Bid invitation
A general contractor or an owner offers a package. She records the project, the package, the drawing revision index and the closing date, and passes it to the estimator for the bid or no-bid decision.
Commercial construction
A bid invitation arrives with the project, trade package, drawing revision and closing date. Your receptionist also records addenda and subcontractor questions so your estimator can find the context before responding, with the decision to bid remaining with your team.
$39 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
The package, revision and deadline together
The estimator opens a complete record as he leaves his meeting: revision and addenda noted, deadline known, contact with a number. The bid decision gets made the same day, not the night before closing.
Read the full conversation
Tuesday, 4:55 p.m. The estimator is in a site meeting. A general contractor calls to invite the company on an interior finishing package.
ReceptionistConstruction Grenier, good afternoon. Let me take your name, your company and a callback number first.
CallerSteve Marcoux, with a general contractor on the South Shore. We are inviting you on the finishing package for a project in Brossard.
ReceptionistThank you. On which drawing revision, and what is the closing date and time? Have any addenda been issued?
CallerRevision C, closing on the 12th at noon. Two addenda are out, the second one yesterday.
ReceptionistLogged: project, finishing package, revision C, closing on the 12th at noon, two addenda including one from yesterday. I am passing it to the estimator for the bid decision; he will come back to you with his clarification questions.
For the requests you receive
Addendum and clarification
An addendum issued, a scope question, an interface between two packages. She logs the addendum received and its number and attaches it to the file — answering on obsolete drawings is the documented risk of this trade.
A subcontractor pricing a package
A subcontractor calls about a distributed package, a clarification, an availability. She records the request and routes it to the estimator who owns that package, rather than letting the message go astray.
Other requests you can delegate
A live job site
A follow-up, a financial approval, a question from project control, or active damage on a site. Damage follows your urgency rule; everything else goes to the project manager with the right file number.
What happens to the request
You describe your packages and your people
The kinds of project you take, the packages you bid, who is an estimator, who is a project manager, who receives administration, and what deserves an alert. All of it changes from the app.
She logs the file, not just the message
Name, company and callback number first. Then the project and the owner, the package, the drawing revision index, the addenda already received, the closing date, and the exclusions the caller raises.
The bid decision gets made in time
The estimator receives a readable invitation record: project, package, revision, deadline. A tight closing triggers an alert under your rule. Nothing goes out unsigned: submitting a bid stays a human decision.
What the Trades and maintenance base covers
A receptionist who answers for you, in both languages, and sends you a written request. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Calls answered in French and in English, following the caller
- Name and callback number taken first, so nothing is lost if the line drops
- The work asked for, the place and the wanted timing, written into your request
- An immediate alert when the situation matches your urgency rule
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app, and the option to ask her what happened
She submits no bid and commits to no price: signature and commitment stay human.
Decisions that stay with you
- She does not confirm that a project is eligible or that you will bid: the bid decision is yours.
- She commits to no completion schedule over the phone.
- She confirms neither structural feasibility, nor permits, nor zoning.
- She negotiates no contractual warranty and no payment terms.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
Which tender enquiries have a stated closing date this week?
She retrieves the trade package, cited revision and stated time. She does not certify the latest drawing version.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added on purpose, separately from the base. None is switched on unless you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Your email inbox
Attach tender emails to the project; version comparison and pricing remain within the document and estimating permissions.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Selection, allowance and change-order workflows are documented in the product; they do not establish third-party interface access.
A generic category: it needs a named product and an identified owner. A public portal existing proves no integrator access.
These are not customers calling, they are files
In commercial construction the line is not there to sell. It is there to receive bid invitations, subcontractor questions about a package, last-minute addenda, requests for clarification, supplier calls and job-site follow-ups. Behind every call there is a file, a closing date and a drawing revision index.
Your receptionist writes down what an estimator looks for first: which project, who the owner or general contractor is, which package, which drawing revision, and when it closes. She does not decide whether you bid; she makes sure the decision gets made on complete information, and not the night before.
She also separates the three families of calls — new project, live job-site follow-up, supplier or subcontractor — so that the project manager and the estimator are not sharing one generic queue.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Trades & maintenanceCommercial construction — your questions
How does she keep us from pricing outdated drawings?
By asking for the revision index and the addenda on the first call, and attaching them to the file. That is the risk this trade documents by name: answering with obsolete drawings or incomplete packages.
We waste time on tenders that do not suit us.
She captures early enough what it takes to decide — owner, package, size, deadline — so the bid or no-bid call gets made quickly. That is the second documented loss in this trade, and it plays out in the first few minutes.
Can she submit a bid?
No, and the trade profile rules it out explicitly: no irreversible bid submission without dedicated authorisation. Signature, price commitment and contractual warranties stay human. She prepares the file; you decide.
Subcontractors call as often as clients.
And they should not land in the same queue. She recognises a subcontractor or supplier call, takes the message and routes it to the package estimator or to administration, depending on what you configured.
Does she answer in English?
Yes, following the caller. In commercial work, owners and subcontractors do not all speak the same language; she switches between the two without you running two lines.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberCommercial construction