What the bid portal does

The site as a whole

The portal publishes Americon bid opportunities and their deadlines, and hands out plan documents to the contractors invited to price them.

The Americon Bid Portal does three jobs, and everything on the site is in service of one of them.

1. It publishes bid opportunities. Every project carries a bid due date, a location, the trades wanted, and the drawings. Public projects appear on the bid calendar for anyone to find. Private projects appear nowhere and are reached only through an invite link.
2. It distributes plan documents. Drawings and bid documents are attached to the project and served through an access-checked endpoint, so a private project's plans cannot be downloaded by someone who was never sent the link.
3. It keeps track of who is bidding. Contractors are asked to identify themselves when they take the plans. That list is what makes it possible to tell everyone when an addendum is issued or a bid date moves.

Two audiences use it, and they use it very differently. Americon staff sign in and manage projects. Contractors never sign in at all — they arrive from an email link, read the project, take the plans, and leave.

Roles and what each one can do

Set per account in User Management

Project Managers and Project Coordinators hold identical permissions. Administrators hold those plus account management and the WordPress admin.

Staff never need the WordPress admin screens. Anyone who is not an administrator is redirected out of /wp-admin and back to the calendar dashboard, and the admin bar is hidden for them.

The help buttons

Beside labels and headings throughout the site

Press any "?" on the site for a short explanation of the control beside it, with a link into the full manual.

Small "?" buttons sit beside the controls that are worth explaining. Press one — with the mouse, with a finger, or by tabbing to it and pressing Enter — and a short explanation appears. Press Escape, or click anywhere else, to dismiss it.

Each one carries a Read more link into the matching entry in this manual, so the popup can stay short.

The headline tiles

Calendar Dashboard, above the calendar

A live count of what needs attention now. Each tile is a link into the project list already filtered to exactly what it counted.

A month grid is good at "how does next month look" and bad at "what needs me today". The tiles answer the second question without any clicking, and each one is a link into the matching filtered list.

Each tile keeps its own colour whatever the number is — red for today, amber for this week, blue for public, teal for private. A tile showing zero is dimmed rather than recoloured, so the row still reads as four distinct things on a quiet week, and colour still means "this needs you".

Calendar view and List view

Calendar Dashboard, beside the page title

Two shapes for the same projects. Calendar answers "how does next month look"; List answers "what closes soonest" and adds search, filters and export.

The same set of projects, presented two ways:

• Calendar — a month grid. Best for seeing how a month is shaped and spotting the days that are stacked.
• List — the projects sorted by deadline, soonest first, with the full search and filter bar, selection, and CSV export.

The choice is carried in the page address, so a link to either view can be bookmarked or sent to someone else and will open in the same view.

Reading the calendar markers

Calendar Dashboard, on the month grid

Each marker is one bid deadline. Colour says whether it is public or private, and whether it is close enough to worry about.

A marker sits on the day a bid closes, not on the day work starts. Colour carries two facts at once:

• Blue — a public project, open for bidding.
• Teal — a private, invite-only project. Only staff ever see these.
• Amber — closing soon. Anything inside 72 hours of its deadline.
• Grey — the deadline has passed.

Opening a day

Calendar Dashboard, click any day on the grid

Click a day to list everything closing on it, with a link straight to each project.

Clicking a day opens a panel listing every project closing that day, each one a link to its details page. Press Escape or the close button to dismiss it.

This works with the keyboard as well as the mouse, and on touch screens. There is no hover behaviour to miss.

Subscribing to bid deadlines

Calendar Dashboard, below the calendar

Subscribe once and every public bid deadline we post from then on appears in your own calendar automatically. No account needed.

The Subscribe in your calendar button hands the feed to whichever calendar application is registered on your machine — usually Outlook or Apple Calendar — and opens its subscribe dialog.

If that button does nothing, which is common on locked-down corporate machines, use Copy feed URL instead and paste the address into your calendar's "add calendar by URL" option.

• The feed carries public, open bids only. Private projects never appear in it.
• Your calendar refreshes it on its own schedule, typically every few hours.
• When a bid date moves, the existing entry moves. You do not accumulate duplicates.
• Times are published as fixed points in time, so a bidder in Denver sees a Chicago deadline correctly converted to their own clock.

Searching

The filter bar at the top of any project list

Matches the project name and its description. Press "/" anywhere on the page to jump straight into this box.

Type a project name or a city and press Filter. The search runs over the project name and description.

