Read this first

To get an initial understanding, read the Getting Started section and follow those suggestions that are relevant for you.

If you get stuck or have any questions, you are always welcome to mail us at hello@tenderlake.com. We are here to help!

Useful Tip:

Our blog contains many examples of how to use Tenderlake's smarter features - check it out.

Getting started

Administrators

If you have performed the upgrade from our Basic service to our Professional service there are a few things you should know.

  • You are the Administrator of your workgroup.
    • This means you are the one managing the workgroup, including inviting other people into the workgroup and giving them access to features.
  • If you do not have any existing tender searches you should start by creating some.
    • Go to Notices -> Search section and create some searches.
    • If you get stuck, scroll down to the more detailed documentation on Notices.
  • Your Notices Inbox is where new notices appear.
    • The inbox is shared by anyone you give access to the Inbox. This makes it easier to collaborate on notices from when they arrive, through evaluation and preparation of responses.
  • You may also want to invite some people from your team to join your Tenderlake workgroup.
    • You do this at Workgroup -> Members
    • When people have accepted your invitation and joined the workgroup, you can give them access to the Notices section if that is relevant for their role.
  • Finally, you should complete your profile and upload a profile picture.

Workgroup members

As a workgroup member, you gain access to the features your administrator and project managers invite you to.

As a team you should create a test project you can use to learn the ropes before the first real project comes along.

Useful Tip:

You should start by completing your profile and uploading a profile picture. You find the link under your name in the top-left area of the screen.

Notices

The Notices section is where you receive, create, discuss, evaluate and manage your notices and opportunities.

Even if you source notices from many sources, Tenderlake allows you to manage them all in one place.

Notice Rules

Notice Rules are used to organise notices and alert you to relevant notices.

To create a Notice Rule, simply execute a search with the relevant settings and then click the Create Notice Rule button.

The rule now appears on the right side of the screen.

You should give the rule a meaningful name and click the Save button.

Now that you have created a rule it is matched against all new notices in Tenderlake. When a notice matches your rule, it is moved into the folder specified by the rule.

Important

The default folder for any new rule is your Inbox. Change it to a different folder if you do not want matched notices to go into your inbox.

Also, be aware that you are only alerted via email when new notices appear in your inbox or discovered folder. So if you create an alert that moves notices into any other folder, you will not be alerted when there is a match.

You can specify the folder as [No folder action]. This setting means that the rule is not automatically executed by Tenderlake, but it’s a handy way of having a typical setting saved and you can click the Execute button to quickly execute this rule when you’re logged in. Clicking the Execute button does NOT move any matches into the specified folder. It’s simply a way of quickly executing a saved search.

You can update the rules and then saving them. And you can create a new rule from an existing rule simply by clicking the Copy button.

Useful Tip: Suggest rule

Tenderlake can automatically suggest you rules based on the content of your folders. It's a great way to get started with your first Notice Rule.

Create a new folder and add a handfull of interesting notices to it. Notices of contracts you have previously bid for and/or won - or simply notices of the type you would like to find more of.

Then select the folder and click the Suggest Rule button to have Tenderlake create a suggested Notice Rule.

You can immidately see and evaluate the type of notices it will alert you to. Remember to delete the rule again or to set the target folder to [No folder action] if you don't want the rule to move new notices into your inbox and send you alert emails.

Inbox

Notices from your saved searches appear in your Notice Inbox – just like emails appear in your inbox.

When you click a notice in your inbox, the details are to the right in the notice pane.

You can quickly move a notice to a different folder by clicking the icons at the top of the notice pane.

If you need to email a link to a public notice, you can click on the button, which opens the notice in a new browser window, which makes it easy to copy the link into an email or a chat window.

You can also move several notices in one go, by selecting them and then using the “Select action” dropdown.

Folders

Tenderlake comes with six “system folders”: Inbox, Favourites,Discovered, Archive, Deleted and Evaluation.

  • Inbox
    • Where new notices appear.
  • Favourites
    • Where you should keep notices of the type you would like to find more often. Tenderlake uses this to suggest to you new opportunities that might not be identified using your normal settings.
  • Discovered
    • Based on your feedback on the relevance of notices, Tenderlake automatically tries to discover additional notices that may be relevant for you, but not matched by your existing rules or searches. Any discovered tenders are added to this folder.
  • Archive
    • This is where we keep notices we have previously emailed you while you were on the Basic plan. You can drop any notice in here and easily find it again using the search facilities.
  • Deleted
    • Any notices in here will be removed after 30 days.
    • Any notice that came from Tenderlake (one you didn’t create yourself) can, even when it has been deleted, be found by searching all notices.
  • Evaluation
    • This is where you should place notices that are up for team evaluation so they can easily be found by team members.

You can also create, rename and delete your own folders using the buttons at the top-left.

Commenting

Anyone with access to the Notice section can comment on, or attach comments to, Notices.

This can be helpful to provide additional information to colleagues or to voice an opinion on an opportunity that is not (yet) being formally evaluated.

Notices with comments have a yellow “Comments” tag in their title line.

Searching folders

You can filter the content of any selected folder using the filter settings. Click the Update button to activate any filter.

Alerts

You can select to receive emails when there are new notices in your inbox, or turn the notifications off.

Feedback

Relevance feedback helps Tenderlake identify notices that are relevant for you, but have not been matched by your Notice Rules.

In the feedback section, you can review and edit your relevance feedback.

Workgroup

In the Workgroup section, administrators can manage who is included in your organisation’s Tenderlake workgroup.

To add someone to your workgroup, click the “Send invitation” button.

Once you have filled out and submit the invitation form, an email will be sent to the email address, inviting the user to join your Tenderlake workgroup.

When the user clicks on the link in the form, the user will be able to create a Tenderlake account and join your workgroup.

Until a user accepts your invitation they will be listed under “Pending invitations”.

To see the status of an invitation, click on the name of the user under “Pending Invitations” and you will be able to see relevant information about the invitation on the right side of the screen.

If for some reason you need the link, the user needs to click to gain access to your workgroup, you can copy it from here as well. Notice, that the link is tied to the email address and name of the person you invited and can only be used for this person.

To cancel an invitation click the “Cancel/Delete Invitation” button.

Under “Active Members” you can see the list of people who have access to your workgroup.

Click on their name to see their details.

You can give members access to the Notices section here.

You can also remove them from your workgroup. Be aware that removing someone from your workgroup permanently deletes any information associated with him or her in relation to your workgroup.

Account

The Account section is where you maintain the basic settings for your account.

Cancel plan

The Account -> Settings page is where you manage your plan.

If you are on a trial, you can cancel your trial here.

You can also convert your trial to a paid plan before the end of the trial. You would normally only do this if you need to extend the number of users in your workgroup before the end of the trial.

You can also cancel your paid plan here.

To cancel your plan click the “Change Plan” button and then click “Terminate my paid plan”.

Payment

You can manage the payment of your Professional plan on Account -> Settings.

To change the card you use for payment, click the “Manage Cards” button, add a new card and then make it the default card.

Invoices

You find your invoices under Account -> Settings -> View.