Managing Proposal Sections and Items

When you create a proposal that consists of more than one project, it can be useful for bidding purposes to group similar project categories (and sometimes unattached items) together into proposal sections. For a detailed explanation of the rules the system uses to group project categories into proposal sections, see Automatically Adding Proposal Sections and Special Information About Category Alternates.

The Proposal Sections and Items component allows you to organize the items in the proposal into sections and to generate new line numbers. To access the Proposal Sections and Items component, click the Sections and Items Quick link on the Proposal Summary.

Information is grouped on three tabs, located on the left side of the component. The component opens on the Proposal Sections tab, which contains a list of all the sections in the proposal. Each record contains current values for the following fields:

• Cat Alt Set ID

• Cat Alt Member ID

• Total

• Life Cycle Cost Value  

• Total with Life Cycle Cost  

• Section ID

• Description

• Low Cost

• Base

To change information in a proposal section, click anywhere in that row. The system highlights the row in blue. You can add or change information in the Section ID, Description, or Base fields. Click in a field and add, change, or delete information as needed.  

To delete a proposal section, select Delete from the Actions menu on the proposal section row. To reverse the deletion, click the Undo button.

When you are finished making changes to proposal sections, click the Save button. The system displays a message to confirm that your changes were saved in the database.

To view additional information about items in this proposal, click one of the following tabs:

Proposal Items	Click this tab to view a summary of all the biddable project items in the proposal (see Viewing Proposal Items).
Proposal and Project Items	Click this tab to view a list of all the proposal items (see Viewing Proposal and Project Items).

If a proposal contains more than one project, and the proposal contains duplicate line numbers because the same line numbers are used in each project in the proposal, you can automatically generate unique line numbers for the proposal by selecting Generate Unique Project Line Numbers from the Actions menu on the component header. For more information, see Generating Unique Project Line Numbers in a Proposal.

To assign items to sections, select Assign Items to Sections from the Actions menu on the component header. For more information, see Assigning Project Items to Sections.

Adding Sections to the Proposal

You can add proposal sections manually, but the system also generates section and line numbers automatically. If you want to create alternate sections in your proposal, you must run the process for automatically generating proposal sections; you cannot manually add alternate sections.

Manually Adding Proposal Sections

To manually add a proposal section, click the New button on the Proposal Sections tab. The system adds a new row at the bottom of the list. All fields in the new row are blank.

To create a proposal section record, you must enter information in these fields:

• Section ID

• Description

The system automatically populates the Low Cost field. When you are finished adding proposal sections, click the Save button. The system displays a message to confirm that your changes were saved in the database.

Automatically Adding Proposal Sections

To generate proposal sections automatically, select Auto Generate Sections from the Actions menu on the Proposal Sections and Items component header. The system combines the project items from all associated projects to create proposal sections and displays the new proposal sections in the list.

When you generate proposal sections automatically, all of the proposal items are assigned to sections. You do not need to use the Assign Items to Sections command unless you want to review or make changes to the assignments. If you add new items to one of the projects in the proposal after you automatically generate sections, you can use the Auto Generate Sections command again to assign the new items to a section.

• Caution: When you generate proposal sections automatically, any existing sections will be deleted and replaced with the new automatically generated sections.

The system combines the project items from all associated projects to create proposal sections in the following way:

• Project categories are combined when the categories have the Combine with Like Categories check box selected, have the same Section Group, and have the same value in the Category Alternate Set/Member ID fields.

• Items within combined categories are aggregated when the items have the same Reference Item ID, Supplemental Description, Bid Requirement Code, Section ID, and the same values in Item Alternate Set/Member ID fields. Items not associated with any category are grouped in a section named No Category.

• A Section ID is assigned to each combined category, beginning with 1 and increasing by an increment of 1. The combined categories have now become sections in the proposal.

• The Description field for each proposal section is automatically populated with the category description of the first category in the section from the first project.

• The Base check box is automatically selected for each new section created.

• Note: Category alternates can only be populated on sections using this automatic generation feature.

Special Information About Category Alternates

Alternate categories with the same alternate set and member can be combined into the same proposal section or can be in different proposal sections, depending on the values in the Combine Like Categories check box (whether or not it is selected) AND the values in the Section Group field (whether they are the same or different).

• If the category is an alternate with a unique Alternate Set and Member ID, it will NOT combine regardless of other factors.

• If the category is not an alternate and the Combine Like Categories check box is not selected, the category will NOT combine regardless of other factors.

• If the category is not an alternate and the Combine Like Categories check box is selected, but the Section Group value is unique, the category will NOT combine.

• If the category is not an alternate and the Combine Like Categories check box is selected but there is no Section Group value, the category WILL combine with other combinable categories.

• If the category is an alternate and the Combine Like Categories check box is selected, and the Section Group value and Alternate Set & Member ID appear more than once, categories with the same Section Group value and Set/Member ID WILL combine.

 

Alternate	Set & Member ID	Combine Check Box	Section Group	Combine?
Yes	Unique*	Any	Any	No
No	N/A	No*	Any	No
No	N/A	Yes*	Unique	No
No	N/A	Yes*	Duplicate	Yes
No	N/A	Yes*	None	Yes
Yes	Duplicate*	Yes*	Duplicate	Yes

 

  * Deciding factor on whether or not to combine.

Special Information About Life Cycle Cost

Life cycle cost is the expected cost of maintaining the road over a period of time. It is applied to alternate categories in order to compare the long-term cost to the agency of using different methods of construction, such as asphalt or concrete. When you auto-generate sections from alternate categories with life cycle cost populated, the process incorporates the life cycle cost values from the corresponding alternate categories so the sections can be analyzed. See Analyzing Alternate Sections and Life Cycle Costs for more information.

Special Information About Additive Sections

The Additive Bidding functionality can be used when an agency has a limited amount of funds and wants to use all of the funds available for the proposal. The Additive Analysis component enables you to view the amount of funds available and compare vendor bids received for a proposal defined with additive sections. This enables you to decide which sections you want to include in the awarded contract. See Analyzing Bids for Additive Sections for further information.

The Base check box indicates whether a proposal section is a base section for additive bidding purposes. Sections are marked as base sections by default. Sections can be designated as additive by clearing the Base check box. Clearing this check box on any section designates the entire proposal as an additive bidding proposal. At least one proposal section must remain marked as a base section in order to perform additive analysis. Alternate sections cannot be additive.

Related topics:

Managing Proposals