Brief
When you find a tender that looks interesting, open it to find out whether you should bid. You land on the brief. It is built to help you answer one question quickly: Will you bid?
Get the overview from the key facts
The most important facts about the competition sit in one row at the top of the page:
Deadline: the submission date and how many days are left. If the question deadline has not passed yet, it is shown below. The text turns orange and then red as the deadline gets close.
Award: the criterion with the highest weight, for example "Price 60%". The other criteria are listed below it. Click Award to see all the award criteria.
Procedure: for example "Open" or "With negotiation", and whether the competition has a single stage or two stages.
Agreement: the standard contract, for example SSA-T, and the kind of purchase, for example "Framework agreement".
Estimated value: what the buyer expects the contract to be worth, and how long it runs.
If a fact is in neither the notice nor the procurement documents, it is not shown.
Read the brief and ask the agent
The brief is a short summary of the competition. Cobrief writes it from the notice and the procurement documents. The markers in the text show where each piece of information comes from. Click a marker to open the document with the passage highlighted.
In the top right corner, you see how well the tender fits you: "Strong match", "Possible match", or "Weak match". Click it to see why.
Below the brief, you can ask the agent about the tender's documents. Type your own question or pick a suggestion, for example "Is this tender a good fit for us?" or "Draft clarification questions for the buyer".
To register interest, use the "Register interest" link in the bottom right corner of the brief. It opens the competition platform in a new tab.
See the answers to your own assessment criteria
Under "Custom Assessment Criteria", Cobrief answers the questions your team has set up for assessing tenders. Yes/no questions get "Yes", "No", "Maybe", or "Unclear".
Other questions get a short answer. "Maybe" and "Unclear" are highlighted, because those are the ones to look into.
Click a question to see more. There you can also edit the criterion. If the answer is "Maybe" or "Unclear", you can ask the agent to find the answer in your knowledge base.
If you have not added any criteria yet, you can upload your bid/no-bid form or ask Cobrief to suggest criteria. To change the criteria later, click "Tailor" or open Library → Assessment criteria.
Decide
Below the criteria, the brief asks: "Will you bid?" You have three options:
No-go: You will not bid. Cobrief asks why. The comment is optional, but it helps your colleagues understand the decision later. The reason appears under "Activity".
For evaluation: You need more time or more answers before you decide.
Create bid: You will bid. Read more under "Create bid" further down.
Picked the wrong one? Click "Undo" in the message that appears. Click the selected option again to send the tender back to the inbox.
Go into detail where you need it
The details are further down. Each section can be opened and closed:
Qualification requirements: what you must meet to take part.
Award criteria: how bids are evaluated, with weights.
Previous winners: the suppliers that won similar contracts. Open a row to see the most similar contract, or click "See all contracts".
Contract terms: all the terms. Deviations from the standard contract come first, and the standard terms are grouped below.
From the notice: the assignment description, the buyer's contact person, and the codes the competition was published with.
Similar active competitions: other tenders in your inbox that are similar.
When you open a requirement or a criterion, you see where it comes from, for example "From the tender documents". If Cobrief could not find the source, it says so. In that case, check the requirement against the procurement documents yourself.
If you use Flowcase, you also see CVs and reference projects that match the requirements, right below the qualification requirements.
Navigate the tender
In the left sidebar, you will find four main sections:
Brief: key facts, summary, your own assessment criteria, requirements, criteria, and contract terms.
Competition basis: document list and preview of the files you have uploaded.
Tasks: AI-extracted tasks with status.
Bid room: bid documents and fillable templates once you have created the first draft.
The sidebar also shows the timeline with the deadlines, who is responsible, and the tender's status. You can move between the sections without losing the tender context.
Fetch or upload the procurement documents
For many public tenders, Cobrief finds the procurement documents in Artifik, Mercell, TendSign, EU-Supply, or Hyyr. When you open the tender, Cobrief fetches the available documents and starts the evaluation automatically. The brief, timeline, and tasks are filled in as the analysis progresses. You do not need to start the evaluation with a separate button.
On the free plan, you have one full brief per month, and it does not start by itself. You choose which tender to use it on by clicking “Create brief” in the brief, or by uploading the procurement documents.
If the buyer has not attached any documents, the brief shows a quiet line: "The buyer has not attached any documents." The link says "View in …", for example "View in Mercell". You can upload the files yourself with Upload files. This is common for planned procurements and results, and it is not an error.
If Cobrief cannot fetch documents that should be there, the brief shows the box "Upload the tender documents". Click "Get from …", for example "Get from Mercell", to open the platform. If you do not have a user there, you will often find "Get without logging in" just below.
