Product
Run every purchase so it holds up in public.
AwardBeam carries a purchase from the department request through approvals, the solicitation, sealed bids, the recorded opening, evaluation, the award and the contract. Each step keeps its record, and each award you publish becomes a public page.
Requests and approvals
Requests route to the people your policy names.
Your agency sets approval rules by dollar amount and the other facts of a purchase. A request follows the first rule that fits, staff see who signs next, and a decision cannot be rewritten once it is made.
Rules can match on amount, department, method, funding, sole source and emergency, and staff can test an amount before they save a rule.
Approval decisions are final. The chain cannot be rewritten while a request is moving through it.
Changing an approval rule requires a staff authenticator code.
City of Westbridge
Settings / Approvals
Try a record against these rules
Nothing is saved. This shows which rule would match and the approvals that would follow.
Matched rule:$50,000 to $250,000
3approvals
- Department Director
- Budget Review
- Procurement Director
Routing
A $75,000 request routes to Department Director, then Budget Review, then Procurement Director.
Rules for requests, checked in order
Under $10,000
Department Director
$10,000 to $50,000
Department Director, then Budget Review, then Procurement Review
$50,000 to $250,000 (matched)
Department Director, then Budget Review, then Procurement Director
Over $250,000
Department Director, then Budget Review, then Procurement Director, then Legal Review, then City Manager
In the product, rules can also match on department, method and funding source. This page tries the amount only, from $1,000 to $1,000,000.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
- PW-26-118 Downtown Street Resurfacing Program, built from the Construction Invitation for Bid template with sections Overview, Scope of Work, Minimum Qualifications, Submission Instructions. Eight clauses are attached at version 1: Insurance Requirements (mandatory), Indemnification (mandatory), Equal Employment Opportunity (mandatory), Prevailing Wage, Public Records (mandatory), Conflict of Interest (mandatory), Termination for Convenience (mandatory), Payment Terms (mandatory). The clause library moves Insurance Requirements to version 2. The solicitation keeps version 1: published text is kept.
- PW-26-118 Downtown Street Resurfacing Program, built from the Construction Invitation for Bid template with sections Overview, Scope of Work, Minimum Qualifications, Submission Instructions. Eight clauses are attached at version 1: Insurance Requirements (mandatory), Indemnification (mandatory), Equal Employment Opportunity (mandatory), Prevailing Wage, Public Records (mandatory), Conflict of Interest (mandatory), Termination for Convenience (mandatory), Payment Terms (mandatory). The clause library moves Insurance Requirements to version 2. The solicitation keeps version 1: published text is kept.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Solicitations and clauses
Start from a template. Keep the text you published.
Build each solicitation from one of five templates and your agency's clause library. Mandatory clauses are marked, and every clause keeps the version it was published with, so updating the library never changes a live solicitation.
Each clause on a solicitation is pinned to the version it was published with. A newer library version never rewrites a live solicitation.
Solicitation documents are versioned, and each version carries a SHA-256 checksum.
Once bids are submitted, staff edits cannot delete the questions or pricing lines those bids depend on.
Every deadline shows the agency's time zone.
Five templates come with AwardBeam.
Each sets a type, a pricing method and a bid window. The bid window is guidance for the buyer, who sets the schedule.
- RFQ
Informal Quote
Pricing: Lump Sum
Bid window10 days
- RFQ
Professional Services RFQ
Pricing: Hourly Rates
Bid window21 days
- RFP
Standard RFP
Pricing: Lump Sum
Bid window30 days
- IFB
Construction Invitation for Bid
Pricing: Line Items
Bid window30 days
- RFP
Information Technology RFP
Pricing: Lump Sum
Bid window35 days
Sealed bidding
Contractors see what is missing. Your staff see a count and a time.
Contractors work through a readiness checklist that tells them what still blocks submission, and every submission gets a receipt. Until the opening is recorded, agency staff see how many bids arrived and when, and nothing else.
- A contractor's bid readiness for PW-26-118: 7 of 9 items complete, 78 percent. One requirement still blocks submission: Certificate of insurance: $5,000,000 general liability. Five years of municipal paving experience is open as a warning. The agency view shows 3 bids received, listed only as Sealed bid 1, 2 and 3 with receipt times Sep 23, 4:18 PM ET, Sep 24, 8:52 AM ET, Sep 24, 9:37 AM ET. No bidder names or amounts are shown.
- A contractor's bid readiness for PW-26-118: 7 of 9 items complete, 78 percent. One requirement still blocks submission: Certificate of insurance: $5,000,000 general liability. Five years of municipal paving experience is open as a warning. The agency view shows 3 bids received, listed only as Sealed bid 1, 2 and 3 with receipt times Sep 23, 4:18 PM ET, Sep 24, 8:52 AM ET, Sep 24, 9:37 AM ET. No bidder names or amounts are shown.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Try what a content hash does
Every receipt, like WB-PW-26-118-BID-0004, carries a SHA-256 hash of the bid as submitted. Change one character below and the hash changes, which is how an altered record shows itself.
