Changelog

If you've ever been stuck waiting for an architect to answer 15 RFIs before you could send responses back to your bidders, this one's for you. We just eliminated one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in the bidding process.

The Problem We Solved
Here's how RFI responses used to work: A GC asks questions. You forward them to your architect. 3 days later, your architect finally responds...but only to 12 of the 15 questions because turns out he can't find a substitute for the discontinued flooring yet. You wait. He finally send the remaining responses but not until the next day. Meanwhile, your GCs are waiting. And waiting. And refreshing their inbox. They just lost 4 days with valuable information to ensure they can provide the best bid.

You weren't managing construction projects—you were playing middleman in an endless game RFI tennis (back and fourth, back and fourth).

What's New: RFI Link Sharing: No Account Required
The biggest difference of how we handle it vs the other guys? The people answering your questions don't need to create an account. We get it—architects, engineers, and vendors don't want to sign up for yet another platform just to answer a few questions about door hardware.

Here's How It Works

1. Select Your Responders
Choose who needs to answer the RFI—your architect, structural engineer, MEP consultant, product vendor, whoever. Select them right from the RFI page.
2. We Send a Simple Email
They get a clean, straightforward email with a link. No complicated instructions. No login credentials to remember. Just a link.
3. They Click and Answer
The link opens a simple form showing:
- The questions you need answered
- Any attachments or drawings for reference
- Upload capability for their responses and any file attachments
4. Individual Question Submission
Here's where it gets really good: They can answer and submit questions individually.
Architect can't find a good substitute for the flooring yet, he can still submit the rest of the answers. The MEP engineer is lightning fast and answers their questions same day (never seen this happen but maybe it's possible) but the Strutural Engineer need 4 days for new calculations. No longer does the GC have to wait days for you to compile all the responses back before they can see any answers.
5. Real-Time Updates to GCs
The moment your architect hits submit, that answer is live in the platform for all your GCs to see. No more "just waiting to hear back" emails. No more compiling responses into a master document. No more forwarding email chains. Every extra hour or day a GC has with more complete information. The better the bid they can provide will be.

Follow-Up Questions? Same Link.
New questions come up? (They always do.) Just select who should respond to them and they'll get another email notification, but it's also the same link as before. Their previous answers are already there, and now they've got new questions to address. Simple.

Why This Changes Everything

Speed
Answers flow directly from source to bidders. No more multi-day delays waiting for complete response packages.
Transparency
Everyone sees answers as they come in. GCs can keep working instead of being stuck in a holding pattern.
Less Email Tennis
‍You're not forwarding questions one direction and answers the other. The platform handles the routing.
Reduced Errors
‍When you're manually compiling responses from multiple sources, things get missed or mixed up. Direct submission eliminates that risk.
No Platform Friction
‍Your consultants and vendors don't need logins, passwords, or training. Click a link, answer questions, done.

What This Means for Your Projects

For CMs/Owners:
You're officially out of the RFI middleman business. Create the question, assign the responder, move on with your day. The platform handles the rest.
For Architects/Engineers:
Answer what you can when you can. No pressure to complete everything at once. No platform to learn.
For General Contractors:
Answers appear in your portal as they're submitted. Keep your estimate moving forward instead of waiting for batch responses.
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User-Requested Feature
‍This wasn't just a good idea we had—it was specifically requested by users who were tired of being communication bottlenecks on their projects. We heard you, we built it, and we're excited to see how much time this saves you.

Getting Started
‍The RFI link sharing feature is live now. When you're viewing an RFI, you'll see the option to share with a contact and send the link. It's intuitive enough that you probably won't need instructions, but if you want a walkthrough, our support team is always ready to help.

Questions about RFI link sharing? Reach out to support—we'd love to hear how this changes your workflow.

