Bid Program Training

Custom Dashboard Tabs

You are able to save filtered bid lists to your dashboard, allowing you to quickly switch between commonly viewed lists. For example, you can create a tab for your Hot Lists, or a tab for orders that have been returned to you. This document will walk you through the process of creating, editing, and deleting your own custom tabs.

Creating a New Tab

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Image 1. View of the New Tab section on the dashboard.

To create a new custom tab, first, click on the tab title "New Tab" on the dashboard page. On this tab, you will set the desired filters, give the tab a name, and save it to your profile. If the provided name matches an existing tab, it will be replaced with the newly created one. The following are explanations for each of the items number in Image 1:

  1. New Tab Name
    • Provide the name of your new tab here. This field is required to save a new tab and has a max length of 25 characters.
  2. Table Type
    • Dealer admins can switch between their own orders or their dealership orders. For normal users, this defaults to show only the user's orders.
  3. Filter Keywords
    • These keywords will filter the list of bids. For example, putting the name of one of your designers / technicians will filter the list to only show their orders.
  4. Date Range
    • Use the date range to set how many days, weeks, or months back from today you want the table to include.
  5. Date Type Dropdown
    • Use this dropdown to change the units of the date range (None, Days, Weeks, or Months). The None option will remove any date range filtering from the table.
  6. Filters
    • Clicking this button with dropdown a list of filters that can be applied to the current table (see Image 2). However this filters are set is what will be saved to your new tab.
  7. Save Tab
    • Once you have provided a name and set the filters to your liking, press this button to add it to your list of tabs. New tabs are placed between the "Your Orders" and "Dealership's Order" tab if you are a dealer admin, or after the "Your Orders" tab for regular users. Custom tabs will show up a different color than the default tabs (see #9 in Image 1).
  8. New Tab
    • Click the New Tab tab to create your own custom tabs.
  9. Location of Custom Tabs
  10. Filter By
    • Use this to set what property the date range will look at when filtering. Options are: Last Modified Date, Submitted Date, Approved Date, Shipping Date.

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Image 2. Available filters for the current bid list.

The Bid List Filters are split into two categories, Order Type, and Order Status. The following will provide a brief description of what each filter does:

Order Type
  1. Orders
    • Shows any orders with the Order Type set to Normal.
  2. Hot Lists
    • Shows any orders with the Order Type set to Hotlist.
  3. Samples
    • Shows any orders with the Order Type set to Samples.
Order Status
  1. Bids
    • Shows any orders that have not been submitted, returned, completed, deleted, or archived (any active orders).
  2.  Submitted
    • Shows any orders that have been submitted, but are not yet completed. 
  3. Returned
    • Shows any orders that have been submitted and have been returned to you either with questions, or to be final approved.
  4. Completed
    • Shows any orders that have been final approved.
  5. Deleted
    • Shows any orders that have been deleted, but not permanently deleted.
  6. Archived
    • Shows any orders that have been archived.

The Clear Filters button with turn off any of the currently selected filters. The Apply Filters button will reload the current table with the selected Filters. Filters are stored locally on your computer, so tables should remember the last filters you applied to them.

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Image 3. Example of a custom tab that shows only Hot Lists that are returned to me.

Editing Custom Tabs

Once a custom tab has been created, it will always default to the filters you set when creating it. To change this, set new filters and using the Filters button and press Apply Filters. That will overwrite the filters saved to this tab. Another way to update tabs is to create a new tab with the same tab name, the new tab will overwrite the original tab with the same name.

Deleting Custom Tabs

To delete a custom tab, press the Delete Tab button that shows up on the Bid List Filters dropdown (see Image 4). This button only shows up on custom tabs, not the preset ones.

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Image 4. Use this Delete Tab button to delete unwanted custom tabs.

Changing Tab Order

Use the Tab Order field on the filters menu (see Image 4) to change where the tab sits amongst all tabs. If there are two tabs with the same Tab Order, they will be sorted alphabetically. Decimal values can be used to fine tune positioning between built-in tabs.

Move / Copy Items

Items can be moved or copied from one bid to another using the "Move / Copy Items" function. The purpose of this article is to explain how to move / copy items, create a new bid from items, or copy a room to an existing bid.

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Image 1. Location of Move / Copy Items function in product action menu.

