Private beta · Heavy-civil general contractors

Level subcontractor bids. Surface scope and pricing risk. Defend the award.

Bid Reasoner reads the 5–15 sub bids you receive on every package, levels them against your bid package scope, flags exclusions, missing scope, vague clauses, and unbalanced unit prices — and generates the award memo and handoff documents when you decide.

or reserve a founding pilot slot →

app.bidreasoner.com / packages / pkg-04-drainage / inbox SAMPLE DATA
BidderRaw bidNormalizedRiskStatus
Meridian Pipe & Precast $1,284,600 $1,311,450 Low risk Leveled
Bluffline Excavating $1,192,300 $1,268,900 Medium risk Leveled
CRV Underground $1,349,900 $1,352,400 Low risk Leveled
Harlan Sitework $1,108,750 $1,301,200 High risk In review
app.bidreasoner.com / packages / pkg-04-drainage / leveling SAMPLE DATA
Line item SOW qty Meridian Bluffline Harlan
603.02 — 24-inch RCP culvert 1,840 LF $118.00 $112.50 $1.00
603.05 — 36-inch RCP culvert 620 LF $164.00 $158.25 $1.00
604.11 — Precast drainage manhole 22 EA $4,850.00 missing $5,400.00
605.03 — Underdrain, 6-inch perf. 3,200 LF $14.75 $13.90 $16.80
620.01 — Mobilization 1 LS $64,200 $59,600 $148,000
3 unit prices ≤ $1 2 high outliers 1 low outlier 1 total outlier front-loaded mob
Decision Workbench SAMPLE DATA
Best Value Lowest Risk +5 modes
Recommended: Meridian Pipe & Precast — $1,311,450 leveled · confidence 86%

Why not the low bid →

Award & Handoff SAMPLE DATA
✓ Aligns with AI
Award memo.docx
Award letter.docx
Final scope.docx

Download award package (.zip) — 15 documents

Sample data — fictional bidders on a fictional drainage package.

What's running today
6scoring dimensions per bidder — price, scope, schedule, compliance, performance, risk
7decision modes — Lowest Responsible Bid, Best Value, Lowest Risk, Schedule Priority, Scope Completeness, Budget-Constrained, Custom Weighting
4deterministic risk rules — same input, same flag, every time
15documents generated per award — memos, letters, exhibits, reports
Positioning

Built for GC sub-bid leveling, not owner bid tabs.

Owner bid tabs compare prime bids on one standard form. Sub bids don't arrive that way — and that's the problem this product exists for.

What this isn't

Owner-side bid tabulation

  • Prime bids submitted to an owner on one standard bid form
  • Every bidder prices the identical item list — comparison is arithmetic
  • Public unit-price results, published after letting
  • No exclusions to catch, no scope to reconcile
What this is

GC-side sub-bid leveling

  • 5–15 sub proposals per package, each in its own format — PDF, Excel, email
  • Exclusions and qualifications buried in the fine print
  • Scope coverage differs bidder to bidder — the low number is rarely the whole number
  • Compare every sub against the same scope, then award with a record your team can defend later
Workflow

From bid package to defensible award.

One path through the package. Every step leaves a record.

1

Upload the bid package

Drop in your ITB scope, plans, and addenda. Line items and quantities become the leveling baseline every sub bid is measured against.

2

Collect sub bids

Invite subs through the portal or forward what's already in your inbox. PDF, Excel, Word, CSV, or ZIP — each proposal is extracted and checked.

3

Normalize to the same scope

Every bid is mapped to your line items. Exclusions, plugs, and missing scope get priced so totals are apples-to-apples.

4

Review risk flags and evidence

Deterministic checks flag unbalanced unit prices, outliers, and front-loaded mobilization — each with a citation back to the bid document.

5

Compare under decision modes

Rank the field under seven decision modes. You decide — overrides are expected, and captured with a category and reason.

6

Award and hand off

Generate the award letter, subcontract draft, award memo, and the full handoff package in one click.

The product

Real screens, not marketing cards.