The Little Things That Make a Big Difference‍
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Sometimes the best updates aren't flashy new features—they're the refinements that make your daily workflow just a little bit smoother. This round of improvements focused on polish, precision, and fixing those small annoyances that add up over time.
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What's New:

Calendar & Event Management Gets Smarter
Your project calendar just became a lot more powerful. Here's what changed:
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‍Draft Events — Not ready to share that next round bid deadline with contractors yet? No problem. Create draft events that only your team can see, then publish them when you're ready. Perfect for planning ahead without showing your cards too early.
‍Vendor Selection — Choose exactly who sees what. Now you can specify which vendors have access to specific events on the calendar. No more shared information for for contractors who won't be involved.
‍Point-in-Time Events — Bids are now due at specific times (like 5:00 PM), not just before the day ends. Because 5:00 PM and 11:59 PM are very different deadlines.
‍Auto-Close Bid Rounds — You can now select to automatically close a bid round when the clock strikes your deadline. No more late submissions sneaking in because someone claimed they didn't see the time.
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Notification Center Refresh
We rebuilt our notification system from the ground up with capabilities that better match how you work:
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‍Notification Controls — Toggle specific notifications on or off based on what you actually want to know
‍Email Preferences — Separate controls for in-app vs. email notifications
‍Archive Function — Clear out notifications you've addressed without losing the history
Fresh Design — Cleaner, easier to scan, and better organized

Send Out to Bid Flow Improvements
‍Making it easier to manage multiple bid rounds:
- Simplified event closing process
- Better connection between bid due dates and specific bidding rounds
- Clearer workflow for projects with multiple rounds

File Preview Enhancement
‍Small change, big impact: We added a darker border around the file preview instead of just the blur effect. Turns out it's a lot easier to review documents and photos when you can actually see them clearly. Revolutionary, we know.

Bid Leveling Sheet Auto-Sort
‍Here's a smart one: When you level a line item and it changes a bidder's total cost, the bid leveling sheet now automatically re-sorts to keep bidders in order from lowest to highest. No more mental math trying to figure out who's actually winning after adjustments.

Bug Fixes
We squashed some bugs that were causing unnecessary friction:

‍Calendar Date Limitation — Fixed an issue where the calendar refused to acknowledge that time exists beyond 2026. We've now confirmed that 2027 is, in fact, coming.
‍Checkbox Alignment — Those slightly-off-center checkboxes in the send out to bid flow? Fixed. Alignment matters, even in the small things.
‍Dashboard Display — Project names now show up next to RFIs on the dashboard. Seems obvious in hindsight.
‍Bid Submission Visibility — All GCs who accepted your project now appear in the Bid Submissions tray on the project overview page. Allows you to see everyone who has accessed the documents if they haven't submitted a bid yet.
‍Real-Time Leveling Updates — Fixed a timing issue where leveling individual cells wouldn't update totals immediately. The numbers now change in real-time instead of requiring a refresh. As they should.

Why This Matters
‍These updates might not make headlines, but they're exactly the kind of refinements that save time and reduce friction in your daily workflow. A few seconds saved here, a moment of confusion eliminated there—it adds up fast when you're managing multiple projects.

Many of these improvements also lay the groundwork for bigger features we're building. Consider this the foundation work that makes the next wave of innovation possible.

As always, if you spot something that could work better or have ideas for improvements, we're listening. Keep the feedback coming.

‍Questions about these updates? Reach out to our support team—we're here to help.

After months of beta testing, user feedback, and relentless refinement, we're officially launching Outbidd 1.0. This isn't just another construction software release—it's the end of the bid management mess. While the industry has been stuck with spreadsheets, email chains, and manual analysis for decades, we've built the platform that finally treats bid management like the sophisticated process it deserves to be.

The Complete Bid Management Revolution
Version 1.0 represents everything we've learned from beta users who've processed millions of dollars in construction bids through our platform. Every feature has been battle-tested by real construction managers, developers, and owners dealing with real projects, real deadlines, and real budget pressures. This is construction bidding, reimagined from the ground up.
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Smart Project Setup That Actually Works
‍Create projects with timelines, documents, and requirements in minutes, not hours. No more rebuilding the same project structure repeatedly—our intelligent setup gets you from "new project" to "ready for bid" faster than it used to take just to organize your first email to contractors. Because time spent on setup is time not spent on analysis.