Move / Copy Items to Existing Bid


Select Items

Once Move / Copy Items is clicked in the product action menu, the popup shown below in Image 2 will appear and prompt you to select which items to move / copy, which bid to move / copy them to, and which room inside that bid. Each one of these three actions will take place on the three different tabs labeled: Select Items, Select Bid, and Select Room. On the first tab, you can also toggle where you want to copy the items or move the items by clicking the Copy Items checkbox (it defaults to copy the items). Also on the first tab, you can specify if you would like to create a new bid by clicking the Create New Bid checkbox, this is discussed in another section of this article.

On the Select Items tab, click on each item you would like to move / copy from the list, or use the Select All / Select None buttons. Once you are clear to move on to the second tab, the icon on the Select Items tab will change to a checkmark.

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Image 2. Select Items tab to move / copy items.

Select Bid

The second tab is a list of your own bids, this list excludes all fully approved, deleted, and archived bids. If you are a dealership admin, flipping the Dealership Bids switch will show you all bids owned by anyone within your dealership. Once a bid has been selected the tab icon will change to a checkmark and the room will be loaded on the Select Room tab.

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Image 3. Select Bid tab with bid 16355 selected.

Select Room

On this final tab, you will select which room should receive the items chosen on the first tab. If you would like to create a new room with the selected items, click the Create New Room checkbox and provide a name for the new room in the field that appears. If a new room is created, it will have the same Room Specs as the room the selected items are being moved from.

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Image 4. Select Room tab with room "New Room Move" selected.

Product Line Issues

If there are any Product Line issues found when moving / copying items, a popup will appear to display which items / modifications aren't allowed in the product line of the selected room. Clicking the button in the bottom right corner will procced with moving / copying any products without issues.

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Image 5. List of two Product Line issues found when copying items.

Create New Bid / Hotlist from Items


When the Create New Bid checkbox is clicked, there will be two additional fields that appear, one for the New Bid Name and a checkbox to make the new bid a Hotlist. Once the Create Hotlist or Create Bid button is pressed, a new bid will be created and all the selected items will be copied to a new room inside the new bid. When using this feature, the items will always be copied.

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Image 6. Additional info required when creating a new bid.

Status Icons

Status Icons are used in the Bid Program to quickly convey the status of a bid, room, or product without the need to open any additional pages. The purpose of this article is to explain the different status icons and their meanings.

Bid
Room
Product

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Image 1. Bid, Room, and Product Status Icons.

Bid

The status bar around the bid status icon represents the combined number of approved products and rooms out of the total number of products and rooms.

image-1653078627285.pngThe bid has not yet been submitted. This same icon is used for unsubmitted rooms and products.

image-1653078683145.pngThe bid has been submitted and there are changes pending approval. or requested.

image-1653078724463.pngThe bid has been submitted and is currently locked and under review by a project manager.

image-1653078751141.pngThe bid has been returned to you with questions.

image-1653078778484.pngThe bid is ready for your final approval.

image-1653078810235.pngThe bid is fully approved and ready for production / produced.

Room

The status bar around the room status icon represents the total number of items approved out of the total number of items in the room.

image-1653079194976.pngThe room is new and has not been review by a project manager.

image-1653079203909.pngThe room has been reviewed but no status has been set by a project manager.

image-1653079215247.pngChanges or clarification has been requested, check the room revision notes for details.

image-1653079233345.pngThe room specs are approved, but there are unapproved items in the room.

image-1653079243390.pngThe room specs and all the items are fully approved.

Product

image-1653079429957.pngThe product is new and has not been reviewed by a project manager.

image-1653079440528.pngThe bid has been reviewed but no status has been set by a project manager.

image-1653079446289.pngThere are changes or clarification requested, check the product revision notes for details.

image-1653079451632.pngThe product is fully approved.


Status Menus

Clicking on any of the status icons will open a status menu giving you access to the row color, unapproved items, and revision notes. On unsubmitted orders, only the row color will be visible. These menus are to serve as a quick snapshot of what else needs to be approved or answered in the bid, room, or product. Below are snap shots of how each of these menus may look.

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Image 2. Bid status menu.

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Image 3. Room status menu.

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Image 4. Product status menu.


Database Admin

Database Admin

Introduction to the Database Admin

The database admin servers as an interface for select individuals to edit the Bid Program's database. You can use the database admin to easily interface with this database and perform common tasks such as add new products, edit door styles, update material prices, and much more. This training document will cover how to access the database admin and how to navigate it.

