What deadline tracking does
Each bid carries one deadline: a moment in time, plus the time zone it is shown in. Bidligence fills both in for you and shows the closing time in that zone, with the zone beside it, in the dashboard's Upcoming deadlines, in the bid's header, beside the Submission Guard checklist, in the reminder e-mails and on the cover sheet of Bidligence's XLSX exports.
The date can come from four places, and whichever set it last is the date the bid carries:
- The tender itself. When you analyse a tender pack, the analysis records the current closing date and time and the time zone of the place of submission. A separate key-dates pass reads the amendments, notices, instructions and data sheet on their own, newest amendment first, because the most recent change prevails over the original documents.
- The tender feed. Start bid on a notice carries its closing date into the new bid, shown in the time zone of the bid's procurement profile until the analysis reads the tender's own.
- An addendum. Reviewing an addendum moves the deadline when the closing date has changed, under the rules set out below.
- You. Edit key facts on the Analyse step lets you correct the closing date and time whenever the documents say otherwise. The box is in the tender's time zone, and its label names the zone.
How it works, from notice to submission
In order:
- 1Start the bid from a notice in the tender feed, or by uploading the tender pack. The bid's team starts with you.
- 2Analyse the pack. When the analysis can read a closing date, it replaces the one the bid started with, together with the place of submission's time zone.
- 3Choose who is told. On the Configure step, tick the colleagues working on the bid. Team members receive the deadline reminders and appear on the bid.
- 4Work to the countdown. The dashboard, the Bids page and the bid itself show the days left. On the dashboard, the Bids page and the tender feed the count turns amber at ten days or fewer and red at three or fewer.
- 5Review every addendum. When an addendum changes the closing date, the review moves the deadline, within the rules set out below, and shows the old and new dates.
- 6Read the reminders. Each team member gets an e-mail on the days they chose, with the closing time and the number of mandatory checklist items still missing.
- 7Mark it submitted. Mark as submitted on the Guard & export step moves the bid along the pipeline and stops its reminders.
Where the deadline shows
Where the deadline appears, and what each place shows:
| Where | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Dashboard: Active bids | How many active bids close in the next seven days, as "due this week". |
| Dashboard: Upcoming deadlines | Up to six active bids, soonest first, each with the days left (or "today"), the closing day, date and time in the tender's time zone and, in red, how many mandatory Submission Guard items are still missing. |
| Bids page | Each bid that has a deadline shows its days left or "closed", filtered by All, Active, Submitted, Won, Lost or Passed. The list view puts them in a Deadline column. |
| The bid's header | The closing date and time in the tender's time zone, with the days left. |
| Guard & export step | A Closes panel with the days left, "Today" or "Closed", the closing time, and the submission method and address. With two days or less to go, the pre-submission audit adds a reminder to allow for courier or portal upload time. |
| Tender feed | Each notice's closing date, where the notice gives one, with the days left. In the Inbox, closed notices are hidden until you switch on Show closed. |
| XLSX exports | A Closing date line, in the tender's time zone, on the cover sheet of Bidligence's own workbooks, such as the priced BOQ and the Submission Checklist. |
An active bid is one still in progress: Draft, Analysing, Deciding, Configured, Generating, In review or Ready. A bid marked Submitted, Won, Lost, Withdrawn or Passed leaves the dashboard's deadline list and gets no reminders.
Reminder e-mails at 7, 3 and 1 days
Once a day, Bidligence checks every active bid that closes within the next eight days and e-mails its team when 7, 3 or 1 days are left. The time left is rounded up to whole days, so the 7-day reminder arrives with between six and seven days to go, and the 1-day reminder with less than 24 hours to go.
Each e-mail names the tender and, where it is recorded, its client, gives the closing day, date and time in the tender's time zone, and says how many mandatory items are still missing on the Submission Guard checklist, or that none are. A button opens the bid.
- Who receives them. The members of the bid's team. A new bid's team starts with the person who created it; add colleagues on the Configure step. If the team is left empty, every member of the workspace receives them.
- Which days. 7, 3 and 1 days before, by default. Each person can untick any of the three, or turn deadline reminders off altogether, under E-mail alerts in their profile settings. The choice is personal and covers all their bids.
- Once each. A person gets each reminder once per bid, however many times the daily run sees it.
- When they stop. When the bid is marked Submitted, recorded as Won, Lost or Withdrawn, or passed on at the Bid Score's Decide step, and once the deadline has gone by.