Multi-Round Bidding: Track Your Project's Complete Evolution
Your pricing story doesn't start and end with one bid. Track schematic design numbers, design development pricing, and final construction bids all in one place. See how Contractor A's electrical estimate evolved from $75K at 50% drawings to $110K at CDs—and understand whether that's scope growth, design changes, or just reality setting in. Stop managing separate spreadsheets for each design phase.

Bid Form Templates: Build Once, Use Forever
Your 15th retail store shouldn't require rebuilding the same bid structure from scratch. Save your "Warehouse Buildout," "High-End Retail," and "Apartment Complex" templates complete with the cost codes you always use, the alternates you typically price, and the breakout costs you want. Deploy them across projects and bidding rounds. Work smarter, not harder.

AI-Powered Analysis That Changes Everything
Our AI doesn't just spot high and low numbers—it reads every contractor's bid descriptions to generate executive-ready summaries you can copy and share when stakeholders ask "how's the bidding going?" Get instant overviews of who came in high, who came in low, what the biggest cost drivers are, and where the significant variances lie. Your analysis meetings just got a lot more impressive.

Scope Gap Detection Before It's Expensive
‍The AI compares bid descriptions across all contractors to identify potential scope gaps—those expensive surprises that become change orders later. When four contractors include sitework and one doesn't mention it, you'll know immediately. When someone's concrete bid is 40% lower and their description reveals they excluded footings, the system flags it. Catch scope gaps during bidding, not during construction when they cost 3x to fix.

Intelligent Variance Detection
‍Beyond simple high/low color coding, the system identifies which line items deserve your attention based on both percentage differences and absolute dollar amounts. A 50% variance on a $5K line item gets different treatment than a 10% variance on a $500K line item. Focus your energy where the money actually lives.

Alternates & Breakout Costs That Make Sense
‍Create custom line items including proper formatting for alternates (add/deducts) and breakout costs that sit outside the base bid. Want to see how adding that upgraded HVAC system affects each contractor's total? Just toggle it on. Real-time calculations mean you can test different scenarios instantly.

Professional File Management
Stop the download dance. View photos, bid documents, schedules, plans, and specs directly within the platform. Upload, organize, share, and preview everything contractors need—and everything you need to review—without cluttering your desktop or hunting through email attachments.

Standardized Contractor Experience
Contractors get a professional portal where they can review project details, download documents, submit RFIs, and upload structured bids. No more messy spreadsheets in different formats from every GC. No more hunting through various bid layouts to find comparable numbers. Every bid comes in clean, organized, and instantly comparable.

Real-Time Collaboration Tools
‍Leave comments directly on specific line items. Track decisions. Keep the entire conversation right where the data lives instead of scattered across email chains, teams messages, and texts. When someone asks "why did we go with Contractor X," the answer is right there in the platform.

The End of Bid Management Chaos
While your competitors are still building new bid forms for every project, managing separate spreadsheets for each design phase, manually comparing inconsistent contractor submissions, and hoping they caught all the scope gaps, you've got a complete platform that handles it all.

What This Means for Your Projects
- Reduction in RFP Management time through complete RFP control
‍- Reduction in bid review time through standardized submissions and AI analysis
- Complete project pricing evolution tracked from first budget to final award
- Scope gaps caught early when they're questions, not expensive change orders
- Professional stakeholder communication with instant executive summaries
- Team alignment with integrated collaboration tools
- Contractor relationships strengthened through professional, streamlined processes

Version 1.0 isn't just better bidding software—it's the platform that finally makes bid management as sophisticated as the projects you're managing. From boutique construction management firms to billion dollar developers, the industry's most demanding users have proven it works.

