What belongs in a bid handoff before the estimator starts?
Format: Article.
Give the estimator a clear starting point: what the team was asked to price, which files came with the request and what is missing. A folder of files is not enough. No one should have to piece the bid request together from a long email chain.
Build a bid intake packet. It gathers the request for review; it does not measure quantities from plans or decide whether to bid. Keep what the requester said apart from what the office checked. Leave estimating judgments with the estimator.
Procore lists each drawing's number, title and revision. It also shows the drawing date, received date, set and status.[2] You can use those fields to build a file index. They do not prove which files govern a bid or that all files are present.
Start with the invitation as received
Save the first invitation. Name the sender, project, requested trade or package, and where to reply. Record the due date exactly as supplied, including time and time zone where stated. If the invitation says only “Friday,” leave the exact deadline unresolved and name the person who will confirm it.
Keep an internal review target separate from the external submission deadline. The estimating manager may want a draft earlier. That is an internal planning choice, not a new client deadline.
Name one person who can explain where the files came from. Name the estimator separately. Giving the work to an estimator does not mean they accept every claim in the packet.
Copyable bid intake packet
| Section | Required entry | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunity | Project ID, requester, package and original invitation | Are we pricing the right project? |
| Deadline | Exact source wording, time zone and confirmation record | Is the date clear and current? |
| Document index | File name, revision, received date and source link | Are listed attachments actually present? |
| Requested scope | Source-linked description of the requested work | Which boundaries are unclear? |
| Stated exclusions | Who supplied each exclusion and where it appears | Is this the requester's term or our proposal? |
| Addenda | Received items and any gap in the referenced list | Does the estimator have the revised input? |
| Open questions | Question, owner, needed-by time and response link | What cannot yet be priced responsibly? |
| Internal disposition | Estimating manager's accept, hold or decline decision | Who may commit staff to this bid? |
Use this packet to organize the work. An addendum is an added or revised part of the bid package. List each one by its source label. Leave contract terms and their meaning to the responsible professionals under your company's process.
Make omissions visible without inventing scope
Check the invitation's file list. Mark each file as received, missing, unreadable or not yet matched to the job. “Not attached” and “not required” are different findings. The office can check whether a file arrived. A qualified person may need to decide whether the bid needs it.
For each exclusion, show who said it and where. “The invitation excludes finish work” differs from “we propose to exclude finish work.” Keep your team's proposed exclusions in their own review area. The estimator should not have to guess whose terms they are.
Keep a short question log. Use one row per issue and ask for a specific answer. “Clarify scope” is too broad. “The invitation references an equipment schedule that is not in the received files. Who will supply it?” gives someone a concrete task.
Hypothetical example: an addendum with no attachment
An office receives a bid invitation for a warehouse renovation. The message says “include Addendum 2,” but the files contain only the base package and Addendum 1. A later note says “same deadline” without repeating a time.
The coordinator records Addendum 2 as referenced but missing. The source wording for the deadline is retained. The packet does not mark the bid ready just because all downloaded PDFs open.
The estimating manager assigns a reviewer to confirm the deadline and asks the requester for the missing addendum. The estimator may read the files on hand. The packet must still show which work cannot yet be priced. No quantities are filled in to make the packet look complete.
When the missing file arrives, the coordinator adds its source and receipt time. A short note tells the estimator what was added. The manager decides whether there is enough to continue. This is a proposed way to work, not a completed client bid.
Check readiness with the estimator
At handoff, ask the estimator to locate the invitation, identify the open scope questions and explain which revision set they will use. If those answers require another search through email, improve the index before expanding the process.
Review late changes as changes. Preserve the first intake packet and show what was added, replaced or still absent. This gives the estimating team a stable starting point without hiding uncertainty.
Core Agentic can discuss a custom bid intake design that prepares this packet from approved files. Connections and document access would need separate scoping. Book a Demo to work through the handoff your estimating manager wants to receive.
Sources
- Procore: View Drawings - Procore.
These sources describe the named provider or framework. They do not establish a Core Agentic integration, customer result or certification.