Understanding the bid lifecycle

Follow a bid from Draft through Submitted, Awarded, or Lost — understanding each status, what triggers transitions, and what happens to the data at each stage.

Every bid in Gradeworks moves through a lifecycle of statuses. Understanding these statuses helps you manage your pipeline, know when a bid is safe to edit, and track your win rate over time. The lifecycle is simple by design — four main statuses with clear transitions.

Status overview

Draft — the bid is being built. Fully editable. Line items, formulas, site address, and customer can all change. Most bids start here and stay here until they're ready to send.
Submitted — the bid has been sent to the customer (usually via a proposal PDF). Still editable, but changes are flagged in the bid history so you know what changed after submission.
Awarded — the customer accepted the bid. The bid becomes read-only to protect the agreed-upon numbers. You can convert an awarded bid into a project with one click.
Lost — the customer declined or went with another contractor. The bid is archived but fully searchable. Lost bids are valuable for win/loss analysis.

Changing status

Change a bid's status from the status dropdown at the top of the bid detail view, or right-click a bid in the list and select Quick Status Change. You can also bulk-change status by selecting multiple bids in the list view.

What happens when a bid is awarded

Awarding a bid locks its line items, totals, and customer terms. This protects the numbers that both parties agreed to. A "Convert to Project" button appears — clicking it creates a new project pre-populated with the bid's details, line items, and site address. The project inherits the bid's cost structure as its baseline budget.

Important

Awarded bids are intentionally read-only. If you need to modify an awarded bid (change order, scope adjustment), create a new bid referencing the original. This preserves the audit trail — the original award is never modified.

Reopening bids

You can move a bid back to Draft from any status. Moving an Awarded bid back to Draft unlocks editing but warns you that the project association remains. Moving a Lost bid to Draft lets you rework and resubmit. Status changes are recorded in the bid's history with timestamps and the user who made the change.

Pro tip

Use the Submitted status even for bids you deliver verbally or via email. It marks the bid in your pipeline as 'waiting for response' and starts the clock on follow-up reminders. Your win rate and response time metrics depend on accurate status tracking.

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Creating a bid

Walk through creating a bid from scratch — entering customer details, setting the site address, adding line items, and getting your first estimate out the door.

Generating bid proposals

Turn your bid into a professional proposal document — customize formatting, add terms and conditions, generate a PDF, and send it directly to the customer.

Setting up a project

Create a new project from an awarded bid or from scratch — establish the baseline schedule, assign crews, and set the foundation for tracking.

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