Welcome to the future of construction bid management.

This is better bidding.

We're bringing artificial intelligence to construction bid analysis—and it's about time. Here's the reality: You notice when someone's $50K lower on concrete, but do you see that they are missing the new sidewalks around the the building when the other guys included them? Welcome to Beta 0.4.0, where AI does the heavy lifting your brain can't.
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AI Bid Insights & Summary:
Your Executive Summary, Instantly.
Stop scrambling for answers when your boss asks "How's the bidding going?" Our AI generates an immediate bid round summary that updates in real time as new bids come in. Get instant overviews of who came in high, who came in low, what the biggest cost drivers are, and where the significant variances lie. It's the perfect summary you can copy, paste, and share with stakeholders who want a quick picture without diving into spreadsheets. Your "how are we looking?" meetings just got a lot easier.

AI Scope Gap Detection:
Find What's Missing Before It's Too Late.
Here's where it gets serious. Our AI compares bid descriptions across all contractors to identify potential scope gaps—those expensive surprises that become change orders later. When four contractors include sitework and one doesn't mention it, you'll know immediately. When someone's concrete bid is 40% lower and their description reveals they excluded footings, the AI flags it. No more discovering scope gaps during construction when it costs 3x to fix them.

Automatic Variance Detection:
‍Smart Analysis, Not Just Color Coding
We've taken variance detection beyond simple high/low highlighting. The system now identifies which line items deserve your attention based on both percentage differences and absolute dollar amounts. A 50% variance on a $5K line item gets different treatment than a 10% variance on a $500K line item. Focus your energy where the money actually lives.

File Preview:
Stop the Download Dance
Gone are the days of downloading every file just to see what's inside. View photos, bid documents, schedules, plans, specs, and more directly within the platform. No more cluttering your desktop with "temp" folders or waiting for massive PDF downloads just to check one detail. Click, preview, done. Your file management just got infinitely cleaner.
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The Intelligence Behind Better Decisions
‍While your competitors are still manually comparing spreadsheets and hoping they caught everything important, you've got AI working through every detail. Every line item. Every description. Every potential gap. Your bid analysis just got smarter, faster, and more thorough than any human review could be.

The Bottom Line
‍Construction projects are complex. Contractor bids are complicated. Scope gaps are expensive. Human attention is limited. AI attention isn't. Beta 0.4.0 gives you the analytical superpower to make better contractor selections based on complete information, not just the obvious numbers.

This is better bidding.

We're moving fast and on a mission. Here's a question: You get pricing at schematic design, then again at design development, then final bids on the construction set. Where do you keep track of it all? Three different spreadsheets? Five different email chains? That folder on your desktop called "Project X - Final Final REAL Final"? Welcome to Beta 0.3.0, where we've solved the multi-phase pricing nightmare.
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‍Multi-Round Bidding: Track Your Project's Evolution
‍Now you can run multiple bidding rounds for the same project as your drawings evolve. Schematic pricing in Round 1, design development numbers in Round 2, construction set bids in Round 3—all living in the same project, all easily comparable. No more hunting through old spreadsheets to remember what Contractor A bid six months ago at 50% drawings. No more losing track of how pricing evolved as the design got more detailed. Everything lives in one place, organized by round, ready for instant comparison.

‍Bid Form Templates: Build Once, Use Forever
‍Here's where efficiency gets real. Building your 15th retail store? Your 8th warehouse? Your 20th apartment complex? Your bid form templates now work across projects AND rounds. Create your "Retail Store Buildout" template once—complete with the cost codes you always use, the alternates you typically price, the breakout costs you want. Then deploy it on every similar project. No more rebuilding the same bid structure over and over. Your "Schematic Pricing" template asks different questions than your "Final Bid" template, and your "Warehouse" template looks nothing like your "High-End Retail" template. Save them all, use them everywhere.