Bid Inbox, sub bid intake, Leveling Matrix, risk findings, Decision Workbench, clarifications, award and handoff — the same surfaces your estimators work in. Sample data shown throughout.

Every bid, one inbox, status at a glance.

Every sub bid received across every project lands in one place — no more digging through email chains on bid day.

  • Raw and normalized totals side by side, so leveling adjustments are visible
  • Addenda acknowledgment, document completeness, and exclusion counts per bidder
  • Extraction confidence and risk band on every row
app.bidreasoner.com / bid-inbox SAMPLE DATA
BidderRaw bidNormalizedSubmittedAddendaDocsExcl.Extraction conf.RiskStatus
Meridian Pipe & Precast $1,284,600 $1,311,450 Jul 14, 2:41 PM Addenda ✓ Complete 2 high conf. Low Leveled
Bluffline Excavating $1,192,300 $1,268,900 Jul 15, 9:06 AM Addenda ✓ Incomplete 5 high conf. Medium Leveled
CRV Underground $1,349,900 $1,352,400 Jul 14, 4:58 PM Addenda ✓ Complete 1 high conf. Low Leveled
Harlan Sitework $1,108,750 $1,301,200 Jul 15, 11:52 AM 1 of 2 Incomplete 4 high conf. High In review

Subs submit clean bids without an account walkthrough.

A magic-link portal walks each sub through four steps, so what reaches your inbox is complete and comparable.

  • Accepts PDF, Excel, Word, CSV, and ZIP — whatever the sub already has
  • Pre-submit checks catch missing addenda acknowledgments and bid bonds before you do
  • Required fields mean no more calling subs back for base-bid clarity
portal.bidreasoner.com / submit SAMPLE DATA
STEP 1Upload proposal
STEP 2Required fields
STEP 3Pre-submit check
STEP 4Confirm
  • Addendum 2 acknowledged
  • Bid bond attached
  • !2 required fields missing — tax status, schedule commitment

Same scope. Same line items. Every bidder.

The Leveling Matrix maps every proposal to your bid package line items, so a missing manhole or a $1.00 pipe price is visible in one glance.

  • Lowest unit price highlighted per line
  • Unbalanced unit prices (≤ $1.00) marked inline
  • Lines a bidder didn't quote — that peers did — called out as missing
app.bidreasoner.com / packages / pkg-04-drainage / leveling SAMPLE DATA
Line item SOW qty Meridian Bluffline CRV Harlan
603.02 — 24-inch RCP culvert 1,840 LF $118.00 $112.50 $124.00 $1.00
603.05 — 36-inch RCP culvert 620 LF $164.00 $158.25 $171.50 $1.00
604.11 — Precast drainage manhole 22 EA $4,850.00 missing $5,120.00 $5,400.00
605.03 — Underdrain, 6-inch perf. 3,200 LF $14.75 $13.90 $15.20 $16.80
620.01 — Mobilization 1 LS $64,200 $59,600 $67,500 $148,000
3 unit prices ≤ $1 2 high outliers 1 low outlier 1 total outlier front-loaded mob

Green = lowest unit price · ● = unit price ≤ $1.00 · "missing" = line peers quoted, this bidder didn't.

Ask the bidder, keep the answer on the record.

Clarifications run as tracked, bidder-specific threads — not email chains that vanish when the estimator changes jobs.

  • Questions drafted from the risk findings, one click to send
  • Price revisions flagged and folded back into the leveling
  • Every exchange lands in the award record
app.bidreasoner.com / clarifications SAMPLE DATA
Decision Q&A · Bluffline Excavating

Confirm whether precast drainage manholes (604.11) are included in your price — the line does not appear in your proposal.

Awaiting response
Decision Q&A · Harlan Sitework

Items 603.02 and 603.05 are priced at $1.00 — confirm unit pricing or submit a revision.

Price revision received Revised total $1,286,300 · +$177,550
Risk findings

Deterministic checks. Cited evidence. No black box.

Four pricing checks run as fixed rules — the same input always produces the same flag. AI reasoning is a separate, labeled layer; the two are never mixed, and every finding links back to the page it came from.

