The War-Room

Click any bid in Active Bids to open its war-room. It gathers everything your team needs to finish one bid and get it out the door.

The header

• Active bids: back to the list
• A status pill (Bidding or Submitted), the title, reference number and buyer
• Draft proposal: writes a first draft from the linked RFP and your company profile. It is greyed out until an analyzed RFP is linked. See Proposals.
• Mark submitted, or N blockers while gates are still open. See Submission Package & Gates.
• Record outcome: appears once the bid is submitted or past close. See Recording Outcomes.

The KPI strip

Click Mandatory, Rated or Package to jump to that checklist.

Up next

A short list of what moves the bid forward right now, most urgent first. Examples: a new amendment to acknowledge, overdue items, open mandatory criteria, questions to send, or documents to finish. Click an item to jump to it.

The checklist

The checklist has five tabs. Each shows progress, for example 4/6.

The Documents, Send and Questions tabs are covered in Submission Package & Gates.

Criteria statuses

Criteria sort worst first. Use To do, Done and All to filter.

How to mark a criterion compliant

1. Tick the checkbox next to the criterion.
2. Type how the bid meets it (or where it addresses it, for rated criteria).
3. Save. The row shows your name, the date and your note.

Unticking asks what is still missing and flags the criterion At risk. If your team had marked it compliant, unticking returns it to the AI's verdict.

To pick a status directly, click the status pill and choose Compliant, At risk or Gap. Choose Use AI verdict to undo your team's change.

These changes are the same as changing an assessment in the document viewer. They update the Requirements tab, the Fit Score and the submission gates.

How to add or edit criteria

You need a linked, analyzed RFP to add criteria.

• Add: type in the box at the bottom of the Mandatory or Rated tab and click Add.
• Edit: click Edit under a criterion to change its text, section, page, or whether it is mandatory. The original text is kept.
• Move: from the ⋯ menu, choose Move to Rated or Move to Mandatory.
• Remove: from the ⋯ menu, choose Remove and confirm.

Criteria your team created show Added by team. Changed ones show Edited.

How to ask the buyer a question

1. On an open criterion, click Ask the buyer.
2. Edit the drafted question and click Add to Questions.
3. The criterion shows Question drafted. The question waits in the Questions tab, ready to send.

Other panels

• Lessons for this bid: lessons your team recorded on past bids that apply here. Mark each one Applied or Not relevant here, or snooze it. See Lessons Learned.
• Pricing decision: compares your price with similar past awards (see below).
• Obligations: contract terms any bidder accepts by submitting, such as invoicing or site rules. Review them. They are not scored.
• How to submit: deadlines, delivery method, format rules and question rules found in the RFP.
• Proposal drafts: drafts linked to this bid. Click one to open it.
• Team: who is on the bid (see below).
• Amendments: when Cothon detects a new amendment, a banner shows a summary and an Acknowledge button. Below it are the addenda, amendments and clarifications linked to the bid, newest first.

Pricing decision

The panel compares your price with winning prices on similar past awards. It looks at awards from the same buyer and category, within half to double the estimated value, over the last 3 years. Placeholder amounts under $1,000 and outliers are removed.

When there is enough data, you see:

• The P25–P75 band: where the middle half of winning prices fell
• Markers for the median winner, your cost and the ceiling (the estimated value)
• Your bid price: type a price to see it on the scale, with vs. median and gross margin
• Your cost: type your cost to get a margin
• A model suggestion: the 40th percentile of similar winners, and at least your cost plus 10%
• The sample size, time window and confidence level

Your bid price and cost are saved on the bid, so teammates and the outcome form see the same numbers. Only the owner or a lead can save them.

Team

• Add someone from your organization with the search box.
• Change a role from the menu next to their name: Owner, Lead, Member or Viewer.
• Add responsibilities, for example "Pricing, final review".
• Remove someone. The bid's owner cannot be removed.

Only the owner or a lead can manage the team. Viewers can see everything but change nothing.

Live intelligence

The right-hand rail shows:

• Win probability: click Calculate (or Recalculate). It shows the probability, a confidence level and the top factors up and down. An "Out of date" note appears when something changed since, such as a new document or edited criteria. See Win Probability.
• Likely competitors: firms that won similar work, with Top on the most frequent winner. Click a firm to see its record, and open its full page in Analytics.
• Submission gates: each gate with a pass or fail mark.

Next steps

• Submission Package & Gates: documents, checks, questions and submitting
• Bid Decision: the full go/no-go analysis on the opportunity