Going the Distance
alio Finance
Bid Processing: Why, How,
and What Happens
Todd Dietrich
Senior Application Specialist
Going the Distance
Agenda
• Why Bidding?
• Process Overview
• Setup
• Bid Requisition Process
• Vendor Bid Process
• Transfer Bid Request to FAS
• Year-End Rollover
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Documentation
• infolink.hammer.net
 Resource Id: 3523
• alio BID 16.4 - Guide to Bid Processing
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Why Bidding?
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Why Bidding?
• The alio Bidding module makes it easy to develop bid specifications
and preliminary cost data, as well as to analyze vendor responses and
prepare bid awards. The preparation of purchase orders and the
encumbering of funds are also less time consuming and less
cumbersome with this module.
• alio Bidding has an online catalog of items that can be exported;
therefore you may enter or import Bid Requests into the system by
each department or location. Bid Requests are processed through
the specified approval chain. You can print vendor specification forms
or export the bid request to an Excel spreadsheet for distribution to
prospective bidders.
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Why Bidding?
• After the Vendor Bids are entered or imported via a CSV file into the
system, Vendor Bids are automatically awarded either by the lowest
unit cost or total cost. Various reports allow administrators to analyze
the responses and override low bids for justifiable reasons. Purchase
Orders are created and encumbered against the specified budget
year.
• Shares general ledger account and vendor information with alio FAS.
• Allows multiple bid cycles and multiple years.
• Allows unlimited account distribution per item requested.
• Provides On-line Bid Request Approval processing.
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Why Bidding?
• Produces vendor labels by bid category for bid specification mailing.
• Prints a Low-Bid Report showing vendor bids in low-to-high bid
sequence.
• Allows low-bid maintenance by item number.
• Highlights alternate bids throughout the bidding process.
• Analyzes cost data by account number, category, department or
location.
• Provides various recap reports showing total dollar value, total items
and other information.
• Prints list of bid items where no bid was awarded.
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Process Overview
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Process Overview
• Schools typically start by grouping items into categories: Paper
Supplies, Art Supplies, Athletic Supplies, etc.
• Send item lists or an Excel spreadsheet by category to different
departments or buildings to request quantities needed for each item.
• Enter or import the item quantities via CSV file into the system,
creating a bid request.
• Send lists or an Excel spreadsheet of items and requested quantities
to the vendors for prices; enter or import bid prices into the system;
run a process to determine the lowest bid for each item
• Transfer Bid Requests to alio FAS and print the POs
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Setup
Going the Distance
Setup
• Approval Chains
• Profile Key
• Bid Cycles
• Departments
• Bid Department/User Maintenance
• Bid Item Categories
• Bid Item Master
• Bid Item Account Distribution
• Vendor Category Maintenance
• Bid Reason Codes
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Approval Chains
• Approval chains must
be set up and attached
to users before creating
bid requests
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Profile Key
• Define the Profile key
FEBID01A_LONG_DESC.
 Enter Y in the Profile
Data field to display
the long description in
the Bid Item entry, Bid
Approval, and the
Vendor Bid Entry.
 Enter N to display the
short description.
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Bid Cycles
• Define the Profile key
FEBID01A_LONG_DESC.
 Enter Y in the Profile
Data field to display
the long description in
the Bid Item entry, Bid
Approval, and the
Vendor Bid Entry.
 Enter N to display the
short description.
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Departments
• Department and
Description are
required.
• Examples:
 BUS – Business Office
 SCI – Science
Department
 CAF - Cafeteria
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Bid Department/User Maintenance
• Restrict user to
specific departments
for Bid Requests and
Listings.
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Bid Item Categories
• Category and
Description are
required.
• Examples:
 GEN – General
Supplies
 ATH – Athletic
Supplies
 CAF – Food Service
Supplies
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Bid Item Master
• Category, Item,
Description, Unit of
measure are the only
required fields.
• You can calculate the
estimated cost.
• Long Description,
Notes 1, and Notes 2
are optional; you can
enter up to 2000
characters in each
field.
• Historical information
is updated by the
system.
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Bid Item Account Distribution
• Required to generate
purchase orders and
encumber costs in
FAS.
• Set up basic defaults
by Category/Order
Location/
Department; or set
up account
distribution by
individual item.
• Distribution must
equal 100%.
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Vendor Category Maintenance
• You can attach
vendors to a specific
category.
• You can print Vendor
Labels by Category.
• Vendor must exist in
FAS.
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Bid Reason Codes
• Use to enter a
Reason Code when
“throwing out” bids
in Low Bid
Maintenance.
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Bid Requisition Process
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Bid Requisition Process
• Generate a Requisition List or export the Bid Items by Category to an
Excel spreadsheet and distribute to determine item quantities
needed.
• Enter or import the item quantities and produce verification listings.
• Adjust requisition quantities as needed.
• Produce Cost Listings and Account Distribution Verification Reports.
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Bid Requisition List
• Distribute Requisition
List to each
Building/Department
to determine item
quantities needed.
• Estimated Cost and
Last Year’s Quantity
purchased are
optional.
• Print only items
ordered previously, if
desired.
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Export Bid Items
• Use the Bid Item
Export option to
export bid item
information into a
CSV file. This allows
end users to open
the file in Excel
where they can enter
their quantities for
each item. They may
also override the
default ship location.