Rule 1

Unbalanced unit prices

Any line priced at $1.00 or less.

Rule 2

Peer outliers

Unit prices above 2× or below 0.5× the peer median.

Rule 3

Total-bid outliers

Bid totals more than 20% off the field.

Rule 4

Front-loaded mobilization

Mobilization above 10% of the bid total.

Decision evidence SAMPLE DATA

603.02 priced at $1.00 vs peer median $118.00

Bid Form p. 3 · Harlan Sitework · extraction ref Unit-price check

Mobilization is 13.4% of bid total

Bid Form p. 2 · Harlan Sitework · extraction ref Extraction QA

Exclusion: "rock excavation by others" — overlaps item 606.02

Proposal p. 7 · Bluffline Excavating · extraction ref AI reasoning

Every extracted value is inspectable. Every claim cites its source document and page. If it can't be traced, it isn't in the analysis.

Decision Workbench

Seven ways to rank the field. One person decides.

Pick the decision mode that matches the package. The recommendation shows its work — and when your estimator disagrees, the override is expected, captured, and part of the record.

app.bidreasoner.com / packages / pkg-04-drainage / decision-workbench SAMPLE DATA
Lowest Responsible Bid Best Value · default Lowest Risk Schedule Priority Scope Completeness Budget-Constrained Custom Weighting
Price25
Scope25
Compliance15
Schedule10
Performance15
Risk10
⚡ Analyze Package

Why this recommendation

Meridian Pipe & Precast · $1,311,450 leveled

  • Docs complete, both addenda acknowledged, 2 minor exclusions
  • No pricing flags across 42 line items
  • Leveled total within 3.4% of the low bid, with the lowest risk profile in the field

Why not the low bid

Harlan Sitework · $1,108,750 raw

  • 3 unit prices at $1.00 shift $177,550 of cost into other items
  • 4 exclusions, including dewatering and trench safety
  • Leveled cost $1,301,200 — within 0.8% of the recommendation, at materially higher risk
✓ Aligns with AI Override — capture a reason

Award either way. Overrides require a category and a reason — the disagreement becomes part of the package record, not a lost argument. The estimator makes the call; the software remembers why.

Award & handoff

The decision is only done when the paperwork is.

Fifteen documents generated from the package data — award documents for the subs, reasoning reports for your file. Real .docx, populated from the leveling, the findings, and the decision.

app.bidreasoner.com / packages / pkg-04-drainage / award SAMPLE DATA

Award & handoff documents

Award letter.docx
Letter of intent.docx
Subcontract (draft).docx
Non-award notice.docx
Final scope.docx
Final pricing.docx
Clarification exhibit.docx
Addenda exhibit.docx

Reasoning reports

Award memo.docx
Bid reasoning report.docx
Evidence report.docx
Bidder scorecard.docx
Executive summary.docx
Clarification questions.docx
Handoff rationale.docx
Download award package (.zip)

Award with a record your team can defend later.

Who it's for

Heavy-civil general contractors.

Built for GCs receiving sub bids on highway, bridge, and infrastructure packages — where scope is contested, bids run 5–15 deep per package, and bid day matters.

EstimatorsLevel the field, own the number
Precon managersRun the package, chase the gaps
Project managersInherit a clean handoff
ExecutivesSee why the award holds up
Paving Drainage Structures MOT / traffic control Utilities Electrical / signals Bridge

Works in any U.S. state from day one — leveling runs on your own bids, no government data required. DOT pay-item baselines are pre-built for New York and New Jersey, with more states added as partners come online.

Private beta · Founding partners

Bring a live bid package. We'll level it with you.

Bid Reasoner is in private beta with a small group of heavy-civil GCs. Founding partners get founder-direct onboarding, founding partner pricing, and no per-seat fees — you pay for usable bid-package outcomes. Bring a package you're bidding now, or a recent buyout, and we'll run it together.

48-hour response · No credit card to apply · Founder replies personally
Thanks — your slot is reserved. We'll reach out within 48 hours.

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Resources

Go deeper on the piece you're stuck on.

Deep-dives into the parts of the workflow heavy-civil GCs search for by name.