Bids that arrive by email are readable on arrival
A shared inbox shows every bid the moment it lands. Anyone with access can read it, and a bidder who suspects that stops sending a sharp number.
Bidding
Sealed bids in construction
In a sealed bid, prices are submitted in a way that nobody on the owner’s side can read until a set time, so no one can trade on another bidder’s number. This page explains what Fidrel keeps hidden until the deadline, what cannot open a bid early, and how the sealing is done, so an owner knows what it can and cannot promise bidders.
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Why sealing is harder than it sounds
The count and the timing leak too
Knowing that four bids are in, or that one arrived at the last minute, is information. A bid can be sealed in content and still tell the room more than the owner meant to.
An early close defeats the seal
If the owner can close the request early, open the bids and then reopen it, the sealing was only a courtesy. The deadline has to be something the system holds, not something a person promises.
What is sealed, and from whom
Three things are held back until the deadline: the content of each bid, how many bids have been submitted and when each arrived. The note shown to the owner says administrators cannot see them before then either, and the same rule reaches the people who manage the request. A bidder sees its own folder and none of the others. Ordinary project members cannot see who the bidders are, because that is shown only to the people managing the request and to the bidder.
Procurement
What cannot open a sealed bid early
On a sealed request there is no Close now button, and the database refuses to close a sealed request before its deadline in any case. A deadline can be extended but never moved earlier, and it must be at least 15 minutes ahead and within a year. If you cancel a sealed request before the deadline, its bids stay sealed for good. A bidder removed from the request before the deadline keeps their bid sealed after it, because it is no longer part of the request. A bidder who has submitted can no longer decline.
Running a sealed bid in the owner’s project
Step 1
Create the request and keep Seal the bids on
Choose New bid request, name it and set the Bid deadline. Seal the bids is switched on when you create a request. The hint beside it says nobody, not even you, can open a bid until the bidding period has ended.
Step 2
Invite the bidders
Invite each bidder by email or from the supplier register. A bidder creates an account and sees the bid documents and a folder of its own, which only that bidder can see. A bidder can add files until the deadline, then submit, or choose Decline to bid.
Step 3
Wait for the deadline
While the request is sealed, your view shows a Sealed label and the note The bids are sealed. The evaluation tab lets you set up the criteria but not read a bid. If you need more time, use Change deadline, which only moves the deadline later.
Step 4
Let the bids open
At the deadline the bids open on their own. The evaluation tab then works on the bids that were submitted: you enter each bid amount, score the bids and record an award. Nobody has to press anything to open a sealed bid.
How the sealing is done
The seal is enforced where the data lives. The rules that decide who may read a bid, its files, the counts and the notifications ask whether the request is still sealed, and refuse until the deadline has passed. The same rules apply to the search index and the assistant, so a sealed bid does not appear in them either. If you want to turn sealing off for a request that does not need it, you can clear Seal the bids when you create it, and then the managers see bids as they arrive.
What a sealed bid in Fidrel is not
It is a feature of the owner’s own project and nothing grander. The sealing is done by database rules and a time lock, not by encryption. Fidrel gives no bid opening report, no public advertising of a bid and no notice of award, and the award is a saved decision with the date and who made it, not a signed contract. Fidrel makes no claim to meet any public procurement rule; it runs a bid in the owner’s own project and gives no legal advice about whether sealed bidding is required.
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A bid that nobody on the owner’s side may read until a set deadline. It stops bidders and staff from using another bidder’s price while the bidding is still open.
No. The content, number and timing of submitted bids are shown only when the bidding period ends. Administrators cannot see them before then either.
No. A sealed request has no Close now button, and the database refuses to close it before its deadline. You can extend the deadline but not move it earlier.
If you cancel before the deadline, the bids stay sealed for good. A request canceled after its bids opened keeps them open.
By database rules and a time lock. The rules refuse every request for a sealed bid’s files, counts and notifications until the deadline has passed, and the bids then open on their own.
No. Each bidder gets a folder of its own for its bid and cannot see the others, before the deadline or after it.