How to find and add bidders using “Search”

As a general contractor, you can use our Recommendation Engine to quickly find the right subcontractors to bid on your projects. 

Once you've created a bid package and have selected it, in the Bidders tab, click "Add Bidders". 



You will land on the "Search" tab where BuildingConnected’s Recommendation Engine recommends subcontractors based off certain criteria. The list of companies are labeled as “best match” and these best matches meet criteria in the following four categories: 

• Work Performed
• Service Area
• Proximity to Project
• Relationship

Work Performed, Service Area, and Proximity to Project

Companies in these best matches meet the “Work Performed” you are searching for and also are “willing to travel to” your project location based on the service area set in their profile or their past bidding history. 

Activity and Relationship

The list of best matches is not alphabetically ordered. This is because the companies listed at the top of the list are most likely to perform the trade listed in the “Work Performed” section, are likely to perform work in the project location, are active on BuildingConnected, and have interacted with your company in the past (accepted an invitation or submitted a bid to your company through BuildingConnected). 

Therefore, companies who are not as active and have not worked with your company before will appear lower in the list.

Additionally, if you use our preferred companies and contacts feature, the companies you mark as preferred will appear at the top of the list if they match the criteria you are searching for. For information about how to use this feature, please reference, “What are preferred companies? (BC Pro)” and “What are preferred contacts? (BC Pro)”

Other Filters

The other filters below “Work Performed” like “Qualification Status” and “Labor Requirements” are not automatic factors taken into consideration by the Recommendation Engine. You can choose to additionally filter your “best matches” by qualification status, location, company tag, labor requirement, and enterprise type on the left-hand side to further narrow your bidder search.

Please note that any subcontractors who have been added to your “Do Not Use” list may appear in your “best matches”. However, the “Add” or  “Invite” button will be disabled next to all individuals within that company and bidders will not be added by the slider on unpublished bid packages.

Search by office location instead

You can choose to search by office location instead of "willing to travel to". Click "Search by office location instead". 



Enter in a number of miles and the recommendation engine will search instead for companies who have an office within that radius around the project address. You can also change the address as desired. 

Notes: 

• The number will default to 30 miles upon selection. 
• The other criteria (work performed, activity, relationship, and other filters applied) are still considered in the search. 
  
• Office location is not always indicative of where a company is willing to work. 

To add a bidder

To add a bidder, select “Add” next to the contact you wish to add to your bidder list.

The contacts appearing on this page are the most responsive people from that company. Our recommendation engine prioritizes these contacts for reaching out. If you want to find a specific contact or reach someone else, click on "View all contacts" when available. 



To quickly add all the recommended companies, click on “Add XX companies” at the top right. This will add the first contact from each "best match" company onto your bidder list. 

Note: This option is not available when you have selected "search by office location instead". 

If you do not want to add all recommended companies, you can use the slider to add the number you desire. Click “Add multiple best matches with slider” 

Note: This option is also not available when you have selected "search by office location instead". 

Slide the number to the left or right as desired. The number will increase or decrease accordingly. Click on “Add XX companies” to add that number of companies from the best matches to your bidder list. 



When you close out of this window, all the bidders you selected will appear in the Bidders tab of your bid package. These bidders are not invited until you publish the project.

Additional Potential Matches

In addition to the best matches, when you scroll through the list of companies and click "See more", you will then see a list of companies that “potentially match” your filters. These potential matches are shown after the recommended “best matches”. 



These potential matches meet the filters you have placed on the search in the left side bar, but are not recommended because the company does not have enough bidding activity on BuildingConnected to be considered for recommendations. The list of companies is sorted by proximity to the project location. 

To add these bidders, you will need to individually select “add” for each contact. The potential matches are separate from the best matches and do not have an add all or slider option.