Prepare comparative maps

A well-structured comparative map is what separates a well-founded purchasing decision from a choice made on impression. Compare every proposal against the same items and criteria, negotiate with each supplier using concrete arguments, and document the reason for your choice — without the risk, common in manual comparison, of swapping quantities or missing items between proposals organized differently.

In VisualOrc, this work stops being manual. The map is generated directly from the estimate's price list, so each proposal is compared item by item against the estimated value, without rebuilding separate lists. The price request goes out by email straight from the application, with the work list attached. And when the proposal arrives, there's no need to transcribe it: attach the supplier's PDF and VisualOrc automatically reads and matches each price to the right item, immediately flagging quantity or unit differences, or calculation errors in the proposal. Review, comparison and award are all recorded in the same estimate, ready to go straight to the purchase order or the subcontract.

Create the comparative map and add the companies to consult

  1. In the comparative maps list, click "New" to create a map from the estimate's price list — or "Copy" to duplicate an existing map.
  2. Inside the map, click "Proposals" to manage the companies to consult.
  3. Add each company via "New Proposal", pick it from the list of already-registered suppliers in "From List", or duplicate a similar proposal with "Copy Proposal".

Send the price request by email

  1. Check the "Send by Email" column for the companies you want to request prices from.
  2. Click "Send Request".
  3. Review the email's subject and text — VisualOrc proposes a default text and remembers the last one used.
  4. Choose whether to also send the Excel version alongside the PDF, and whether to review the email in Outlook before sending it.
  5. Confirm the send. VisualOrc records the request date for each company, so you know who's already been contacted.

Import the supplier's proposal automatically

  1. When you receive the reply, attach the proposal's PDF in the "Supplier Proposal" column — click to choose the file, or drag it directly from Explorer onto the company's row.
  2. VisualOrc immediately reads the PDF's content and tries to identify each item's prices.
  3. If different prices already exist for that proposal, choose whether to replace them with the ones read from the PDF, keep the existing ones and fill in only what's empty, or cancel without changing anything.
  4. Review the summary shown: prices placed on the map, existing prices kept, items with no price in the proposal, quantity or unit differences, and any calculation errors in the supplier's own proposal.
  5. If needed, open the full report to confirm, line by line, the matches flagged as uncertain.

Compare and accept the winning proposal

  1. Compare the prices from every company side by side against the estimated value.
  2. Check the "Selected" column on the winning proposal — VisualOrc automatically unchecks the rest, always keeping a single proposal selected in this estimate's map.
  3. Use the note button, next to each map's total, to record a remark about the choice made.

The estimate's comparative map and the matching map in construction management become independent once the site starts: awarding the company, purchases and cost control are then managed only in the construction management map, with the estimate's map kept as a record of the proposal originally chosen.