Send bid requests to every trade at once
Pick the trades, pick the subs, send. BuildRoutine sends the bid requests from your own email, brings the replies back to each bid, and puts the proposals into leveling.
Whole job, one send
Send every trade on the job its bid request in one pass, one email per sub, instead of writing them one at a time.
Sent from your Gmail or Outlook
Connect your mailbox and the requests go out from your own address with your name and signature, not a no-reply.
Replies land on the bid
Vendor replies sync back to each bidder's line with an unread count, so you can see who wrote back without digging through your inbox.
Straight into leveling
Attach a proposal from a reply to the bid in one click, and it goes into the leveling sheet without retyping.
The old way: one email at a time
Sending a job out to bid usually means copying the same email over and over: change the trade, change the name, attach the drawings, send, and paste a row into the bid tracking spreadsheet. A mid-size job can mean dozens of emails, and the follow-ups double it. Replies scatter across the inbox, and by bid day nobody is sure who is actually bidding.
How bid requests work in BuildRoutine
Pick what goes out: the whole project, a few phases, or single scopes. Every bidder on those scopes lines up with their email address.
Send once. Each vendor gets their own email, not a reply-all, sent from your own Gmail or Outlook with the bid set attached and your signature at the bottom.
Track who is bidding. Sending marks every bidder Sent for Bid with today's date, and bidder tracking shows who is invited, reviewing and signed, scope by scope.
Follow up in the same thread. Follow-ups go out in the original email thread, and replies show up on the bid, so you are not hunting through your inbox on bid day.
What a sub sees
A clear email from you, addressed to them, with the scope they are being asked to price and the bid set attached. Because it comes from your own address and not from a no-reply system, it reads like the request it is and lands in the same thread you will follow up in. When they answer, the reply comes back to your mailbox and shows up on their line of the bid, so the whole team can see where every trade stands.
Subs don't need an account
Bid requests are regular emails from your address, so subcontractors answer the way they always do. There is no portal to sign up for and no paid seat for vendors. When a proposal comes back, attach it to the bid and it goes into the leveling sheet for that scope.
Built around how GCs buy out a job
Bid requests, bidder tracking, leveling and the buyout log all live on the same job. Across your portfolio you can see every scope on every job: who is bidding, what is signed and what still needs a sub.
Questions
What is subcontractor bid management?
It is inviting subs to bid, tracking who is bidding, collecting proposals and comparing them, all in one place instead of spreadsheets and inboxes.
Do the emails come from BuildRoutine or from me?
From you. Connect Gmail or Outlook and each bid request goes out from your own address, so replies come straight back to you.
Does it work with Outlook?
Yes. Connect Gmail or Outlook. Either way the requests go out from your own mailbox, with your name and signature.
Can I send only some trades?
Yes. Send the whole project, a few phases, or single scopes, and add bidders as the job moves.
What happens when a sub sends a proposal?
Attach it from the reply to that bidder's line and it goes into the leveling sheet for the scope.
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