Review bids and read AI Scoring
See every bid as it arrives, then run AI Scoring to get a 0-100 rank, a breakdown of strengths and concerns, and a recommended winner -- all from AI credits.
What you'll learn
- Navigate the Bids tab and understand what each column tells you
- Run AI Scoring and read the commercial and questionnaire sub-scores
- Understand strengths, concerns, recommendation, and Show Stopper disqualification
- Know when and why to re-run scoring
When bids start arriving you have a choice: open each one in sequence and build your own comparison from scratch, or let AI Scoring do the ranking while you focus on the nuances the score cannot capture.
Most serious requests end up doing both. The Bids tab is your working surface for managing the field. AI Scoring is the objective ranking layer that tells you where to look first.
Why this matters
Without structured evaluation, the bid you award often defaults to the one you read last, or the supplier you already know. AI Scoring anchors the evaluation in the criteria you defined -- your Bill of Quantities structure, Importance levels, and Questionnaire weights -- and surfaces which bid delivers the best balance across all of them. It does not make the decision for you. It makes the decision easier to justify.
Before the deadline
While your request is live and bids are still open, you can already see bids as they arrive. Use this time to:
- Shortlist bids you want to focus on. The Shortlist action on any bid row marks it for your attention without affecting scoring.
- Watch the Invitations tab. If confirmed supplier count is low, add more from Discover while bidding is still open.
- Answer any clarification questions suppliers submit through the request. Every supplier sees the same answer.
Do not run AI Scoring while bidding is open unless you have a specific reason. Scores shift as new bids arrive, and running scoring before the deadline closes out the picture prematurely.
The Bids tab
Open the Bids tab on your request
Open your request and select the Bids tab. Each row in the table represents one submitted bid. The columns show:
- Supplier: the company name and their Trust Score badge. You never see the supplier's email address here.
- Total bid amount: the sum of all line-item prices the supplier submitted.
- Delivery: how their proposed delivery compares to your target dates. A positive number means they are proposing delivery after your target date; on time means they matched or beat it.
- Score: the AI Scoring result if you have run scoring. Blank until you do.
- Actions: View to open the full bid detail, Shortlist or Remove from Shortlist, Award, and Reject.
You can filter the list by status and sort by total, Trust Score, or delivery to quickly find the bids you want to look at first.
Open a bid to read the detail
Select View on any bid row to open the full bid. Inside you will find:
- The line-item breakdown: every item from your Bill of Quantities with the supplier's unit price and total for each.
- Questionnaire answers: the supplier's responses to each question you set, in order.
- Any attachments the supplier included with their bid.
- Delivery details by section, if their timeline differs across sections.
- Notes the supplier added for individual line items.
Use the full bid view to verify that a supplier priced everything you asked for and that their questionnaire answers are credible before you rely on their AI Score.
Running AI Scoring
Open the AI Scoring tab
Select the AI Scoring tab. If you have not run scoring yet, you will see a panel showing how many bids are eligible and the credit cost. Select Score Bids. A confirmation dialog shows the cost before you confirm.
Scoring runs on all submitted, eligible bids. Disqualified bids (those that triggered a Show Stopper question) are excluded from the run automatically.
Each scoring run uses AI credits from your account balance. If your balance is low, you will see a warning before confirming.
Read the scoring results
After scoring completes, the AI Scoring tab shows every eligible bid ranked from highest to lowest. Each row shows:
- Overall score: the combined score across all dimensions, from 0 to 100.
- Commercial score: how the bid performs on price, quantity, delivery, and your Importance levels.
- Questionnaire score: how well the supplier's answers align with your criteria and weights.
- Rank: position in the scored field, from 1 (best overall) downward.
One or more bids may receive a Recommended tag when the scoring result clearly favours a particular supplier across both commercial and questionnaire dimensions.
Read the per-bid breakdown
Select any scored bid to expand its detail. Each bid shows:
- A list of strengths: areas where the bid performs above the average for this request. These pull from the specific criteria your request defines, not generic observations.
- A list of concerns: areas where the bid underperforms relative to others or falls short of your criteria.
- The recommendation reasoning: when a bid is Recommended, a short explanation of why.
Concerns are not disqualifiers -- they are starting points for negotiation or clarification. A bid with a high score and one moderate concern is often a better choice than a lower-scored bid with no concerns at all.
Show Stopper disqualification
If a supplier answered a Show Stopper question against your required answer, their bid is disqualified and excluded from the ranked list. The bid still appears in the Bids tab with a disqualified status so you can see it, but it does not receive a score or rank.
Disqualified bids are not hidden -- they are visible in the Bids tab for your records. You cannot award a disqualified bid, but you can view the full detail to understand what the supplier submitted.
Re-run scoring when needed
You can re-run AI Scoring at any time. Common reasons to re-run:
- New bids arrived after the initial run.
- You closed bidding, adjusted your Questionnaire weights, and want to see how the ranking changes.
- You rejected a bid after scoring and want an updated ranked view.
Each re-run uses AI credits. The previous scoring run is replaced by the new one.
What suppliers see
Suppliers do not see AI Scoring results, ranks, scores, or the recommendation. They cannot see how their bid compares to others. After the deadline passes and bidding closes, a supplier can see their own bid status (submitted, shortlisted, awarded, rejected) but never the scoring output or other suppliers' bids.
How it connects to the rest of the journey
AI Scoring is most useful after the deadline when you have the full field in front of you. Use the Bids tab to do a first read on each bid, then use AI Scoring to confirm your read or surface something you missed. The Compare view lets you dig into specific line items and questionnaire answers side by side before you make a final decision.
What good looks like
- Run AI Scoring after the submission deadline, not while bids are still coming in. You want the full field scored at once for a reliable rank.
- Treat the recommendation as a strong signal, not a final answer. Check the supporting reasoning and make sure it aligns with factors the score might not capture (supplier relationship, delivery risk, references).
- Concerns are worth reading even on the top-ranked bid. A concern about delivery timeline on the Recommended bid may be the most important thing the score told you.
- If the score feels surprising, open the detailed breakdown. The commercial and questionnaire sub-scores often tell different stories. A bid that wins on price but scores poorly on questionnaire criteria may carry risk the overall score softens.
Next steps
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