When an addendum moves the date
Upload the addendum to the bid and press Review changes on the Analysis tab. When the addendum gives a new closing date, Bidligence moves the bid's deadline and its time zone with it, and the review shows the old and new dates side by side. The other people on the bid get an in-app notification that the review ran, which says the deadline moved.
A wrong date is worse than none, so the move follows rules. The deadline stays as it is, with a warning to set it by hand, when:
- the new closing date cannot be read as a date;
- it has already passed, because a deadline in the past would take the bid out of the reminders;
- it is earlier than the current deadline and the review did not record a change to the deadline.
Only the most recent review can be undone, and only while the analysis has not been edited or re-run since. Undoing it puts the deadline and its time zone back as they were.
How it connects to the rest of the bid desk
The deadline is one fact that several products read and write:
- Tender feed: a notice's closing date carries into the bid you start from it.
- Tender analysis: reads the closing date, time and time zone from the pack, newest amendment first.
- Submission Guard: the countdown sits beside the checklist, and the reminders and the dashboard count its missing mandatory items.
- Company Vault: below Upcoming deadlines, the dashboard's Evidence expiring panel lists up to five vault items that have expired or expire within 60 days.
- Procurement profiles: a bid's profile supplies its time zone until the analysis reads the tender's own.
- Bid exports: the closing date, in the tender's time zone, is on the cover sheet of Bidligence's own XLSX workbooks.
Its limits, and what stays with you
The deadline is a reading of the tender, and the tender's bid data sheet and latest addendum remain the authority. Where a tender gives a closing date without a time, the recorded time is an assumption rather than a reading: the analysis is told to use 12:00 local time. Check the time against the documents and correct it with Edit key facts if it is wrong. Re-running the analysis replaces your correction with the date it reads, when it reads one, so check again after a re-run.
Reminders are e-mail only, and only at 7, 3 and 1 days: the daily run looks eight days ahead, so other intervals are not offered. The day counts on screen are whole calendar days in your own computer's time zone, so on the last day check the closing time itself.
The deadline, its countdowns and the dashboard are part of every workspace, a free one included. A free workspace gets 500 welcome credits once its e-mail is confirmed, enough to analyse a tender, which reads its deadline, get its Bid Score and see its BOQ priced. Generating the bid documents needs Starter (US$399 a month) or Pro (US$799 a month), each starting with a 3-day free trial, and Pro has 10 seats for a bid team. See pricing.
Getting the bid there on time stays with you. Bidligence tracks the deadline; it does not submit the bid. Allow for courier time, portal registration and upload limits, and keep the receipt. Why tenders are rejected covers late bids and the other common failures.
Questions
- Which time zone does Bidligence show the deadline in?
- The time zone of the place of submission, as the analysis reads it from the tender, shown beside the time. Until a tender is analysed, a bid uses the time zone of its procurement profile. Colleagues in other offices see the same closing time in the same zone.
- When exactly do the reminder e-mails arrive?
- Bidligence checks once a day. A reminder goes out on the run where the time left, rounded up to whole days, is 7, 3 or 1, so the last one arrives with less than 24 hours to go. Each person gets each reminder once per bid.
- Who gets the reminders, and can we change the days?
- The bid's team, which starts with the person who created the bid; add colleagues on the Configure step. Each person chooses 7, 3 or 1 days before, in any combination, or turns reminders off, under E-mail alerts in their profile settings.
- What happens when an addendum extends the deadline?
- Review the addendum and Bidligence moves the deadline to the new closing date and shows the old and new dates. A date it cannot read, one already past, or an earlier date the review did not record as a deadline change leaves the deadline as it is, with a warning to set it by hand.
- Do I need a paid plan for deadline tracking?
- Not to see your deadlines: the closing dates, the countdowns and the dashboard work in a free workspace too, and the 500 welcome credits it gets once your e-mail is confirmed cover analysing a tender, which reads its deadline. Generating the bid documents needs Starter or Pro, and both start with a 3-day free trial. Pricing lists what each plan includes.
- How do I stop the reminders for a bid we have submitted?
- Press Mark as submitted on the Guard & export step. Reminders go only to bids still in progress, so a bid marked Submitted, Won, Lost, Withdrawn or Passed gets none.
Sources
Rules and portals change. Check the tender’s own documents and the official source before you rely on any of this.