What is bid intake in construction?
Bid intake is the process of capturing, recording, and qualifying incoming bid opportunities before a GC commits estimating resources. A structured intake process ensures every opportunity is evaluated against the same criteria — project type, client history, delivery method, required capacity, and win probability — so precon teams pursue the right jobs, not just the most recent ones. Folio automates bid intake by creating a structured opportunity record the moment a project enters the pipeline.
THE OLD WAY
Your bid pipeline shouldn't live in email.
A project comes in through BuildingConnected. Another through a call from a client. A third from a subcontractor relationship. They land in three different inboxes and get tracked in three different ways — or not at all.
Nobody has a complete picture of what's in the pipeline. Opportunities get dropped because the estimator who received them is already overloaded. Go/no-bid decisions get made informally, based on whoever is loudest in the room that day, not on data.
By the time leadership asks what's in the pipeline, someone has to spend an afternoon pulling it together. That's not a process. It's a gap.
Folio solves the pipeline visibility problem.
WHAT FOLIO DOES
Three capabilities. One workflow.
Automated Opportunity Capture
Folio creates a structured record for every incoming opportunity — regardless of how it arrived. Project name, owner, type, delivery method, bid date, and required precon resources are captured in one place.
Why it matters: Most GCs can't tell you how many active bid opportunities they have at any given moment. Folio makes that a one-second answer.
AI-Assisted Go/No-Bid Scoring
Folio scores each opportunity against your firm's criteria — project size, geography, client history, current capacity, win probability — and surfaces a recommendation before precon hours are committed.
Why it matters: FMI Research found that 70% of GC capacity is spent on bids they won't win. Go/no-bid discipline is the single highest-ROI habit a precon team can build. Folio makes it systematic.
Automatic Routing to the Right Estimator
Based on project type, size, and estimator workload, Folio routes each opportunity to the right person and flags capacity conflicts before they become schedule problems.
Why it matters: The most common reason a good bid gets a mediocre estimate is that the wrong person was assigned, too late. Folio fixes the routing problem before it starts.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Built for the people who do this work.
The Business Development Lead
Responsible for capturing every opportunity the firm is invited to bid. Needs a system that doesn't rely on manual follow-up or memory. Folio is the record of every opportunity, from invitation to decision.
The VP of Preconstruction
Making capacity and strategy decisions based on what's in the pipeline. Needs real-time visibility — not a spreadsheet someone updates on Fridays. Folio is the pipeline view they've never had.
The Senior Estimator
Doing the actual work. Needs to know what's coming, when, and whether it's worth pursuing — before the deadline pressure starts. Folio gives them the queue, the score, and the context.
of GC capacity spent on bids they won't win
FMI Research
average time from drawings to cost estimate
Industry benchmark
lost annually to poor preconstruction productivity
FMI 2023
FAQ
Common questions
Stop tracking bids in your inbox.
Your pipeline is only as good as your intake process. Folio gives every opportunity a record — and your team the visibility to pursue the right work.
Or email us at connect@joinfolio.ai