How do I send a Correspondence?
Head to the Invites & Responses page and select the companies you wish to send correspondence to. Either tick the checkbox next to their name individually, or in bulk at the top. From the Quick Actions menu select ‘New Correspondence’
A record of correspondence sent will be stored in the Audit Trail, and a copy can be viewed from the Correspondence page. All replies will be directed to the sender’s email and will not be captured in E1.
The types of correspondence you can send are:
- General
- Notification of Addendum
- Notification of Revision
- Site Inspection Details
- Extension of Time
How do I fix the Error status on enquiries?
E1 will highlight all emails and enquiries that weren’t able to be delivered on the Invites & Responses page of your project. This will appear in the Quote Status column to the right, as shown below.
The Error status indicates that the enquiry email could not be delivered.
Click on the Error status to show the reason and update the recipient's email address.
Some examples of errors could be; Recipient Not Found, No such user, Bounce, etc. Below are some of the most common email errors and how to resolve them:
- Check the company’s email address: Confirm that the email is accurate and there are no errors in the email, (e.g. typos: make sure to look out for missing or misplaced ’@’ symbols, spaces or special characters in the email address)
- Wait and Retry: Allow some time to pass and then attempt to resend the email
- Check for Blocking issues: Ask the recipient company to mark emails from E1 as safe by ‘Whitelisting’ emails from both docs@estimateone.com and support@estimateone.com Whitelisting instructions can be found here.
- Inbox Full: Ask the company to make sure their inbox is not full and to check their junk mail
Once the email address has been updated, click on ‘Update Email & Resend’. This will re-send the enquiry for tender email and update the contact in your address book for any future invitations.
For most error reasons, updating the email address and resending the correspondence will fix the issue.
In some cases, the error reason may require more troubleshooting. If you are unsure, reach out to our support team at support@estimateone.co.uk or 1300 705 035 and we will be happy to assist, feel free to pass on our support contact details to your subcontractors directly.
How do I invite multiple companies to a tender?
To easily invite multiple companies to a project you will want to use the Contact Lists. A Contact List allows you to pre-populate a list of specific contacts at a company to save time.
Examples of how we’ve seen Contact Lists used in the past:
- Preferred companies: The three or four preferred contacts for each trade.
- Based on previous tenders: Particularly handy if 2-stage tendering
1. Set up a Contact List
To create a Contact List, head to your Address Book and select Lists.
When you are creating a Contact List you’ll be able to create the list based on a past project you tendered on E1.
Once you’ve named your list, you’ve just got to select who you want to be in it. Find the trade from the trade menu and start ticking off who you want in the list.
It’s worth noting that for Contact Lists, you have to tick off the individual contacts while with Company Lists you can only tick off entire companies.
To finish, click ‘Save List’.
2. Apply the Contact List when sending enquiries to companies
To apply the list when inviting subcontractors to quote from the Invite Multiple screen:
- Select ’Apply Contact List’
- Choose the List you want to apply from the drop-down
- Select ’Apply List’
- You will now see that all companies from your Contact List will have the checkbox ticked to show that they are selected for invite
- From here, you can add or remove companies by selecting or unselecting the checkboxes as you usually would
- When you have finalised your selection select ‘Issue Invitations’
How can I prompt a company to respond to an enquiry?
If you haven’t received a response to enquiries issued for your project, you can easily send a nudge to all non-responders via the Invites & Responses tab on your project.
Head to the Quick Actions drop down, and select ‘Remind No Response’. E1 will immediately issue an email to all companies that have not yet responded to your enquiry.
You can then view the correspondence via the Audit Trail on each company row, which will have a date and time stamp of when the reminder was issued.
A list of all of the correspondence issued is also available in the Correspondence tab of the project.
Click ‘View’ to see a copy of the correspondence. The image below left is from the Correspondence view, and the image below right is the version the subcontractor or supplier will see.
How do I view Audit Trails and Transmittals?
E1 tracks all main contractor-subcontractor/supplier interactions throughout the tender in the Audit Trail.
You can see when an enquiry was sent, the date and time documents were downloaded, correspondence sent and revision emails issued. Your Audit Trails can be printed as proof of a subcontractor receiving documentation.
Tender Enquiry Emails, Documentation Transmittals and all other interactions can be accessed in Correspondence.
How do I leave a note on a company listing?
To leave a note against a company, click on the speech bubble to the left of their listing. This note will be visible to all users in your company and is a great way to provide context throughout the tender.
By default, these notes are hidden and you will need to click to view.
How can I get additional subcontractor details at the Sending Enquiry stage?
You can get a little more context about your subcontractors by clicking the company name at the enquiry step.
Open the company's Address Book slider to see;
- Company-level information: location, company contacts, trades, company lists and overall engagement stats.
- Notes: time & date stamped notes added by your internal staff.
- Files: any documents associated with this company Eg. certification, schedules, rates.
- Tenders: a track record of all past and current tender enquiries.
How can I track company responses?
Track your subcontractor or supplier responses by heading to the Invites & Responses page via the Project Dashboard.
When a company downloads their package or responds to your enquiries, this page will automatically update. You can also manually update responses from the dropdown menu on the right of each contact.
How do I manage company engagement over time?
We understand the importance of being able to identify which of your subcontractors and suppliers are regularly quoting your tenders and which ones aren’t responding at all. Insights like these will help maintain strong relationships and highlight areas for improvement.
We surface this information in a couple of ways within the Address Book.
Engagement Score:
Each company will have an engagement score based on the number of tenders you have invited them to and their responses. To view, click on the subcontractor's or supplier’s name within the Address Book.
These statistics automatically update as you use E1, so you can always trust that they are up-to-date and relevant.
- # Invitations: This is the number of tenders you have invited this company to in the last 12 months.
- Response Rate: How often the company has responded to your enquiry (e.g, downloaded your package, said Not Quoting, etc)
- # Quotes: The number of times they have provided you a quote in the last 12 months.
- Quote Rate: How often the company has quoted for you.
Tenders Tab
Under Tenders in the company slider, you will find the history of every tender the company has been issued an enquiry for and their response.
A contact's Response Rate
Each contact is assigned a Response Rate and a Quote Rate, which is based on the tenders they have been invited to during the past 12 months. To view these response rates and identify who your most responsive subcontractors are, you must export your Address Book to Excel.
How do I revoke an enquiry?
If you’ve accidentally submitted the wrong package to a company, or want to withdraw an enquiry, you can revoke the enquiry.
Head to the project, then the Invites & Responses tab. Click the three dots next to the relevant company, and select ‘Revoke Invitation’ from the drop down options. You can then send an enquiry for the correct package, or leave the invitee out of the quote process.
