How to manage Alternates in Bid Leveling

You can add alternates to your bid form to ask bidders to provide alternative pricing on alternative processes or products. Adjustments can be made to Alternates in the Bid Leveling tool. This article will cover:

How to toggle Alternates on and off

Because Alternates are intended for alternative pricing on the scope of work, you may or may not want them to contribute to the final cost of the bid. In Bid Leveling, you can choose to toggle on or off Alternates to determine if they will be calculated in the Leveled Bid value.

By default, all Alternates are toggled off.

To turn an alternate on or off, click on the toggle next to the item.

When turned on, the alternate will no longer be gray across the table and the Leveled bid value will increase or decrease accordingly.

How to plug in values for Alternates in Bid Leveling

If you have Alternates setup in your bid form, your bidders' responses appear in Bid Leveling. Based on their response, you can plug in values as needed to level their bid.

For example, if you clarified with a bidder that an alternate would actually cost more, you can adjust the cost for that line item in Bid Leveling.

To start, navigate to the "Bid Leveling" tab within a bid package.

Under “Alternates,” click on the line that you want to adjust the price for.

Enter a positive or negative value, add notes (optional), and select a color to highlight the cell (optional).

Note: Any adjustments to the bid are automatically highlighted in blue.

Click “Enter” to save the changes.

Any adjustments you make contribute to the Leveled bid total that appears at the top.

How to add and remove Alternates in Bid Leveling

If you have additional alternates that you need to add during the bid leveling process, you can do so from the Bid Leveling tab. For example, there may be additional requirements that come up after you have received bids.

Note: When you add an Alternate in Bid Leveling, it is also automatically added to the scope-specific bid form for this bid package.

In the "Alternates" section, click the "Edit Section" icon.

Type in the Description, select a response type, and select whether the alternate is required or not.

Click "add alternate" to add more alternates.

To remove an inclusion, click the "x" icon in the "Required?" column.

Note: If bidders submitted proposals with responses to the removed alternates, their responses will still be maintained for record even if you remove the alternate. They will appear under the Alternates section as a "Additional Item". You can toggle this line item on and off depending on if you want any cost adjustments in these lines to contribute to the Leveled Bid. Learn more about how to manage Additional Items.

To reorder inclusions, hold the left side of the line and drag and drop it to the desired location.

Click "Save.”

Note: Subcontractors are not notified when alternates are added to a bid form, but the bid form on their end does update accordingly. Therefore, if a subcontractor is filling out the bid form in BuildingConnected while the form is modified, they will receive a notification on the end alerting them of the change. You can also ask invited subcontractors to return to BuildingConnected and revise their bid based on your updated changes.