Then drag the files onto the page, or click "Choose files". Cobrief starts reading the documents right away.
Cobrief interprets the procurement documents
Once the documents are available, Cobrief analyses them automatically. While this is running, you see how far Cobrief has come, for example "Analyzed 3 of 8 attachments". First, the brief is completed. Then the qualification requirements, award criteria, and contract terms are filled in. Deadlines that were not included in the notice will also appear in the timeline. The automatic brief does not use your workspace's AI capacity.
If some documents cannot be read immediately, Cobrief completes the rest of the analysis and retries those documents automatically. A short message appears in the brief.
Older Word files in .doc format are also converted. Drawings and other file types Cobrief cannot read remain in the file list without stopping the rest of the analysis.
If you already have the procurement documents, you can drag the files straight onto the brief. They are uploaded, and the interpretation starts right away.
Create bid
When you have decided to bid, click "Create bid". The button sits below "Will you bid?" in the brief and at the top of the page. It appears once the procurement documents are uploaded.
Cobrief then creates the bid. If the tender is in the inbox or the evaluation phase, it moves to the work phase in Pipeline. If it is already in a later phase, it keeps its status. If Cobrief has extracted the tasks from the documents, the agent starts on a first draft right away, and you land in the bid room. Once the bid is under way, the button says "Continue the bid".
You can also create the first draft from the bid room. Open Bid room in the sidebar and click "Create first draft".
Read through the documents
Open Competition basis in the left sidebar to see all the documents that have been uploaded. Click on a document to read it in Cobrief's preview.
Newly processed Word and PDF documents retain the original layout, including tables, images, fonts, and margins. Use the zoom controls at the top right to adjust the view. For PDFs, click "Show PDF" to open the original PDF.
Hover over the document to reveal the zoom buttons in the top right corner: "Zoom in", "Zoom out", and "Fit to width". You can also zoom with Ctrl or Cmd and the mouse wheel, or with two fingers on the trackpad. If the document is a PDF, click "Show PDF" in the bar above the document to see the original PDF, and "View the document" to go back.
Older Word and PDF documents appear in a simplified text view. The same applies to Excel files, and figures in Excel are not shown.
Tasks
You will also find pre-made highlights with tasks that Cobrief AI has extracted from the documents. These can be formal requirements you need to submit, questions you need to answer, or documents you need to fill out.
Under Tasks in the left sidebar, you will find the tasks gathered in one place. Before the bid is created, they appear as drafts. Once it exists, you can set an assignee, due date, and status. Read about task drafts and assignment.
Click on the task to see an explanation of it, and use the quote icon to see where the task was taken from in the procurement documents.
Create bid
When you have decided to bid, click "Create bid". The button sits below "Will you bid?" in the brief and at the top of the page. It appears once the procurement documents are uploaded.
Cobrief then creates the bid. If the tender is in the inbox or the evaluation phase, it moves to the work phase in Pipeline. If it is already in a later phase, it keeps its status. If Cobrief has extracted the tasks from the documents, the agent starts on a first draft right away, and you land in the bid room. Once the bid is under way, the button says "Continue the bid".
You can also create the first draft from the bid room. Open Bid room in the sidebar and click "Create first draft".
Tips
Write a short reason when you choose no-go. That way, your team can see later why you passed on the tender.
Use the questions marked "Maybe" and "Unclear" as a list of what you need to clarify before you decide.
Mention a colleague with @ under "Activity" to get them to look at the tender.
On mobile, you see two of the key facts. Click, for example, "3 more facts" to see the rest. Open the sidebar with the "Tender" button at the top.
Questions and answers
Where did "Go to bid room" go?
"Create bid" has replaced "Go to bid room". The button creates the bid and starts the first draft in one go. You can always open the bid room from the sidebar.
Where do I find the assignment description and the contact person?
Under "From the notice", at the bottom of the brief.
Why are the buttons named differently for us?
The buttons use the statuses in your workspace. If you have renamed No-go or For evaluation, you see your own name.
Why don't I see "Will you bid?"?
The question is not shown when the competition has been awarded or cancelled, or when the tender has a closing status such as Won, Lost, or Hidden. You also need access to edit tenders. The decision is not included on the free plan.
What do I see on the free plan?
You see the key facts, the brief, the requirements, the criteria, and the contract terms. The decision, "Create bid", "Activity", and "Previous winners" require a paid subscription. So do the answers to your own assessment criteria and the match.
What do people who are not logged in see?
If you send a link to a tender to someone who is not logged in to Cobrief, they see a simpler version of the page.