Accessing the Database Admin

Users who have been given given the permission of Database Administrator will be able to access the database admin by clicking on Admin > Database Admin in the navigation menu from any page on the site (see Media 1 below). Users without database admin access will not see the admin dropdown in the navigation menu.

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Media 1. Accessing the database admin from the navigation menu.

Database Admin

Item List Options

From this any item list, you can use the action buttons in the top right corner to change the order of the items (this changes the order they are show on the site), import changes / new products from various file types, export all products to various file types, or add a new product.

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Image 1. Item list action buttons.

Database Admin

Save Options

When editing an item, there are up to 5 save options to choose from, this article will explain in detail what each option does.

Save, create revision

The "Save, create revision" save option will save your current changes to the database and it will also create a cached version of this object for pricing purposes. See the pricing document for additional information. For example, if you want to change a product's base price from $100 to $150 use this button to change the base price for any future bid.

Save, go to next

The "Save, go to next" save option will save your current changes to the database and go to the next item in the list to edit. This is useful if you are manually going through each item and making changes.

Save and continue editing

The "Save and continue editing" save option will save your current changes to the database and reload the item editor for the same item with your saved changes.

Save as new

The "Save as new" save option will NOT save your current changes to the database, it will create a new item based off the current item. If you have unsaved changes when clicking the Save as new option, those unsaved changes will be saved to the new item but not the original item.

Save and add another

The "Save and add another" save option will save your current changes to the database and open a new blank item editor to create another item.

Save

The "Save" save option will save your current changes to the database and returns to the list of items.

Database Admin

Creating a Dealership

Adding a new dealership is done through the "Database Admin" in the Dealer Accounts -> Dealer

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Fields

Acronym: A short reference to the dealership that is used in various places. For example Brad's Cabinet Co could have an acronym of BCC. 

Markup Percent: An additional amount to adjust this dealership's cost. 

Hotlist markup percent: The upcharge you want to charge for hot (expedited) orders. 

 

Now that you have added a new dealership clients should be able to create accounts associated with the new dealership, an administrator will need to approve each account. 

Creating / Editing Database Items

Creating / Editing Database Items

Distressing Option

Getting to the Distressing Option List

Navigate to the list of distressing options by clicking Bidding > Distressing Options on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any distressing option in this list will allow you to edit that distressing option.

Distressing Option Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Option

Getting to the Door Option List

Navigate to the list of door options by clicking Bidding > Door Options on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any door option in this list will allow you to edit that door option.

Door Option Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Profiles - Applied

Getting to the Applied Molding List

Navigate to the list of applied profiles by clicking Bidding > Door Profiles - Applied on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any applied molding in this list will allow you to edit that applied molding.

Applied Molding Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Profiles - Inside

Getting to the Inside Profile List

Navigate to the list of inside profiles by clicking Bidding > Door Profiles - Inside on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any inside profile in this list will allow you to edit that inside profile.

Inside Profile Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Profiles - Outside

Getting to the Outside Profile List

Navigate to the list of outside profiles by clicking Bidding > Door Profiles - Outside on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any outside profile in this list will allow you to edit that outside profile.

Outside Profile Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Profiles - Panel

Getting to the Panel Profile List

Navigate to the list of panel profiles by clicking Bidding > Door Profiles - Panel on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any panel profile in this list will allow you to edit that panel profile.

Panel Profile Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Door Styles

Getting to the Door Style List

Navigate to the list of door styles by clicking Bidding > Door Styles on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any door style in this list will allow you to edit that door style.

Door Style Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Drawer Box Type

Getting to the Drawer Box List

Navigate to the list of drawer boxes by clicking Bidding > Drawer Box Types on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any drawer box in this list will allow you to edit that drawer box.

Drawer Box Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Drawer Front Styles

Getting to the Drawer Front Style List

Navigate to the list of drawer front styles by clicking Bidding > Drawer Front Styles on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any drawer front style in this list will allow you to edit that drawer front style.

Drawer Front Style Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Finish Option

Getting to the Finish Option List

Navigate to the list of finish options by clicking Bidding > Finish Options on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any finish option in this list will allow you to edit that finish option.

Finish Option Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Material - Exterior

Getting to the Exterior Material List

Navigate to the list of exterior materials by clicking Bidding > Material - Exteriors on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any exterior material in this list will allow you to edit that exterior material.