SHA-256
Original text
Current hash: d19e1f0ad9c72e163e35c487231e9202c717f10447d2a02901886b36ca586f42
A SHA-256 hash of the responses, pricing, files, acknowledgments and subcontractors in this version. It is fixed at submission, so a changed record would produce a different hash.
Before the deadline, agency staff see only a count and receipt times. No names and no amounts.
Drafts save about a second after a contractor stops typing, until the bid window closes.
The checklist separates hard blocks from warnings. A contractor can submit with acknowledged gaps, and staff see what was acknowledged.
Each submission is a version with a confirmation number, a server timestamp and a SHA-256 content hash. A recorded version cannot be edited.
Confirmation numbers run in sequence for each solicitation and are never reused.
Bid opening
Bids unseal once, on the record, after the deadline.
Contents unlock only after the deadline passes and an authorized officer records the opening. The opening record names who opened the bids, when, how many were present and who witnessed it, and it is written once.
- Bid Submissions for UTIL-26-086, Water Treatment Pump Replacement, City of Westbridge. Five sealed bids are on file. Before the deadline the page shows only receipt timestamps: sealed bid 1, received Sep 22, 9:14 AM; sealed bid 2, received Sep 23, 3:52 PM; sealed bid 3, received Sep 24, 10:06 AM; sealed bid 4, received Sep 24, 11:31 AM; sealed bid 5, received Sep 24, 1:47 PM.
- At 2:00 PM ET the submission deadline passes and the solicitation closes. Passed. No further bids are accepted.
- Sarah Chen records the bid opening with the witnesses Diane Foster, Senior Buyer; Marcus Webb, Facilities Project Manager, and confirms with a six-digit authenticator code.
- The bids unseal: WB-UTIL-26-086-BID-0001, Clearwater Pump & Well, $3,642,800; WB-UTIL-26-086-BID-0002, BlueLine Utilities, $3,715,500; WB-UTIL-26-086-BID-0003, Copperfield Plumbing, $3,890,200; WB-UTIL-26-086-BID-0004, Harborview Engineering, $3,998,000; WB-UTIL-26-086-BID-0005, Ironbridge Electric, $4,105,750.
- Low bid $3,642,800 against a government estimate of $3,800,000: -$157,200 (-4.1%).
- Bid opening record. Opened by Sarah Chen on Sep 24, 2026 at 2:01 PM ET. Five bids were present. Method: Electronic opening in the portal. Witnesses: Diane Foster, Senior Buyer; Marcus Webb, Facilities Project Manager. This record is written once and cannot be edited or removed.
- The activity log adds: Sealed bids opened for UTIL-26-086: 5 received.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Sealed for every staff account
No agency staff account can read a sealed bid before the opening is recorded, administrators included.
Once, and never early
The opening cannot be recorded before the deadline, a second time, or by writing the record by hand.
An authenticator code to open
Recording the opening and downloading a bid file each require a staff authenticator code.
Two envelopes when you need them
With separate technical and price envelopes, opening the technical responses does not reveal price.
Evaluation
Evaluators declare conflicts before they open a proposal.
Each assigned evaluator records a conflict of interest declaration or recuses before any proposal opens. Technical scoring can run blind, and pricing is released only after technical scores are locked.
Blind evaluation stages
Two steps end blind scoring, in this order, and neither can be reversed.
- 1
Technical scoring open
Evaluators score the written proposals without seeing company names or prices.
- 2
Technical scoring locked
Technical scores become final. No evaluator can enter or change a technical score afterward.
- 3
Pricing released
Company names and prices become visible to every evaluator on the panel.
Evaluation
Declare before you read
Evaluators cannot open proposals until they record a conflict of interest declaration. A recusal cannot be withdrawn.
- Evaluation of FAC-26-104, Fire Station HVAC Modernization, for Marcus Webb, Facilities Project Manager. Status: Declaration outstanding.
- The proposal from Horizon Mechanical is blurred and locked. Proposal contents stay closed to you until this is recorded.
- Declare any conflict of interest before you read the proposals. Option chosen: I have no conflict. Statement: I have no financial, personal, or professional conflict of interest with any party responding to this solicitation.
- The evaluator presses Record My Declaration. Recuse Myself is the other choice.
- Declaration recorded. Status: No conflict declared. The proposal opens: 3 documents and the scoring criteria Technical Approach 25, Relevant Experience 20, Project Team 15, Schedule 10.
Two envelopes
Price stays sealed while you score
With two envelopes, opening the technical responses does not reveal price. Pricing opens as a separate, recorded step.