‍See How Numbers Actually Change
Flip between bidding rounds instantly to see how Contractor B's electrical estimate went from $75K at SD set to $95K at DD set to $110K at CDs set. Was it scope creep? Design changes? Or did they just get more realistic as details emerged?

‍Mid-Round Flexibility for Evolving Projects
‍Architect just issued an addendum? Now you can add new submission questions to your active round. All bidders get updated requirements without you having to start over or send confusing email updates or ask the question when the bids come in.

‍Bid Round Management That Makes Sense

Close rounds as each design phase completes
‍Reopen for specific GCs who need to address a specific issue without reopening for everyone
‍Keep contractors across multiple rounds if your happy with their numbers or test new ones every round
‍Work on your next bid form while current round pricing is still coming in

‍Stop Rebuilding What You've Already Built
‍Beta 0.3.0 acknowledges two realities: construction pricing is a journey, not a destination, AND most Owners/CMs work on similar project types repeatedly. Your templates should work as hard as you do. Your bidding platform should evolve with your project—and remember your preferences for next time.

‍The Bottom Line
‍While your competitors are still building new bid forms for every project and managing separate spreadsheets for each design phase, you've got templates that scale and a complete pricing evolution story. From first budget to final award, all in one place, all instantly comparable. Because the real question isn't just "What did they bid?" It's "How did we get here, and what changed along the way?"

This is better bidding.

We're serious about building the pre-construction platform that construction managers, developers, and owners actually want to use. Just 2.5 weeks after our initial beta launch, we are excited to push out Beta 0.2.0 with all new features to improve the platform.

Features included in Beta 0.2.0:

1. Alternates & Breakout Costs
Tired of being locked into rigid CSI cost codes? So were we. Now you can create custom line items—including proper formatting for alternates (add/deducts) and breakout costs. Heres the game changer: These items sit outside the base bid, giving you the granular details you need without cluttering the main numbers. Want to see how adding that upgraded HVAC system affects each contractor's total? Just toggle it on. Real-time calculations mean you can test different scenarios instantly, not after hours in a spreadsheet.
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2. Bid Review Page Revamp
Our initial Beta bid review was functional. Beta 0.2.0's version is transformational. We didn't just improve it—we reimagined what bid comparison should look like:
Smart Color Coding: High and low line items are instantly visible. No more squinting at numbers to spot the patterns.
Automatic Variance Detection: Set your sensitivity (10%, 15%, 20%, 25%+) and watch outliers jump off the page. That electrical bid that's suspiciously low? You'll spot it immediately.
Dynamic Column Control: Hide contractors who aren't in the running. Focus on your top choices. Compare however makes sense for your decision-making process.The best part? Everything updates in real time. Change an alternate, adjust a line item, hide a column—the entire analysis adapts instantly.
Team Collaboration: Leave comments directly on specific line items on bid review page. No more "Hey, did you notice..." Team's messages or email chains about why contractor X's plumbing number seems off. Keep the conversation right where the data lives.

🚀 Launching Outbidd Beta

‍Welcome to the future of construction bid management. After months of development and testing, we're excited to introduce the first platform built specifically for construction managers and developers to secure the best bids for their projects.

Features included in this beta:
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1. Smart Project Setup - Create projects with timelines, documents, and requirements in minutes
2. Contractor Management - Build your database and send professional RFPs to your network in minutes instead of days
3. Standarized Bid Format - Standardized format for GC to upload their bids. No more messy spreadsheets and various bid forms
4. RFI Management - Clearly see all RFIs and responses to ensure all bidders have all the information they need
‍5. File Management - Add, Remove, Share, and Export all project files and photos. Ensuring all bidders have access to all necessary files
‍6. Real-time Analysis - Color-coded comparisons, variance detection, and scope gap identification
7. Professional Exports - Easy exporting for RFIs, Bid Documents, and Photos to help you create professional client reports
8. Team Collaboration - Keep everyone aligned with integrated notes and team member collaboration