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Appia® Knowledge Center

Import bids and estimates for analysis

When creating a new project, you can choose to import bids for analysis and award in the Appia service. You can also import or generate an engineer's estimate to compare bids against.

To analyze bids in Appia, you have to select the "I'm going to import bids for analysis and award" option when a project is in new phase.

Import or generate an engineer's estimate

There are two ways to add an engineer's estimate to your bid analysis tab:

  • Import: import a CSV or XLSX file containing project items with quantities and unit prices
  • Generate: add project items from an existing reference data collection, enter quantities and unit prices, and let Appia automatically generate an engineer's estimate

An imported estimate can be matched against items in a reference collection to automatically pull in all reference data associations.

Import an engineer's estimate

Import an engineer's estimate from a CSV or XLSX file to create a project item list and compare bids against it.

  1. From the Items tab of the Bid Items page, click Actions > Import. Or, from the Bids tab of the Bid Items page, click Import Items.
  2. Click Choose File to open your computer's file browser window.
  3. Find and select the CSV or XLSX file you want to import, then click Open.
  4. Under Options, select or clear the "Restrict import to reference items?" checkbox to indicate your selection.
    • If you selected the checkbox, use the drop-down menu to select the reference collection you want Appia to match your import items against. Appia will pull in any reference data associated with matching items.
  5. When you're finished, click Upload File to begin the import.
  6. From the import screen, use the drop-down menus to map column information to column type.
  7. Select the number of rows to skip if your import file contains any non-item information (such as column titles) in its first row or rows.
  8. Select Engineer's Estimate from the contractor drop-down menu.
  9. When you're finished, click Import.

Restrict import to reference collection

If you opted to restrict the import to reference items, Appia will check the item description and unit against items in the selected reference collection and pull in associated information for all matching items.

If there are any unmatched items, you'll receive a warning message. To continue the import, view and follow the instructions given in the message by clicking Show more.

Generate an engineer's estimate

Automatically generate an engineer's estimate after adding project items from a reference collection.

  1. From the Bid Items page, click Edit.
  2. Click Add Section.
  3. From the new section, click Add Items.
  4. Use the Collection drop-down menu to select a reference collection.
  5. Click an item to add it to the section.
  6. Repeat this process until you have all the sections and items you need.
  7. Enter quantities and unit prices into their respective fields for each item.
  8. When finished, click Save.
  9. Click Generate an Engineer's Estimate.

The engineer's estimate will be automatically generated, and will appear on the Bids tab of the Bid Items page.

Import bids for analysis

There are two ways to import bids for analysis and award from the Bids tab of the Bid Items page:

  • Import from file: upload a CSV or XLSX file containing a contractor's bid items
  • Import from Bid Express: import bids from a connected project in Bid Express

Import bids from file

To import bids from a file stored locally on your device, they must be in CSV or XLSX format.

  1. From the Bids tab of the Bid Items page, click Import > Import from file.
  2. Click Choose File to open your computer's file browser window.
  3. Find and select the CSV or XLSX file you want to import, then click Open.
  4. Under Options, select or clear the "Engineer's Estimate?" checkbox to indicate whether this bid should be designated as the engineer's estimate to compare subsequent bids against.
    • If you selected the "Engineer's Estimate?" checkbox, but had previously uploaded or generated an engineer's estimate, this upload will overwrite the existing engineer's estimate.
  5. Click Upload File to begin the import.
  6. From the import screen, use the drop-down menus to map column information to column type.
  7. Select the number of rows to skip if your import file contains any non-item information (such as column titles) in its first row or rows.
  8. Select the name of the bid's contractor from the contractor drop-down menu.
  9. When you're finished, click Import.