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Use your first package to prove the operating model, not every edge case. Pick one live tender with a small evaluator group, real contractor documents, and a procurement manager who can make decisions quickly. In TruBuild, a project represents the program or development, and a package represents one tender being procured within it (for example HVAC, facade, or enabling works). A package is the unit you evaluate and award, so almost everything that matters for evaluation lives at package level:

Before you start

  • Only organization Owners and Admins can create projects. Other users see “You do not have permission to create projects.”
  • To create a package, you need full access on the project: Project Lead, or an organization Owner or Admin. Commercial and Technical Leads see “You need full access to this project to create a package here.”
  • The Commercial, Technical, and Queries areas and AI chat appear only if the module is enabled for your organization. If a section you expect is missing, check which modules are enabled before debugging roles.
Have three things agreed before you open the app: the technical/commercial weight split from your tender strategy or evaluation plan, the tender currency, and the exact legal names of the invited bidders.

1. Create the project

Project creation is a short guided stepper: name, country, confirm.
1

Open the create page

In the sidebar, go to All Projects and click Create Project.
2

Name the project

Enter the name in the Enter project name field. Use the real program or development name: this is the name your team, and later your award committee, will recognize in exports and audit records.
3

Set the project country

Choose the country from the dropdown. It defaults to your organization’s country and drives the default currency offered when you create packages, so set it correctly now.
4

Confirm

Click Create Project. TruBuild opens the new project page, where you can add packages.

2. Create the package

Package creation has two steps: package details, then bidders.

Step 1: package details

1

Add a package

From the project page, click Add Package and enter the package name. Match the name used in your tender strategy and award pack, for example “Package 04 - HVAC”.
2

Set the currency

The currency defaults from the project country. If bidders will price in a different currency, set the package currency to the tender currency now rather than converting later: bid leveling compares like for like only when every submission is priced in the package currency.
3

Set the technical weight

Drag the technical weight slider (it moves in 5% steps). The commercial weight fills in automatically as the remainder, and the preview shows the split. Set the split your evaluation committee approved before bids are opened: changing weights after prices are known undermines the audit trail and invites challenge from bidders.
Typical splits: 30/70 technical/commercial for well-defined trade packages priced against a firm BOQ, 40/60 or higher where methodology, program, or design input carries real delivery risk. Whatever you choose, it should trace back to a documented evaluation plan, not to this screen.

Step 2: bidders

1

Add each tendering contractor

Use Search Existing to pull a contractor from the vendor database, or Add New to type a name and click Add. Remove a contractor with the X next to its name.
2

Create the package

Click Create Package. TruBuild opens the package page.
Add at least two bidders so comparison and bid leveling have something to compare. Add every invited bidder now, even ones you expect to decline: a complete list is your record of the tender field, and you can note non-submissions later.
Enter contractor names exactly as they appear on submissions, and reuse the same names in file names and query imports. Consistent naming is what keeps every document, score, and clarification linked to the right bidder. See Document standards.

3. Assign access

Open Members from the package or project header and assign roles before uploading anything sensitive:
  • Procurement manager: Project Lead or Package Lead
  • QS and commercial evaluators: Commercial Team
  • Discipline and technical evaluators: Technical Team
  • Owner reviewers and committee members: Package Viewer or Project Viewer
This separation keeps pricing invisible to technical scorers and vice versa, which matters for owner-led and regulated tenders. Package roles override project roles, so you can hold someone to a tighter role on a sensitive package. See Roles and permissions for the full model.

4. Choose the first workflow

Pick the workflow with the cleanest available documents. Each pilot below is a shallow first pass; the linked platform pages cover the full workflow.

Commercial-first pilot

Best when you have a clean Excel BOQ and contractor priced submissions.

Technical-first pilot

Best when the RFP criteria and contractor proposals are ready.

Queries-first pilot

Best when bidder questions are already arriving and the team needs control.

