COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Solicitations

Configuration Group: Solicitations

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. Solicitations and Procurements are provided through an Optional Add-On Module, so this configuration group is only relevant where that module is licensed.

1. Overview

The Solicitations configuration group holds the settings that control how solicitation and procurement records behave. It governs attachment retention, the automatic calculation of the solicitation amount, the default content of emails sent from a solicitation record, whether the Questions and Answers section is available, when survey down selections may occur, and how tasks are presented on the task grid.

Solicitations contains 9 settings, organized under seven subsection headings in the settings panel: ATTACHMENTS, CALCULATIONS, EMAILS, GENERAL, ONE-OFF EMAILS, SURVEYS, and TASKS.

As with every configuration group, each setting is presented as a single row containing:

• The name of the application setting
• A description of what the setting does
• An editing control holding the current value — a toggle, a dropdown, or an Edit content button for the rich-text email templates
• A “Last changed” line recording when the setting was last modified and by whom

Because the Solicitations group is maintained from the Administration area, only Application Administrators — or other users specifically granted the appropriate permission — can view and change these values.

2. Accessing the Solicitations Configuration Group

The Solicitations settings are reached through Application Settings. To open them:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
2. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings.
3. In the CATEGORIES rail on the left, click Solicitations. The category is highlighted, and the count beside it shows the number of settings it contains.
4. The settings panel on the right is headed Solicitations with its setting count, and lists the settings under their subsection headings.

A specific setting can also be reached without browsing the category, by typing part of its name or description into the Search box at the top of the Application Settings screen.

3. ATTACHMENTS Settings

The ATTACHMENTS subsection contains a single setting:

• Keep Attached Files when Contract Record is deleted — Records retention. Set to On to have the system keep the solicitation attached files even if the solicitation record is deleted. The default is Off. Toggle.

4. CALCULATIONS Settings

The CALCULATIONS subsection contains a single setting:

• Auto Calculate the Contract Amount — Set to On to have the Solicitation Amount field calculate automatically from the Price/Cost Schedule line items on a solicitation record. Toggle.

Note: Where this setting is enabled, the Solicitation Amount field is maintained by the system from the line items and is not keyed directly on the record.

5. EMAILS Settings

The EMAILS subsection sets the default content used when emails are sent from a solicitation or procurement record. All three settings hold message content rather than a simple value, and are edited in a rich-text, Word-like HTML editor opened with Edit content. Each displays a short preview of its current content beside the button.

The EMAILS settings are:

• E-mail Body - Vendor Awarded E-mail — The template used for sending emails to the awarded vendor.
• E-mail Body Default Content — The default content used in the email body when a user sends an email from a solicitation or procurement record.
• E-mail Body Intro Default Content for Q&As — The default content used in the email body introduction when a user sends an email for Questions and Answers from a solicitation or procurement record.

To edit one of these templates:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings, then click Solicitations in the CATEGORIES rail.
2. Under EMAILS, locate the template you want to change and click Edit content on the setting row.
3. A drawer slides out from the right, headed SOLICITATIONS and the setting name, with the setting’s description beneath it and the current content loaded into the editor.
4. Edit the content using the editor toolbar, then click Close to return to the settings list.
5. Click Save changes in the upper right of the Application Settings screen to commit the new content, or Undo on the setting row to put it back to the saved content.

The rich-text editor toolbar provides:

• Bold (Ctrl+B), Italic (Ctrl+I), and Underline (Ctrl+U)
• A Paragraph format dropdown for paragraph and heading styles
• Blockquote, Numbered List (Ctrl+Shift+O), and Bulleted List (Ctrl+Alt+O)
• Insert Hyperlink (Ctrl+K) and Insert Image (Ctrl+Shift+I)
• Code View (Ctrl+Shift+H) for editing the underlying HTML directly
• Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Ctrl+Y)
• An overflow control at the end of the toolbar that reveals the remaining tools when the drawer is narrow
• A widen icon and a close icon in the drawer header, to expand the drawer to full width or close it

Note: These templates supply the starting text only. A user sending an email from a solicitation record can edit the message before sending, so the content set here should read as a sensible default rather than a final message.

6. GENERAL Settings

The GENERAL subsection contains a single setting:

• Allow Q&A Section on Solicitation Records — Allows the Questions and Answers section on the Solicitation Details screen to be used, both in the core system and the Vendor/Client Gateway. Toggle.

Note: Turning this setting off removes the Questions and Answers section from solicitation records in both the core system and the gateway, so the E-mail Body Intro Default Content for Q&As template has no effect while it is off.

7. ONE-OFF EMAILS Settings

The ONE-OFF EMAILS subsection contains a single setting:

• Save a copy of the email as record note — Saves a copy of the email as a note on the solicitation record. Toggle.

8. SURVEYS Settings

The SURVEYS subsection contains a single setting:

• Down Selection Restriction — Selects when survey down selections are allowed to occur. Selected from a dropdown.

The Down Selection Restriction options are:

• Always — There are no restrictions on survey down selecting.
• Due Date — Survey down selections must occur after the survey Due/Close Date.
• Response Open Date — Survey down selections must occur after the survey Response Open Date.

9. TASKS Settings

The TASKS subsection contains a single setting:

• Hide Auto Complete Tasks — Hides auto-complete tasks on the task grid. Toggle.

10. Modifying a Solicitations Setting

Function: Changes the value of a Solicitations setting for the entire system.

Steps:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings, then click Solicitations in the CATEGORIES rail.
2. Locate the setting by name under its subsection heading, and read its description to confirm what the value controls.
3. Change the value using the control on the right of the setting row — a toggle, the Down Selection Restriction dropdown, or Edit content for the three email templates.
4. The setting is marked with a CHANGED badge, an Undo link appears beneath it, a dot appears beside Solicitations in the CATEGORIES rail, and a banner at the top of the screen reports how many changes are ready to save.
5. Click Save changes in the upper right to commit the change, or Discard to put every changed setting back to its saved value. Undo on the setting row reverts that one setting only.

Caution: A change takes effect as soon as it is saved and applies to every solicitation record and every user. Changes to attachment retention and the auto-calculate setting affect how existing records behave, so confirm the intended behavior before saving.

11. Related Solicitation Settings

The Solicitations group holds the behavior of solicitation records. Alert and job schedules for solicitations are maintained in their own configuration category, Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations, listed separately in the CATEGORIES rail.

The frequency at which those jobs run system-wide is set in the Schedule Manager group, and the portal that vendors and clients use to respond to solicitations is configured in the Vendor/Client Gateway group and on the Vendor/Client Gateway (VCG) administration page, reached from the Administration page under Gateways & Portals.

12. Quick Reference Summary