You're a Project Manager, and you've just gotten a call from an owner/architect asking you to price out a change. Now you need to get responses from your subcontractors.

With BuildPlane, that's simple:

  1. You create an RFP.
  2. BuildPlane automates emails.
  3. You receive responses through Subcontractor Portals.
  4. You roll up the information.

Create an RFP

Every project has an RFPs tab on the menu at the left of the Project Dashboard. (To get to the dashboard, click or tap the Projects tab at the top of the page, then click/tap the name of the project you want.)

When you click on the RFPs tab, you'll see all the RFPs for a project:

Clicking on the RFPs tab at left on the Project Dashboard gives you a list of RFPs for the project.

When you click on "Create a New RFP" in the green box at the top right of the RFP list, you get 2 tools that make the task easy:

  1. On the left, boxes to fill in with information about the RFP.
  2. On the right, a list of your subcontractors on the project, so you can quickly set up an email list for the RFP simply by clicking checkboxes.
After you click "Create a New RFP," you will see RFP information boxes on the left. From the list on the right, you can choose what subcontractors to email.

BuildPlane automates emails

Once you fill in the necessary information and set up your email list, just click "Email RFP to Selected Subcontractors" at the bottom of the screen. BuildPlane then emails all the subcontractors you picked. Here's what the email sent to the subcontractors looks like:

A sample email automated from BuildPlane.

Receive Responses

When the Subcontactor opens their Subcontract Portal, they will see an "Action Needed" alert and be able to respond directly from the portal:

Here's how the Subcontractor Portal looks. You can see the "Action Needed" RFP alert at the top.

The sub sees all the information they need. When they click on the RFP number, they get a form that makes it quick and simple to submit a response:

Here's the subcontractor's RFP response form.

Roll up information

As subcontractors submit, you'll see the responses come in:

Just click on the RFPs tab and then the number of the RFP, and you'll see at a glance the responses and key information from subcontractors.

Every step of the way, we've tried to make it as easy as possible to gather RFP responses from your subcontractors so you can keep the job moving smoothly.