Construction bids sent and not followed up

Short answer: track construction bids in one SharePoint list with these columns: bid name, customer, amount, due date, sent date, status and follow up date. Add a view that shows only bids whose follow up date is today or earlier, so quiet bids come to you. Then save two more views: bids still open, and bids won or lost. This guide is about tracking. It says nothing about bidding rules or contracts. Exact names may differ on your screen.

Why sent bids go quiet

You send a bid. Then the next job starts, and the bid sits in an email folder or on a line in a spreadsheet. A few weeks later you wonder if you ever heard back.

Signs this is happening:

You search your email to find out which bids are still open.
You do not know how much money is waiting on answers.
A customer calls about a bid and you cannot find your copy fast.
You only follow up when you remember.
At the end of the year you cannot say how many bids you won.

None of this is about effort. It is about having no one place to look.

What you are building

You will build one SharePoint list named "Bids". One row is one bid. The list holds the facts you need to decide who to call today. It does not hold the bid document. Keep the document in a folder and put a link to it in the row.

If you are new to lists, see "Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list". If you also track the final job tasks, see "A punch list tracker in SharePoint for a small contractor". This guide does not repeat those steps.

Step 1. Create the list

Open Microsoft Lists at https://www.microsoft365.com/launch/lists, or pick Lists from the Microsoft 365 home page, and start a new list. Microsoft's help page on creating a list says: "Blank list: Choose to start a list from scratch." It also says: "Add a list Name, Description (optional), and select whether you want the list to appear in the left site navigation." and "When you're finished selecting options, select Create." For the name, type "Bids".

Step 2. Add the columns

Nine columns cover a bid from first draft to answer. Here is each one with a sample value from a made-up row, Bid 31.

Title (Single line of text). Rename the Title column "Job name". Sample: "Deck rebuild, Bid 31".
Customer (Single line of text). Who receives the quote. Sample: "Client 31".
Amount (Currency or Number). The full quoted price. Sample: 18400.
Bid due (Date and Time, date only). The deadline the customer gave you.
Date sent (Date and Time, date only). Fill it in at the moment you send the bid, not before.
Follow up on (Date and Time, date only). The date you plan to make the next call or write the next email.
Status (Choice): 1 Preparing, 2 Sent, 3 Won, 4 Lost, 5 No bid. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: the number in front keeps your working order when you sort; check it on your list. Any flow or note you write later must use the same numbered text.
Bid file (Hyperlink). The address of the bid document in your own folder.
Notes (Multiple lines of text). A single line on the last thing the customer said.

Step 3. Add a bid

Create the row the day you begin pricing, with Status "1 Preparing". On the day the bid goes out, switch Status to "2 Sent", type the Date sent and choose a Follow up on date. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: pick a gap that fits how fast your customers decide, such as a week for a small repair and longer for a large job.

Step 4. Build the "Follow up today" view

This is the view to open first. Its recipe is short: rule one is Status equal to 2 Sent; rule two is Follow up on less than or equal to [Today]; sort by Follow up on, oldest first. Show Job name, Customer, Amount, Date sent, Follow up on and Notes. Build it in the classic view editor, because the [Today] keyword needs it.

Microsoft's help page on filtering a view says: "It is not possible to use the [Today] or [Me] filters when filtering using a column header." It also says: "You must use the classic view editor to filter columns using these keywords." And: "The [Today] keyword works on date based columns."

Step 5. Build the "Open bids" and "Won and lost" views

"Open bids": filter Status equal to 2 Sent. Sort by Bid due. This view answers the question "what am I waiting on?"

"Won and lost": filter Status equal to 3 Won, Or Status equal to 4 Lost, grouped by Status. You will not need [Today] here, so the normal view settings are enough.

Step 6. Handle a revised bid and a passed deadline

Two facts belong only to bids. First, a customer may ask for a revised price. Overwrite Amount with the new figure and put the old figure in Notes, for example "Was 18400 on Bid 31". Second, once the date the customer set in Bid due passes without an answer, the bid is not necessarily lost. Keep Status at 2 Sent, record the call in Notes and move Follow up on forward. Mark 4 Lost only when the customer says so or you decide to stop. When the answer arrives, set Status to 3 Won or 4 Lost, and the Lost view then shows where bids are not landing.

Win rate and total value

Win rate is arithmetic on rows you already have. Open "Won and lost", count the 3 Won rows, count all rows in the view, and divide. If the view holds 10 rows and 4 are 3 Won, the win rate is 40%. The view already leaves out 2 Sent rows, so only bids with an answer count. For the dollar total, check the Totals menu on the Amount column. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule.

Step 7. Add a reminder

A scheduled Power Automate flow, built at https://make.powerautomate.com, can email you the bids whose Follow up on date has arrived. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: use a scheduled trigger, not "When an item is created or modified". The date arriving does not change the row, so a modified trigger would not run, and a flow that only reads the list on a schedule cannot start itself again. See "Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list" and "Late tasks nobody notices: setting up late alerts".

What to avoid

A Status label typed one way in the list and another way in a flow. If the list reads "2 Sent", every flow and note must read "2 Sent".
A stale Follow up on date after you have already spoken to the customer. It keeps the bid in today's view for no reason.
A bid document uploaded into the row. Store the file in a folder and link it.
Extra columns added on a whim. Nine are enough on day one; add a tenth only when you find you need it.
Expecting the list to know your bidding obligations. It stores what you enter and nothing else.

Honest limits

A list records what someone typed. It does not send the bid, it does not call the customer, and it does not tell you which bids to price lower or higher. If nobody updates Status and Follow up on, the views will be wrong.

The classic view editor is the place to set a [Today] filter, per Microsoft. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: set blank and "is not equal to" filters there too.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

What columns does a construction bid tracker template need?

Bid name, customer, amount, bid due date, date sent, status and follow up date. Add a link to the bid file and a notes line. This is our advice, not a Microsoft rule.

How do I show only the bids I need to call today?

Make a view with Status equal to 2 Sent and Follow up on less than or equal to [Today]. Microsoft says you must use the classic view editor for [Today] and [Me] filters.

Should I track bids in a spreadsheet or a SharePoint list?

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: a spreadsheet works for a short bid list you check by eye. A list suits you when you want saved views for follow up, open and won or lost bids.

When is a list enough, and when do I need bid software?

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: a list is enough when the job is knowing which bids are out, what each is worth and who to call next. If you need to send plans to subcontractors and collect their prices, that is a different kind of tool, and this guide does not cover it.

Can the list remind me to follow up?

Yes, with a Power Automate flow. See "Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list". Without a flow, the "Follow up today" view is the reminder.