If your agency has enabled the option, contractors have the ability to ask questions about a proposal using the Questions and Answers feature. Questions must be asked before the proposal deadline and are numbered based upon when they are received by the agency.
You will see the name of the Bid Express® user who asked the question, but this information is not available to other Bid Express users. In addition, your name will not be visible to Bid Express users as the agency member who answered the question.
You have the option of marking the question public or private. You can see the questions on the Questions and Answers page from the proposal page or from the Manage Questions and Answers page in the administrative section. If you signed up for email notifications, you will receive an email when a bidder submits a question.
If you wish to edit your reply or delete the question, it must be done from the Manage Questions and Answers page in the administrative section. Some Questions and Answers pages have the Manage Question link available that will take you to the proper page.
Questions for a proposal can have a status of New, Pending, or Answered.
New questions have not yet been answered.
When a question is pending, a member of the agency has clicked the pending button to inform the contractor who asked the question that the response is being researched. The contractor is not notified when the question is Pending, but the status of the question changes to Answered on the contractor's Questions and Answers page. When the contractor views the question, the Answer Pending status displays.
Questions with a status of Answered have been answered. The contractor receives an email when the status of a question it submitted is changed to Answered.
To see and respond to the question:
Select the letting and proposal from the lettings tab if you are not already there.
Select Questions and Answers in the Also Available section.
Click the Answer Questions link in the upper left to display the questions for the proposal. If the proposal has no questions, the number zero will display next to the link. The Bid Express service displays the author and subject of the questions, plus the proposal and when the question was asked. The link changes to display the number of unanswered questions for all proposals for your agency.
Select the question subject from the list. The Bid Express services goes to the question asked.
Enter your answer in the available field.
Click public reply if you wish for anyone to be able to see the answer or click private reply so only the contractor asking can see the answer.
Once you select the type of reply, the Bid Express service displays the unanswered questions list and the displays both the question and reply on the question's page. The bidder that submitted the question will receive an email with the answer.
Answer any remaining questions, click the Unanswered Questions for All Proposals link to answer other questions, or click in the navigation trail to return to the letting or proposal.
You can make the question public by clicking No in the Public column. This changes to Yes and makes the question available to all Bid Express users. Other Bid Express users will not see the name or agency of the user who asked the question, nor the name of the member of the agency who answered it.
You can search the submitted questions.
Select the letting and proposal from the lettings tab if you are not already there.
Select Questions and Answers in the Also Available section. The Bid Express service goes to the Questions for Proposal page.
Select Search Questions in the upper right of your window. The Bid Express service goes to the Search Questions for Proposal page.
Enter your search criteria in the available fields. The Bid Express service starts the search immediately and displays all matching results.
Select the question you want from the displayed results. The Bid Express service takes you to the question asked page for that question.
Once you click the Answer Questions link for your proposal, the link changes to Unanswered Questions for All Proposals. Click this link to see a list of all unanswered questions for all of your agency's proposals.