Exterior Material Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Material - Interior

Getting to the Interior Material List

Navigate to the list of interior materials by clicking Bidding > Material - Interiors on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any interior material in this list will allow you to edit that interior material.

Interior Material Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Material Sheet

Getting to the Material Sheet List

Navigate to the list of material sheets by clicking Bidding > Material Sheets on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any material sheet in this list will allow you to edit that material sheet.

Material Sheet Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Modifications

Getting to the Modification List

Navigate to the list of modifications by clicking Bidding > Modifications on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any modification in this list will allow you to edit that modification.

Modification Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Products

Getting to the Product List

Navigate to the list of products by clicking Bidding > Products on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any product in this list will allow you to edit that product.

Product Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Reveal Option

Getting to the Reveal Option List

Navigate to the list of reveal options by clicking Bidding > Reveal Options on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any reveal option in this list will allow you to edit that reveal option.

Reveal Option Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Size Restrictions

Getting to the Size Restriction List

Navigate to the list of size restrictions by clicking Bidding > Size Restrictions on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any size restriction in this list will allow you to edit that size restriction.

Size Restriction Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Creating / Editing Database Items

Users

Getting to the User List

Navigate to the list of users by clicking Authentication and Authorization > Users on the database admin dashboard. Clicking on the name of any user in this list will allow you to edit that user

User Editor

This section will explain what each field means.

Pricing

Pricing

How Does Pricing Work?

Pricing is a tiered system:

Pricing Breakdown

A product's pricing breakdown (see Image 1) can be viewed by clicking on the product price wherever it is visible (on product lists or the product editor). The pricing breakdown shows a breakdown of all the pricing that goes into the final price of the product, any green line items can be clicked to see a popup of the pricing formula and it's variables (see Image 2). If there are any errors in the pricing formula or any of it's variables, it will be outlined in red and will tell you the error in the formula breakdown.

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Image 1. Pricing breakdown of Base 3 Drawer product.

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Image 2. Formula Breakdown of Drawer Front Option Sum formula.

While in edit mode, all pricing formulas will be shown, even those that are $0.00. By clicking the edit icon on the right end of the line item, the pricing formula editor will open for this pricing formula in a new tab (see Image 3).

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Image 3. Pricing breakdown in edit mode.

Pricing

Pricing Formulas

Pricing formulas are written in JavaScript in the pricing formula editor. A single formula can be shared by any number of products / modifications, for example, the Base Price formula is shared by basically every product on the site. A single product / modification can have any number of formulas linked to it.

Each formula has a Start Date and Expiration Date which are used to determine if this formula should be used when calculating a product price. For example, the Door Option Sum formula has a start date of 11/9/2022 and no expiration date, this means that a bid with a pricing date after 11/9/2022 will use this formula (see Image 4).

If no start date is set on a formula, all bids, regardless of the pricing date, will use the formula. If a bid's pricing date is old enough that no formulas apply, the built-in formulas will be used as a fallback.

Expiring a Price Formula

The expiration date is used to disable a pricing formula after a certain pricing date. As an example, the Door Panels V2 formula has a start date of 11/9/2022 and an expiration date of 12/6/2022, this means that this formula is only used by bids with a pricing date between those two dates. Any bids with a pricing date after 12/6/2022 will not use this formula. This feature is used to expire old pricing formulas and introduce new formulas.

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Image 4. Door Panels V2, expired formula example.

There are three ways to link price formulas to a product / modification:

GlobalFormulas.gif

Image 5. Add / remove formulas via global formula actions.

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Image 6. Add / remove formulas via global formula multi-select.

Pricing

Pricing Versions

In order to ensure accurate pricing on orders as pricing factors change, we keep a record of all pricing factors (materials, door styles, product base prices, etc.) when they are changed. These records are called Versions and can be viewed in the database admin by clicking on the History button from within the item editor (see Image 7). A Version is basically a snapshot of the database entry when it is saved so we can keep track of what changes and when.

All bids are assigned a Pricing Date when they are created which determines which Version should be used. For example, a bid with a pricing date of August 22th, 2023 would use the Version from Nov. 10, 2022, 12:01 a.m. in the image below because it is the first Version before the pricing date. If a bid were created today, it would use the Version from Aug. 25, 2023, 12:02 p.m. because it is the most recent Version before the pricing date. This essentially allows us to lock in pricing for dealers on bids even though prices change quite frequently.