- FAC-26-131, Civic Center Boiler Plant Replacement. Status Under Evaluation. Estimate $480,000.
- Before any opening, the three submissions read Sealed bid 1, 2 and 3, and both envelopes read Sealed. Technical envelopes stay sealed until this opening is recorded.
- Open technical envelopes: the bidders appear (Horizon Mechanical, Atlas HVAC, Westbridge Facilities Group) and each technical envelope reads Opened. Every price still reads Sealed.
- Technical envelopes are open. Price envelopes stay sealed. Amounts are not shown, and bids are not ranked by price.
- Open price envelopes, a separate recorded step: Horizon Mechanical $486,200, Atlas HVAC $512,750, Westbridge Facilities Group $449,900.
- Technical envelopes opened by Sarah Chen on Sep 17, 2026, 2:05 PM EDT. Three bids were present.
- Price envelopes opened by Sarah Chen on Sep 24, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT. Three bids were present.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
A recusal cannot be withdrawn. The evaluator leaves scoring for that solicitation and cannot open the proposals.
Consensus scores sit beside each evaluator's own scores and never overwrite them.
Evaluators cannot see whether a bidder was found or invited through outreach.
Awards and protests
Every award passes through intent and a protest period.
Recommend, approve, post the notice of intent to award and hold the protest period before the award is final. When you publish, the public award page for FAC-26-104 shows who won, what every bidder offered and how the panel scored it.
The six states of an award
Being prepared. Nothing has been sent for approval.
Next: a staff recommendation with a written justification.
- Staff console, FAC-26-104 Fire Station HVAC Modernization: the award to Horizon Mechanical at $1,382,450 is Recommended.
- Sarah Chen presses Publish award and confirms with an authenticator code. The award moves to Awarded.
- The public award page appears, readable without an account: awarded to Horizon Mechanical, winning bid $1,382,450, government estimate $1,600,000, difference from estimate $217,550 below, 6 bids received, range of bids $1,382,450 to $1,538,900.
- Bid tabulation: Horizon Mechanical, $1,382,450, Awarded, score 94; Atlas HVAC, $1,409,220, Responsive, score 91; Redwood Mechanical, $1,441,800, Responsive, score 88; Summit Building Systems, $1,475,100, Responsive, score 84; Westbridge Facilities Group, $1,521,400, Responsive, score 81; Copperfield Plumbing, $1,538,900, Non-Responsive; Ironbridge Electric, not opened, Withdrawn.
- How the winner was chosen, committee average against each weight: Price 29 of 30 points; Technical Approach 23 of 25 points; Relevant Experience 19 of 20 points; Project Team 14 of 15 points; Schedule 9 of 10 points; total 94 of 100.
- Resulting contract C-26-0058, original value $1,382,450.
- Staff execute Change Order #1, Dormitory duct rerouting at Station 4, $28,750. The public contract value updates to $1,411,200: 1 executed change took the contract from $1,382,450 to $1,411,200.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
A published award cannot be altered or deleted.
Publishing an award requires a staff authenticator code.
Anyone can read a published award, its bid tabulation and the evaluation summary without an account.
Contracts and change orders
Contract value comes from executed changes.
Every change order carries a reason and an approval. The contract's current value follows the record, so finance, the council and the public all read the same number.
Current value is the original value plus executed change orders, calculated in the database. Nobody types it in.
Draft and pending amendments stay internal. Only executed changes reach the public contract page.
Audit entries record the values before and after each change.
- Contract C-26-0041 Bridge Deck Rehabilitation - Market Street, Northstar Civil Construction. Original $3,820,000. Change order 1, Unexpected electrical relocation, plus $85,000, executed. Change order 2, Additional asbestos abatement, plus $42,500, executed. Change order 3, Additional catch basin repairs, plus $47,500, reason Unforeseen field condition, moves from Awaiting approval to Executed. Current value $3,995,000, 4.6 percent above the original, against a review line at 25 percent.
- Contract C-26-0041 Bridge Deck Rehabilitation - Market Street, Northstar Civil Construction. Original $3,820,000. Change order 1, Unexpected electrical relocation, plus $85,000, executed. Change order 2, Additional asbestos abatement, plus $42,500, executed. Change order 3, Additional catch basin repairs, plus $47,500, reason Unforeseen field condition, moves from Awaiting approval to Executed. Current value $3,995,000, 4.6 percent above the original, against a review line at 25 percent.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Review indicators flag a contract for a closer look.
They are decision support for staff. An indicator never asserts wrongdoing.
25percent
Executed changes exceed 25 percent of the original contract value.
C-26-0041+4.6 of 25 percent60days
The contract ends within 60 days.
The contract dashboard also groups contracts expiring within 30 days and within 90 days.
3extensions
This contract has been extended three or more times.
Renewal options, and the ones exercised, stay on the contract record.
Vendor Scout
Reach more contractors who can do the work.