Search combines with every other filter rather than replacing them: a search term plus a state plus a due-date preset narrows to the intersection of all three.

Filtering by state

The filter bar at the top of any project list

Narrows to projects in one US state. The list is the same on every page of the site, so a state chosen here means the same thing everywhere.

Choose a state and press Filter. Leave it on All states to clear it.

The state comes from the project record, which is why it is a dropdown rather than free text — a project entered as "Wisc." would never be found by someone filtering on WI.

Filtering by trade

The filter bar, when trades have been set up

Narrows to projects wanting a particular trade. Only appears once Americon has set up its trade list.

Trades are the work packages a project wants priced — electrical, mechanical, sitework, and so on. Choosing one narrows the list to projects tagged with it.

This control is hidden entirely until trades have been created, rather than sitting in the filter bar as an empty dropdown.

Quick filters

Above the list, as a row of links

One-click versions of the questions people actually arrive with. Press an active one again to clear it.

Closing today, Closing this week and Closing soon are one-click deadline filters. The active one is marked; pressing it again removes it.

They are ordinary links carrying the filter in the address, so any one of them can be bookmarked or pasted into a message and will open showing the same thing.

A chip appears above the list showing which deadline filter is in force, with an × to remove it — so a narrowed list can never be mistaken for the whole list.

Results per page

The filter bar at the top of any project list

How many projects to show before paginating. Ten, twenty or fifty.

Sets how many rows appear before the list paginates. Larger pages are worth it when you are about to select rows for export, since selection applies to the page you are looking at.

Copy link to this view

The toolbar above the list

Puts the address of the list exactly as you have filtered it on your clipboard, ready to paste into an email.

Every filter lives in the page address, so the address is the saved view. This button copies it.

Whoever opens it sees the same search, state, trade and deadline filter you had — subject to their own permissions. Send a colleague a link to "everything in Wisconsin closing this week" and that is what they get.

Row density

The toolbar above the list

Compact fits roughly a third more rows on screen. Your choice is remembered on this device.

Comfortable is the default. Compact tightens the rows so more fit on screen, which is worth it when working through a long list.

The setting is stored in your own browser and applies to every list on the site. It is per-device, not per-account, so choosing it on your desktop does not change your phone.

Download all

Project details, Plan files

Packages every plan file into one ZIP. A large set takes a minute to compress — leave the tab open while it works.

Rather than downloading forty drawings one at a time, this compresses the whole set into a single ZIP.

• You are asked to confirm first, because a large set is a large download.
• A progress message appears while the archive is built.
• Do not close or refresh the tab while it is preparing.
• If it takes longer than expected you are told so, rather than being left with a page that appears stuck.

Opening your invitation

The button in your invitation emailBidding contractors

The link in your invitation is the only address that opens a private project. If you lose it, you can have it sent again from the portal.

Use the View project and plan documents button in the invitation email. It opens the project page directly; there is nothing to sign into.

Deleted the email, or the link no longer opens? The page you land on offers Send my invitation again. Enter the address the invitation was sent to and it goes back to that address within a few minutes. Check the spam folder before asking a second time.

Invite links stop working 30 days after the bid deadline. Past that, nothing can be resent — contact the coordinator named in your invitation.

Telling us you are not bidding

The “Will you be bidding?” panel in your invitationBidding contractors

Passing on one job is not the same as unsubscribing. Use “Not this one” and you stay on the list for future work.

Every invitation carries a Will you be bidding? panel, just under the button that opens the plan documents. It holds two answers: Yes, we are bidding and Not this one. Either takes one tap, there is nothing to fill in and nothing to sign into, and either can be changed later by tapping again.

Saying you are not bidding tells the project manager to stop chasing you on this job. It does nothing else:

• You stay on the invitation list and will hear about the next job.
• You are not unsubscribed from anything.
• You can change your mind — open the invitation again and tap the other answer.

Saying you are bidding means the project manager knows to expect a number from you, and that you are told first if the drawings or the deadline move.

The project page

Where the invitation link takes youBidding contractors

Everything about the bid on one page: deadline with its time zone, location, schedule, who to contact, and the plan documents.

The page carries, in order:

• Bid due — the deadline, with its time zone spelled out. Read that abbreviation: a 2:00 PM Chicago deadline is 1:00 PM in Denver.
• Location — city and state.
• Estimated start and completion — when shown, the expected construction window.
• Scope of work — when shown, what is actually being bid, in Americon's own words. Not every project carries one; where it does, it is the fastest way to tell whether the job is yours before opening a set of drawings.
• Contacts — the Americon project manager and coordinator by name, and one Email the project team button. Their own addresses are not printed: the button is the route that reaches both of them and lands on the job.
• Plan files — the drawings and bid documents, with revision labels where they carry them.