Chat-first pilot

Best when the team wants fast, grounded answers over package context.
Uploaded files show Pending while TruBuild processes them, then Ingested when ready. Wait for Ingested before running a comparison, scoring round, or chat session. A Failed status shows the reason so you can fix and re-upload the file. See Document standards for file quality rules.

Commercial-first pilot

Use this path when the commercial team has the reference BOQ or PTE and contractor priced submissions. Full workflow: Commercial evaluation.
1

Upload the reference basis

Upload the BOQ, PTE, or commercial template in the Commercial area. This is the baseline every bid is leveled against, so treat it as controlled evidence.
2

Upload contractor submissions

Upload each priced submission against the correct contractor. A submission uploaded at the wrong level will be missing from the comparison.
3

Create a commercial round

Click Run New Round on the commercial page and complete the evaluation wizard. Rounds default to “Round 1”, “Round 2”, and so on; rename the round afterward to something clear such as “Round 1 - initial pricing”.
4

Run the comparison

Review totals, unpriced scope, exclusions, deviations, arithmetic checks, and high-spread areas. High spread on a line usually signals a scope-interpretation gap, not just aggressive pricing, so flag it for clarification rather than averaging it away.
5

Prepare commercial PTCs

Edit the contractor-specific clarification rows and export the comparison for review.

Technical-first pilot

Use this path when the technical team has criteria or an RFP plus contractor technical submissions. Full workflow: Technical evaluation.
1

Upload criteria or RFP

Use an existing criteria matrix where available. If not, use the RFP as the source of criteria.
2

Upload contractor proposals

Keep files linked to the correct contractor.
3

Create the first technical round

Create the round. Technical rounds are labelled automatically: the first is Initial Submission, and later PTC rounds become Round 1, Round 2, and so on. Organization admins can standardize custom round labels in Settings.
4

Run scoring

Let TruBuild prepare draft scores and justifications against each criterion.
5

Review and override

Evaluators inspect the AI draft, make judgment calls, and record changes. Treat the draft as evidence for the evaluator, never as the final score.

Queries-first pilot

Use this path when the immediate pain is managing bidder questions and response approvals. Full workflow: Tender queries.
1

Open package queries

Start from the Queries register on the package.
2

Import questions

Upload the Excel, PDF, or Word query document you received, keeping the external query numbers intact.
3

Categorize and assign

Assign each query to Technical, Commercial, Contractual, or General owners.
4

Draft and approve

Use AI drafts, RFP context, and consistency checks where useful, then send responses through your approved channel.
5

Close the loop

Mark sent and closed statuses, and capture any amendment requirement so it reaches all bidders, not just the one who asked.

Chat-first pilot

Use this path when the team wants to test AI assistance against real package context. Full workflow: AI chat.
1

Upload representative documents

Add an RFP, BOQ, technical submission, or query document and wait for Ingested status.
2

Open chat

Ask scoped questions such as “Which package risks remain open?” or “Summarize Contractor A’s commissioning approach.”
3

Verify against the source

Use chat to find and summarize evidence, then verify important claims against the source documents or the structured evaluation screens.

Fix a setup mistake

Users with full access (Project Lead, Package Lead, or an organization Owner or Admin) can edit the package from the Settings button in the package header. Owners and Admins can also edit it from Settings in the sidebar, under the Packages section. If bids have already been opened, do not change the weight split without a documented committee decision.
Archive it from Settings: projects under the Projects section, packages under the Packages section. Archived items move to a separate list and can be restored later, so no evaluation evidence is lost.
The contractor list is set during package creation. If a bidder is missing or misspelled, archive the package from Settings and recreate it with the correct contractor list, then re-upload any files against the correct contractor before running a comparison.

Pilot review

After the first package, review:

Next

Document standards

Standardize BOQs, proposals, and query imports before wider rollout.

Roles and permissions

Map your full team to the three access layers.

Evaluation governance

Turn the pilot into a repeatable control model.

Award readiness

Check whether the package evidence is committee-ready.