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Appia® Knowledge Center

Import bids and estimates for analysis

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Once bids have been imported for a project that will analyze and award the bid, you can view bid details on the Bid Items page. You will not see the Tabulations or Analyze tabs until at least one bid or the engineer’s estimate has been imported. Once the project is under construction, you cannot add any more bids to the page, though the page can still be viewed.

If you are not analyzing or awarding bids, you will not see these options.

The Appia service sorts imported bids in bid total order with the lowest first and lists the percentage over the low bid for the other bids. If you imported the engineer’s estimate as the item list, the estimate already displays on the Bids page.

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Import the first bid or the Bid Award item list

If you are analyzing bids for award, you can import the engineer’s estimate or a bid. Enter any manual items first. You can’t edit the bid item list in the New phase once bids have been imported. 

  1. Click Import Items from the Project Overview page or select Items in the Sidebar menu and click Import from the Items header.  

  2. Click Browse or click Choose File (depending on your browser).

  3. Navigate to and select the .csv or .xlsx file that contains the items.

  4. Click Open.

  5. Select the check box if you want to restrict the items being imported to those in the reference list. If this option is selected, you must also select a reference data collection to restrict to using the drop-down menu.

  6. Click Upload File. The Appia service displays a small sample of the items in the file and the names of the fields in the item details.  

  7. Assign each column of the file to its matching field in the Appia service. Once you assign a column to a field, the Appia service replaces the column name with the field name. Only the Item ID, Description, and Unit columns are required. If you restrict the import to items in the reference list, you do not need to assign a Description column.

  8. If needed, specify a default description.

  9. If there are rows in the import file that are not part of an item, select those rows in the Select number of rows to skip field.

  10. If you want your current Items list to be overwritten, select the check box in the Options section that asks Clear project items before import? This will replace any items that are in both the current item list and the imported item file (according to the Item ID). Items that are in the current list but not in the file will remain unchanged, and items that are in the file but not in the current list will be added.

  11. If you do not allow the existing data to be overwritten, any items that are in the current list, regardless of whether they are also in the imported item file (according to the Item ID), will remain unchanged. Items that are only in the imported item file will be added to the current list.

  12. Select Engineer’s Estimate or the contractor from the Engineer’s Estimate/Contractor list.

  13. Once all the columns and options are assigned, click Import. 

The Appia service displays the items tab of the Bid Items page with the number of items that have been imported successfully and any errors that may have occurred. The items are assigned the next available line numbers. Items imported into the project are assigned to the default funding source and package.

If you’ve enabled the Bid Express and Appia integration for your project, you can import bids directly from Bid Express.

  • Click Import then click Import from Bid Express. A window will appear with your Bid Express bids.
  • Select the bid or bids you want to import and click Import. 

Learn more about the Bid Express and Appia integration.

Click the Bids tab of the Bid Items page to import another bid.

Import subsequent bids

If you are importing a bid for an awarded contractor, you must first remove the award.

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  1. Select Bid Items in the Sidebar menu and select the Bids tab. You'll see the first imported bid or engineer's estimate.

  2. When you are on the Bids tab, click Import.

  3. Click Browse or click Choose File (depending on your browser).

  4. Follow the same steps as if you were importing the first bid.

  5. Once all the columns and options are assigned, click Import.  

The Appia service displays the Items tab of the Bid Items page with the number of items that have been imported successfully and any errors that may have occurred. The items are assigned the next available line numbers. Items imported into the project are assigned to the default funding source and package.

To award the contractor, click Advance to Construction.

Find bid by contractor

You can find a bid by a contractor for a project where you are analyzing and awarding a bid.

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  1. Click Bid Items in the Sidebar menu. The Appia service displays the Items page.

  2. Click Find Bid By Contractor and enter the contractor’s name.

  3. Select the contractor from the list.

The Appia service displays the bid imported for the selected contractor.

Delete bid

Bids can be deleted after they are imported. If you need to make a change to the project items before awarding the project, you must delete all bids before you can make any changes.

  1. Click Bid Items in the Sidebar menu. The Appia service displays the item list on the Bid Items page.

  2. Click the Bids tab.

  3. Click the X for the bid you want to delete.

  4. Click OK in the delete confirmation window.

The Appia service deletes the bid and reorganizes the remaining bids.