Bid Sheets are price quotes for item that can be purchased from vendors. Many vendors are willing to supply advance price quotes for items you order from them. The Bid Sheet Entry form is used to capture and save this information into FOOD-TRAK® System.
Quoted prices are used in the Automatic and Interactive PO Creation function, and a number of reports also show existing bids as well as bid price histories. Entry of Bid Sheets is an optional part of the Procurement process.
Templates can be created to streamline bid entry and can be used for an individual vendor or created for gathering bids for a set of items from many vendors.
If bid price histories are not required, it is a good practice to delete bids which have expired. This function is performed on the Bid Sheet form selection page.
Vendors can electronically import Bid Sheets with use of a vendor interface or via the Vendor Bid Portal available with the Vendor Bidding Module. Multiple, active bid sheets for the same vendor can exist in one site. Bid sheets that are imported from a vendor file with no expiration date are imported and "paused" with an expiration date as the end of the relative day.
Bid Sheets allow FOOD-TRAK to shop for the best price automatically when utilizing the Automatic and Interactive PO Creation tools.
Creating a Bid Sheet
To create a Bid Sheet, select either the system-supplied (Blank Bid) template or a user-defined template from the Form Selection page. You may also select (All Items From One Vendor) in which case you must supply the vendor name. Select the vendor from the drop-down list on the Vendor Select menu that appears. The [Any Vendor] option is available for Bid Sheet templates. This option would be used when a non-specific vendor template is necessary from which to generate a Bid Request Input Form report.
Header Tab
On the Header tab, select the name of the Vendor who made the bid (if you haven't already done so) from the drop-down list of available vendors. The list displays the vendors currently in your system that you have permission to buy from. Procurement data entry forms that require a vendor display a list of vendors that is filtered based on the current user's Profit Center access. By default, a vendor is assigned to all Profit Centers in the site. Vendors that are assigned to "All Profit Centers" (box is checked on editor) are displayed for all users with permission to procurement data entry forms.
You may change the bid number if necessary.
Enter the Start Date (the date the bid pricing goes into effect) and the End Date (the final day that bid is valid) using the calendar feature.
Click Items to move on to the Items tab.
Items Tab
If you are using (All Items From One Vendor) or a user-defined template, a list of items is popululated on this page. If you are using a blank form or need to enter a new item onto the list, the Insert feature may be used to add them as necessary.
The data on the form detail includes the vendor's item code (if available), the item name, the price (zero if using a template), its defined order unit, and a field for any notes you may want to include. Item codes that are new for the line-item and have not been approved are displayed in red text on the form detail. New vendor details for a line-item are approved and added to the items properties when the form is completed. A message is displayed during the complete process that warns you when item code changes are present. Updated properties for an item can be viewed in the Item Editor.
Tip: If you do not desire to update the items properties with the new item codes and manufacturer details on a bid sheet, remove the unnecessary details before completing the form.
Additionally, a manufacturer and UPC is displayed on a bid sheet if the information is available for the item and the Advanced Procurement or Vendor Bidding module is allocated to the site.
When you have finished working on the form, save, complete or pause it to save your work.
For more information on the various buttons, icons, and fields that are features common to all Data Entry forms, click here.