Construction bid management software built for GCs and subs
Invite the right subs, get every bidder on the current documents, and see your coverage by trade — bid day without the inbox archaeology, the addendum panic, or the “are you guys bidding this?” phone marathon.
Bid day chaos is a documents problem
Most bid-management pain isn’t the bidding — it’s not knowing who has what, who’s in, and which set they priced.
Coverage roulette
Six ITBs went out, silence came back. Two days before bid day you’re on the phone begging for concrete numbers because nobody tracked who’s actually bidding.
The addendum nobody got
Addendum 2 changed the structure; one bidder priced off the original set. Their number is wrong, your comparison is garbage, and it surfaces after award — as a change order fight.
Bids scattered across inboxes
PDFs in email, a number over the phone, one fax (still, somehow). Assembling bid day from an inbox is where mistakes and missed numbers live.
Apples-to-oranges leveling
One bid includes the pumps, one excludes them, one is silent. Without bids collected in one structured place, scope gaps hide until they cost you.
From ITB to award, on the record
Invitations to bid
Send ITBs by trade with scope, dates, and documents attached — and track responses: bidding, declined, or silent. Your follow-up list writes itself.
Coverage by trade
One screen shows every trade’s invited count and committed bidders. Thin coverage is visible two weeks out — when you can still fix it — not two days.
Bid documents, controlled
Bidders pull from one current set — plans, specs, and addenda under the same version control as the rest of your documents. When Addendum 2 lands, everyone gets it, and the distribution is logged.
Bids in one place
Proposals land in the bid package, not your inbox — organized by trade, time-stamped, with attachments intact.
Side-by-side comparison
Bids by trade in one view with inclusions and exclusions noted — so scope gaps get caught in leveling, not discovered in buyout.
Award flows into the project
The winning number, the bid set it priced, and the addenda they acknowledged carry straight into the project record — where change orders and document management pick up the thread.
Built by a contractor who lives on bid day. Keaton Bandhoesingh, Founder — preconstruction manager across three construction firms who has been directly awarded $100M+ in seven years. That number is a bidding statistic: thousands of invitations answered, bid sets priced, and addenda chased from both sides — the GC sending ITBs and the sub deciding which ones deserve a number. Read the story →
One bid package, ITB to award
Riverside Phase 2 goes out to bid — and what the package shows at every step:
| Step | What the record shows | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ITBs sent to 15 subs across 3 trades | Scope, dates & documents attached — responses tracked | 9 bidding · 2 declined |
| Mechanical coverage looks thin | Dashboard shows 2 committed — flagged 12 days out | 2 more invited |
| Structural revision → Addendum 2 | Distributed to every bidder, receipt logged | All on current set |
| Bids arrive by the deadline | Time-stamped in the package, organized by trade | 11 received |
| Concrete leveled side by side | Pump exclusion caught in comparison, priced before award | Awarded clean |
No “which set did you price?” after award — the record already knows.
Planroom vs. the alternatives
| Planroom | Email + spreadsheets | Enterprise bid platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ITB tracking & coverage | ✓ Live by trade | ✗ Phone-call census | ✓ Yes |
| Addenda under version control | ✓ Logged to every bidder | ✗ Reply-all and pray | ✓ Yes |
| Bid docs + project docs, one system | ✓ Same record after award | Scattered | ✗ Bidding silo only |
| Self-serve signup | ✓ Start today | ✓ | ✗ Sales-led, annual |
| Price | $149/mo, published | $0 (paid in busted bids) | Custom quote |
Both sides of the invitation
General contractors
Build the bid list, watch coverage by trade, keep every bidder on the current documents, and level clean — with the winning bid flowing straight into the project record.
Subcontractors
Every invitation, bid set, and addendum in one place — so you price the current documents, prove which set you priced, and stop losing margin to somebody else’s distribution gap.
One price. Everything included.
Bid management plus the whole platform — documents, change orders, daily reports, submittals, and RFIs.
- ✓Unlimited bid packages & ITBs
- ✓Coverage tracking & bid comparison
- ✓Addenda distribution, logged
- ✓Documents, COs, daily reports, submittals & RFIs included
- ✓No setup fee, no per-seat pricing
Building your precon stack? See how it fits together in preconstruction software.
Good to know
What is construction bid management software?
Software that runs the bidding process — sending invitations to bid, distributing bid documents and addenda under version control, tracking which subs are bidding by trade, collecting proposals in one place, and comparing them side by side. One system instead of an inbox, a phone log, and a spreadsheet named FINAL-v3.
What’s an ITB?
An Invitation to Bid — the formal request a GC sends a subcontractor asking them to price a scope of work, with the documents and dates attached. Tracking ITB responses is how you know your coverage before it’s too late to fix it.
How do addenda work in Planroom?
An addendum is a new revision of the bid documents — so it works exactly like the rest of Planroom’s document control: it supersedes, every bidder is notified, and the distribution is logged. “Which set did you price?” becomes a lookup, not an argument.
Does it do takeoff and estimating?
No — and honestly, that’s a different discipline deserving its own tool. Planroom handles the documents and the bidding; for takeoff and estimating, our founder also built ScopeTakeoff, which contractors use every day. Together they cover preconstruction end to end.
Do subs use it too?
Yes — subs see their invitations, pull the current bid set, get addenda automatically, and submit in one place. Fewer busted numbers on both sides of the table.
How much does it cost?
$149 a month for the entire platform — bid management plus documents, change orders, daily reports, submittals, and RFIs. No setup fee, no per-seat pricing, no contract.
Run bid day from one screen.
Get started in minutes. $149/month when you’re ready. No contract, no sales call.
Get started →