By clicking on the Date/Time of a Version you can edit any of the cached values of that Version or you can revert the current database entry to the cached Version.

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Image 7. Version history for Oak, White, Rustic Plain Sliced.

Pricing

Pricing Date

A bid's pricing date can be checked or changed by clicking on the bid price from any page. You can select a new date for the pricing date, this will update all pricing for the bid (see Image 8).

PricingDate.gif

Image 8. Accessing the bid pricing date.

Examples

Examples

Add Modification

In this article, we will go through how to add a modification and make sure it is available where you want it.

Adding the Modification

From the modification list in the database admin, click the "Add Modification" button. Fill out all the needed information on each tab in the modification editor.

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Image 1. The modification editor for a new modification.

Assigning Availability

Navigate to the Availability tab, this is where you will assign which product lines and products this modification is available in.

Product Line

Assign which product line(s) this modification is available in.

Product Categories

Assign which product categories this modification should be available in. This modification's availability will be passed down through the categories down to the products. For example, if you choose the Cabinet category, it will apply to all of the sub categories (cabinet -> base, cabinet -> base -> door/open, cabinet -> wall -> corner, etc.)

Products

If you need to assign the modification directly to a product and not all the other products in the category, you can choose the products from this list.

Examples

Change Price

When changing an item's price you will want to use the "Save, create revision" button to set a date for the price change and create a version.

Product Price Change with Version

After changing the price, click the "Save, create revision" button. This will save the new price to the database item and will also create a version with the current date and time. This will make it so any bid created after the current time would use the new pricing and anything older than that would use the previous pricing version.

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Image 1. Location of "Save, create revision" button.

Examples

Pricing Version

This article will go over a all of the functions that you can perform to a item version.

Getting to the Pricing Versions

Click the History button from any of the item editor pages in the database admin that supports versions.

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Image 1. Location of the item history button.

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Image 2. Version history and change log.

Edit Version

To edit an existing version, clicking on the Date / Time of the version will open the version editor.

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Image 3. Product version editor.

Save Changes to Version

The "Save changes to version" button will save the current version but will not impact the current database item. A possible reason you would want to update a version is if the pricing was saved at the wrong value and now needs to be updated.

Restore

The "Restore" button will take the current version values and save them back to the database item.

Change Date

Using the Change Date dropdown date picker, you can assign a new date to any version. This is useful if you are trying to backdate / postdate a pricing change to a specific date.

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Image 4. Version with an updated Date / Time.

Delete

Using the "Delete Version" button will completely delete the version. This cannot be undone. This should only be done when you are sure that the version isn't needed.

 

Examples

Save as New

When adding a new product, it isn't always necessary to start over from scratch. If there is an existing item that is fairly similar to what you are wanting to add, you can use the "Save as new" feature to create a new product from an existing product.

1. Select the Base Product

First, select which product you want to base the new product off of.

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Image 1. Solid Stock Thick will be used as the base product.

2. Make Desired Changes

Next, you will want to make any changes to the base product that you want reflected in the new product. For example, we will rename the Solid Stock Thick product and give it a new base price. After you have made changes, do not click the save button.

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Image 2. Changes made to base product that we want reflected on the new product.

3. Save as New

Once the changes are made, use the "Save as new" button. This will create a new product with the changes you have made and will leave the original product unchanged. A new Version will be created for the newly added product, so it is important that if any pricing information was not changed before clicking "Save as new" it should be updated in the Version (see Pricing Version article) as well.

 


 

Heads Up: When you do a "Save As" some of the related objects such as Product Line, Modifications and other multi choice fields will not be populated. You will need to set these manually if they don't stick.  

GUIDE: New Product with Attributes

This chapter will guide you through the steps of creating a new item with some customized attributes 

GUIDE: New Product with Attributes

Create New Product

To create new products you will need to go through the database administration site:

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Then access the list of products by going to Bidding -> Products as explained on this page.

Go through each tab and fill in the necessary information:

Main

Name: The new product name
Cabinet Type: AKA Category, please select the category you want this product to belong to

Width, Height, Depth

This section contains the default width, height and depth of the product and allow you to set the following: 

Allow Zero: If the is checked then we will allow values of 0 for width, height or depth. Normally this is not allowed. 
Lock Width/Height/Depth: If any of these are checked then the field will be set to the default value and will not be changeable.