Being asked who you are

Project page, above the plan files, on your first visitBidding contractors

Name, company and email, asked once. It is how we reach you if the drawings are revised or the bid date moves. You can skip it.

Before the plan files, you are asked for your name, your company and an email address. It is asked once per project and takes a few seconds.

It exists for one reason: if the drawings are revised or the bid date moves, this is how we reach you. Without it there is no way to tell you, and the ordinary result is a bid priced off a superseded sheet.

The address is used for notifications about this project and nothing else. Every message carries an unsubscribe link.

Downloading the plans

Project page, Plan filesBidding contractors

Click any file to download it, or use Download all for the whole set as one ZIP.

Each file shows its name, type and size. Click one to download it.

Download all packages the entire set into a single ZIP. A large drawing set takes a minute to compress — leave the tab open while it works.

Where a file carries a revision label — "Rev B", "Addendum 2" — check it against what you already have. That label is the only thing that distinguishes a reissued sheet from the one you downloaded last week.

Add to my calendar

Project page, beside the bid deadlineBidding contractors

Puts this one bid deadline into Outlook, Apple Calendar or Google Calendar. No account needed.

Downloads a standard calendar entry for this bid's deadline, which your calendar application will offer to add.

The entry is stored as a fixed point in time, so it shows correctly in your own time zone rather than in ours.

Asking a question

Reply to your invitation, or the project page under ContactsBidding contractors

Reply to your invitation email, or use Email the project team on the project page. Either reaches the people running the job and is recorded against it.

Reply to the invitation email you were sent. There is no address to copy down, no form and no login, and attachments come through as normal.

If you no longer have the invitation, the project page carries Email the project team under the two names. It opens your own email with the address already filled in and goes to the same place.

Either way the message is filed against that project and the firm it came from, so it reaches the project manager and the coordinator without depending on one person being at their desk. That is why neither of their own addresses is printed anywhere: a message sent to one of them directly is one nobody else on the job can see.

There is no message form on the site and no account to sign into — everything goes through ordinary email.

Sending your bid

The “Send your bid” button in your invitation emailBidding contractors

Press it, attach your proposal, send. It opens your own email — there is nothing to log into and nothing to upload.

Send your bid in the invitation opens a new message in your own email program, addressed for you. Attach your proposal and anything that goes with it, and send it the way you would send anything else.

It arrives against the right job and the right firm on its own, and stays sealed until the bid date — only the project manager and coordinator running that job can open it before then.

That address belongs to this job and your firm, and it does not expire. Keep it, write it down, or forward the invitation to whoever is pricing the work — it still files correctly weeks later, from any of your addresses.

Sent your bid by replying instead? Nothing is lost and nothing needs re-sending. It reaches the same job; somebody here just opens it to see what it was.

Keyboard shortcuts

Anywhere on the site — press ? for the list

Press ? to see the shortcuts available on the page you are on. "g" then a letter goes somewhere; "/" jumps to the search box.

Deliberately few, and following the conventions already used by Gmail, GitHub and Linear.

gd

Go to the calendar dashboard

gp

Go to public projects

gv

Go to private projects (staff)

c

Create a project (staff)

/

Jump to the search box

?

Show the shortcut list

For a chord, press g, release it, then press the second letter within about a second.

How deadlines are described

Everywhere a bid date appears

Deadlines always carry their time zone, and "closing soon" means inside 72 hours everywhere on the site.

• Closing soon means within 72 hours of the deadline. The calendar's amber markers, the quick filter and the reminder emails all use that same number.
• Closing today means before midnight tonight, in the site's own time zone.
• Closing this week means within the next seven days.
• Time zone is always printed beside a deadline. A bid deadline is contractual, and "2:00 PM" means different things in Chicago and Denver.

Calendar entries you download or subscribe to are published as fixed points in time, so your own calendar converts them to your clock correctly.

Public and private, exactly

Set per project

Public projects are on the calendar, in the public list and in the subscribable feed. Private projects are on none of them and need the access code.

A project created before visibility existed and never edited counts as public. A project whose status is anything other than Open is kept off the public feed until somebody decides it belongs there.

Glossary

Terms used throughout the portal

The words this site uses for things, and what each one means here specifically.