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Bid Entry
• Select the
appropriate Bid Cycle
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Bid Entry
• Sort by Item No or
Description
• Enter Quantities by
Category, Order
Location, Department
• Enter Ship Location
by Item
• Notes Optional
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Bid Entry
• Modify Account
Distributions by Item.
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Bid Entry
• Display Historical
Information
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Bid Entry
• Display Approval
Status
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Bid Entry
• Display Approval
Status
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Import Bid Item Requests
• Use the Bid Item Entry
Import option to
import bid item entry
information from a CSV
(Excel) file, in which
the users have entered
quantities and
optionally an override
ship location, into alio.
• Use the Bid Requisition
Verification List to
verify the data
imported.
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Bid Requisition Verification List
• Print the Bid
Requisition
Verification List to
verify quantities
entered.
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Bid Requisition Verification List
• Print the Bid
Requisition
Verification List to
verify quantities
entered.
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Bid Approval Verification List
• Display list of items
waiting for your
approval
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Bid Approval Verification List
• Display list of items
waiting for your
approval
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Bid Approval
• Update quantities
while keeping the
original quantity
requested.
• Approve or
disapprove the
requisition.
• Modify Ship Location
if necessary.
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Bid Requisition Account Distribution List
• Requisitions Account
Verification is a
MUST!
• Prints all bid items
and their extended
(estimated) prices.
• Identifies missing
account distribution
information for bid
requests entered by
category, building
and department.
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Bid Requisition Account Distribution List
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Vendor Bid Processing
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Vendor Bid Processing
• Generate or Export the Bid List and Distribute to vendors to request
prices.
• Enter or Import vendor bid prices; print verification listings.
• Print Bid Recap and Bid Tally reports
• Generate Low Bid List; “throw out” undesirable low bids.
• Print Low Bid Recap, No Bids Awarded, and Department Expense
reports; apply vendor discounts.
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Vendor Bid List
• List of items to be
sent to vendors to
respond with their
pricing
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Vendor Bid List
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Vendor Labels by Category
• Avery 8161 Labels
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Vendor Labels by Category
• Avery 8161 Labels
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Vendor Bid Export/Import
• Use the Vendor Bid
Export/Import form
to extract the
requested bid items
and quantities to
send to a vendor.
This allows a site to
send bid requests to
a single vendor,
several vendors, or all
vendors.
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Vendor Bid Entry
• Select the Bid Cycle
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Vendor Bid Entry
• Enter vendor bid
prices by vendor and
category.
• Enter additional bids
and vendor notes.
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Vendor Bid Entry
• Modify alternate bid
requests and
alternate bid
accounts.
• Ad-Hoc Bid Item
Maintenance.
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Vendor Bid Import
• Use the Vendor Bid
Export/Import Form to
upload the bid prices
from the vendors.
• Use the Vendor Bid
Verification List to
verify the data that
imported. You can also
use the Vendor Bid
Entry form to view or
modify the Vendor bid
information.
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Vendor Bid Verification List
• Print to proof vendor
bid prices
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Vendor Bid Verification List
• Print to proof vendor
bid prices
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Award Low Bid
• Determine the lowest
bid price for each
item by Unit Cost or
Total Cost.
• Auto generates the
Low Bid List of all
AWARDED bids.
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Award Low Bid
• Determine the lowest
bid price for each
item by Unit Cost or
Total Cost.
• Auto generates the
Low Bid List of all
AWARDED bids.
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Low Bid Maintenance
• Generate the Low Bid
List with a number of
Vendor Bids for each
item.
• “Throw out”
undesirable low bids.
• Award the lowest bid
price for each item by
Unit Cost or Total
Cost.
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No Bids Awarded List
• Prints all items for
which no bids were
awarded
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Department Expense Report
• Prints quantities and
total expenses by
department for
awarded bids.
• Prints the items for
each vendor; breaks
quantity down by
building and
department (eases
item distribution).
• Optional to display
the account
distribution.
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Department Expense Report
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Vendor Bid Discount
• List all items for one
or all vendors that
submitted bids. Use
the report to see if a
particular vendor’s
bids were awarded.
• Apply a discount
percentage to all bids
for one vendor.
• Remove a discount
from all bids for one
vendor as needed.
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Vendor Bid Discount
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Transfer Bid Request to FAS
Going the Distance
Transfer Bid Request to FAS
• Print detailed purchase order information by vendor for awarded
bids.
• Verify item distribution cost and account numbers.
• Transfer purchase order information to alio FAS.
• After the transfer is complete, print the Order Edit List, Purchase
Orders, and PO Edit List, and then post the Purchase Orders.
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Transfer Bids to FAS
• Select Bid Cycle.
• Print purchase orders
by Ship
Location/Category,
Ship Location/ Order
Location, or only Ship
Location.
• Long Description and
Notes (optional).
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Transfer Bids to FAS
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Year-End Rollover
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Year End Rollover (Before You Begin a New Year)
• Create Bid Item Account Distributions for the New Year.
• Assign Approval Chains by location, account and/or user ID.
• Increase or decrease estimated cost (optional).
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Price Adjustment by Category
• Adjust by a
percentage based on
old estimated values
or last awarded price
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Price Adjustment by Category
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Documentation & Support
For documentation go to:
infolink.hammer.net
Weidenhammer alio® Support Hotline
1-800-914-9879
[email protected]
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Discussion
Going the Distance