Award a contract
Choose the winning bid, set an expected completion date, confirm the award, split an award across suppliers when one winner is not the right answer, and withdraw correctly if you must reverse course.
What you'll learn
- Award a contract from the Bids or AI Scoring tab
- Split an award across suppliers by BoQ line when one winner is not the answer
- Know what happens to other bids and to the request after the award
- Use Withdraw Award correctly when the supplier cannot proceed
The award is the point where evaluation ends and the relationship begins. A well-structured award on VEXORS does three things: it notifies the winning supplier, it closes the request to further bids, and it creates a permanent record of the decision that your team can refer to without digging through emails.
The decision itself happens in your evaluation, your scoring, your judgement. The platform records and communicates it.
Why this matters
Awarding from the platform rather than by email means the supplier receives a formal, traceable notification tied to the exact bid they submitted. Your team sees the same record: who won, who confirmed it, and when. If you ever need to revisit the decision, the Award Details card and the AI Scoring run you awarded from are still there, no reconstruction required.
Before you award
- You should have reviewed bids from the Bids tab and, ideally, run AI Scoring (available once the request is closed).
- If bidding is still open, awarding closes the request to further bids from other suppliers.
- Confirming an award marks all other bids as rejected, and the dialog says so plainly: the action cannot be undone from that dialog. Be sure before you confirm.
- Read the Before you award checks on the AI Scoring tab first: unpriced scope, declined sections, terms exceptions or own terms, unusual rates, an older amendment, or a bid updated after the run. See Review bids and AI Scoring.
- Check the bid's price validity on the Bids tab. If it reads Expired, the award dialog will tell you the bidder is no longer bound by those prices and to confirm them with the bidder first. You can still proceed.
The single-winner award flow
Find the bid and select Award Contract
Go to the Bids tab on your request. Find the bid you want to award and select the trophy on that row (the row hint reads "Shortlist marks a bid for evaluation; the trophy awards the contract; the cross rejects the bid").
The Award Contract dialog also opens from the AI Scoring tab's recommendation. A bid's own page has an Award contract button too, with a shorter confirmation (Award contract to (supplier)?, or Award before deadline? while bidding is still open); that path does not ask for an expected completion date, so if you use it, set the date afterwards from the Award Details card.
Set an expected completion date
The Award Contract dialog opens with "You are about to award this contract to:" the supplier, their Trust Score (or, for a new supplier, their profile score and "New to Vexors"), and one input:
- Expected completion date (optional): a target date for fulfilment, at least 2 days from today and at most 5 years out. Setting it now anchors the rating cycle: it gives both parties visibility on when performance ratings unlock, and you can edit or clear it later from the Award Details card until the award is marked completed.
If the bid's prices have expired, the dialog says so: "This bid's prices expired on (date). The bidder is no longer bound by them. Confirm the prices with the bidder before awarding. You can still proceed." It also states what happens to the other bids: all of them will be marked as rejected, and the action cannot be undone from here. If part of you is still deciding, close the dialog and finish deciding first.
Confirm the award
Select Award Contract. The award is confirmed immediately: the winning supplier receives a notification that their bid has been awarded, and every other submitted bid is marked rejected.
The request status changes to Awarded.
The supplier is notified the moment the award is confirmed. Be confident in your decision before you confirm, because the notification is immediate and cannot be recalled.
Splitting an award across suppliers
Scale One winner is not always the right answer. When different suppliers are strongest on different parts of your Bill of Quantities, use Split award across suppliers from the Bids tab toolbar instead of forcing a single choice. While a split allocation is in progress, the single-winner trophy is disabled until you finish or discard it.
The split-award page lets you allocate BoQ lines to different suppliers' bids, line by whole line. As you allocate, you see each supplier's share build up. Finalize split award opens a confirmation that says how many suppliers will be awarded, that awards are issued immediately and losing bids are rejected on finalize, how many other bids will be rejected, whether any lines will stay unawarded (Some lines will stay unawarded), and whether any winning bid has expired prices ("Confirm with the bidder before finalizing"). Finalizing awards every allocated supplier at once, atomically: either the whole split succeeds or nothing changes. Afterwards the request shows Partially Awarded with one award card per winning supplier ("Awarded to 3 suppliers · 96 of 118 lines · AED 412,000"), each with Lines awarded and View the N lines awarded here; each supplier sees only their own award, and on their bid the lines read Awarded to you or Not part of your award.
Two rules to know:
- A section a supplier priced as one lump sum is locked to one winner: the lump price exists only for the whole section, so its lines cannot be split between suppliers.
- The single-winner flow above stays exactly as it is. Splitting is an additional path, not a replacement.
Split awards shine on multi-category requests where forcing one winner means overpaying on half the lines. If you find yourself splitting the same way repeatedly, consider whether the scope should have been separate requests, or, for construction, trade packages.
The Award Details card
After the award, an Award Details card appears on the request overview (one card per supplier on a split award), and the request becomes read-only ("Read-only. Request awarded"). Manage award in the page's actions menu jumps to it from any tab. The card records:
- Which supplier won and which bid they submitted, with a link to the awarded bid and the Awarded Amount.
- Awarded on: when the award was confirmed.
- Expected completion: the date, with Set or Edit. The Expected completion date dialog lets you set or clear it ("Must be at least 2 days after the award date and within 5 years. Clearing the date removes the cap on the performance rating window") until the award is marked completed.
- Mark as Completed: the action that ends the contract on the platform. It locks the expected completion date and unlocks the performance-stage rating for both sides ("Mark the contract complete to unlock the performance rating, not the expected completion date"). The card then shows the status Completed and Completed on. Completion cannot be reversed from the web app.
- Withdraw Award: see below. It is hidden once the award is completed.
This card is the permanent record of the award decision. Your team can see it any time without needing to reconstruct the evaluation from emails or spreadsheets.
What happens to other bids
When you confirm an award:
- All other submitted bids are marked rejected and remain visible in the Bids tab for reference.
- Suppliers who did not win can see their own bid's status; the AI Bid Insights they can run on their side never reveals your internal evaluation or the winner's identity.
- You can still view and export the non-awarded bids at any time.
Withdrawing an award
If you need to reverse the award, because the supplier cannot proceed, a contract term cannot be agreed, or circumstances have changed, use Withdraw Award on the Award Details card. The dialog is explicit: "This action cannot be undone. The award will be withdrawn, the request will revert to Evaluating status, and the winning supplier will be notified."
You must give a Reason for withdrawing of at least 10 characters. It is recorded and visible to your team. The request returns to Evaluating, the award card shows Withdrawn, and you can select a different bid to award. An award that has been marked completed cannot be withdrawn.
Withdraw the existing award before making alternative arrangements. A bid cannot be awarded while another award on the same scope stands.
How it connects to the rest of the journey
Awarding a contract is not the end. The award opens the rating cycle: the process-stage rating is available right away, and once you Mark as Completed, the performance rating opens for both sides. Those ratings feed the Trust Score network and help future buyers make better decisions. On a construction project, awarding a package is also what commits its pricing onto the master BoQ; see Split into trade packages.
Next steps
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