How do I compare bids and award a tender?

1. Once you're ready to stop taking new bids, click “Close bids.” (Awarding requires this step first — you can't award while the package is still open.)
2. Review the comparison table: each bidder's total, how it varies from your own estimate, and their coverage — how many of the package's line items they actually priced.
3. Click “Award” on the winning row.
4. Confirm “Award package.”

Reading the comparison table

The lowest bid that priced every line item gets a “Lowest complete bid” badge. A bid missing prices on some lines gets an “Incomplete” badge instead — and the “Award” button is disabled for any bidder who hasn't priced every item, so you can't accidentally award an incomplete bid.

What happens when you award

Awarding does two real things, not just a status change:

• It creates a subcontract record for the winning subcontractor, with the awarded amount recalculated from their actual submitted rates (never just trusted from the screen).
• It automatically drafts a Procurement purchase order for that subcontractor — shown afterward as a “View Purchase Order →” link on the package. This step is best-effort: if it fails for some reason, the award itself still stands, and you'd see a warning rather than a silent gap.

A bid package moves through: Draft → Bids open → Bids closed → Awarded (or Cancelled, reachable any time before it's awarded). Awarded and Cancelled are both final. The Procurement help category covers what happens to that purchase order next, once its articles are written.