Vendor Scout reads a published solicitation and drafts a profile of the company you need. It searches your vendor list, companies registered elsewhere on AwardBeam and your own prospect list, and shows the evidence for each company. Your staff decide who receives an invitation.
Service fit and eligibility confidence are shown as two separate badges and never combined into one number.
Missing information shows as Not established and never lowers a company's standing.
No invitation goes out unless a person selected it. There is no automatic or scheduled send.
A do-not-contact request is honoured across every agency on the network, and it is checked before every send.
Protected characteristics are never an input, and evaluators cannot see whether a bidder was found through outreach.
- The Find bidders screen for PW-26-118 Downtown Street Resurfacing Program.
- Supplier target profile, drafted from the solicitation and approved by Diane Foster, Senior Buyer. Services: Asphalt paving, Milling and resurfacing, Pavement markings, ADA curb ramps. Industry codes (NAICS): 237310. Required licences: ODOT prequalification for asphalt paving work types. Minimum years of experience: 5.
- Search area: 150 miles from the work, chosen from 25, 50, 100, 150, 250 miles. The recommendation is 150 miles from the work in Ohio.
- A drawn map of the search area shows the work site, the 150 mile ring and one pin for each of the 9 companies found: 4 registered with your agency, 3 registered elsewhere on the network, 2 found outside the network.
4 companies. Companies that already have a profile with your agency, so their contact details and documents come from their own account.
Cardinal Paving
18 miles
Service fit
Strong fit
86 of 100
Eligibility
Requirements appear met
Not yet decided
Northstar Civil Construction
34 miles
Service fit
Strong fit
81 of 100
Eligibility
Requirements appear met
Not yet decided
Riverstone Concrete
52 miles
Service fit
Good fit
68 of 100
Eligibility
Some requirements confirmed
Not yet decided
Brightpath Traffic Systems
71 miles
Service fit
Possible fit
52 of 100
Eligibility
Some requirements confirmed
Not yet decided
What outreach produced
A step shows a number only when something recorded it.
- Ready to send9
- Sent9
- Delivered9
- Opened the messageNot measured
- Viewed the opportunity6
- Created an account3
- Started a bid3
- Submitted a bid2
Not measured. Nothing in this agency has ever recorded this step, so calling it zero would claim more than the data supports.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Records and export
Export the record in open formats. Sealed bids stay out until opened.
A public records packet goes with every published solicitation. Anyone can download contracts, spending and vendors as CSV, and staff can export the organization's records in the Open Contracting Data Standard. The packet and the export each list what they leave out.
The Open Contracting Data Standard is an open, published format for public procurement records. AwardBeam writes version 1.1.
FAC-26-104-records.zip
- README.txt
- manifest.json
- solicitation.json
- addenda.json
- requirements.json
- response-form.json
- pricing.json
- documents.csv
- questions.json
- award.json
- contracts.json
- change-orders.json
- tabulation.csv(present after the opening)
- opening.json(present after the opening)
tabulation.csv The bid tabulation is included because the bids have been opened under the portal rules, or the award has been published.
Left out, and why
- Estimates and internal notes. Government estimates stored on the solicitation, award internal notes, and evaluator notes are not in this packet.
- Who asked each question. Asking companies are not named on questions. That identity is withheld on the portal and in this packet.
- The document files. Document files themselves are not copied into the zip. documents.csv lists each file.
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Each published solicitation has a public records packet.
Staff export the organization's records as an Open Contracting Data Standard 1.1 release package.
Sealed bid contents stay out of the packet and the export until the opening is recorded.
Who downloaded which document, and when, is logged.
Audit trail
Who did what, to which record, and when.
Every recorded action on your agency's procurements lands in one log, in the order it happened, with the values before and after. The trail is append only, so the answer you give an auditor or a protesting bidder is the one that was recorded.
The database refuses updates and deletes to the audit trail from every application account, administrators and the service key included.
Each entry records the values before and after the change.
Opening the audit log requires a staff authenticator code.
City of Westbridge
Activity / Audit log
These records cannot be edited or deleted
The audit trail is append only. The database refuses any attempt to change or remove an entry, including one made by an administrator, so what you read here is what was recorded.
Newest first. Choose an entry.
Change Order #2 recorded on C-26-0041 ($42,500)
Change order C-26-0041 · Diane Foster · Sep 24, 4:05 PM ET
Additional asbestos abatement
| Field | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Current value | $3,905,000 | $3,947,500 |
| Executed changes | 1 | 2 |
Demonstration data. The City of Westbridge is a fictional municipality.
Next step
See a full procurement cycle in 30 minutes.
We walk your team through a request, a sealed bid opening, an evaluation and a published award, using the demonstration City of Westbridge.
If your agency has an open solicitation that includes AwardBeam, please send questions through your procurement officer.