Bid

A bid is a price request, submitted by a vendor, for an item you want to buy for your organization. You can create a bid for a few items or for all items in a purchasing class, or for an item from a specific manufacturer. You can send a bid to multiple vendors so that you can compare prices.

Bids differ from vendor agreements in a substantial way. Vendor agreements contain item and cost information on vendor-supplied items as agreed between you and your vendor. Bids, however, are simply a price request that a vendor submits for items that you want to buy (no formal agreement exists between you and the vendor). Using the price comparison feature available with bids, you can help determine those vendors with which you want to set up a vendor agreement.