatica is definitely geared more towards general contractors. There are several things we have had to find work arounds or have customizations done for both projects and accounting. 

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