Jakten Quote User Guide

Document ID: M31-DOC-001

Audience: Estimators, buyers, commercial leads, and project managers who evaluate bids

Last updated: 2026-10-04

Applies to: Jakten Platform 2.0 with Jakten Quote

1. What Quote does

Jakten Quote evaluates the bids for a procurement package. You receive each bidder's bid, check what was read from it, level the bids against a takeoff, check them for outliers and risks, record the award, and publish it to Jakten Assurance. Letters to bidders and questions about the bids happen in the same place.

• Quote works without AI. Excel and CSV bids, text PDFs, Word and text files are read without AI. Leveling, checks, the risk register, the award, letters, publication to Assurance and the rate library all work with AI off and offline.
• AI reads what the importer cannot, and proposes; a person decides. With a Jakten AI subscription, AI reads scanned and photographed bids and every document's fine print, suggests mappings, proposes adjustments, analyzes qualifications, drafts the award narrative and polishes letters, and answers questions about the bids. Nothing it proposes counts until someone accepts it.
• Bids are compared in the project's currency. Quote never converts a currency. A bid in another currency is shown but not compared, so ask the bidder for a requote.

Who can do what depends on your role (section 16).

2. Open Quote

Quote opens from a project. Open the project in Jakten Platform and choose Quote. Opened any other way, it says Open Quote from a project.

The top bar holds:

• ← Back to project, which returns to the project's page in Platform;
• Ask Jakten, Jakten's help (see the Platform User Guide, Get help);
• the project name and the path you are on, for example Packages › P-100 Structural steel › Leveling;
• the AI chip on the right: AI on · N credits, AI off, AI offline, AI not opted in, or AI unavailable.

The rail on the left has two groups:

The rail starts collapsed on a bid's review and on Leveling, to give the grid room. Commands you cannot use are shown greyed out; hover one to see why, for example Takes permission to evaluate bids on this project. The exceptions are Settings and the AI usage view, which only the people who may use them see.

3. Packages

Procurement packages lists the project's packages with their reference, name, need date, Bids received of invited, rows to review, open checks flags, leveling state, the low leveled total and the award state. Each count opens the section where that work is done; the row opens the package's Overview.

Create a package. Select New package and fill in:

• Package reference and Name (both required);
• Buyout strategy, for example single award or split by area;
• Need date;
• Scope, a description of what the package covers.

Select Create package. The package's Overview opens. Import package list reads a list from an Excel or CSV file (columns package_ref and name, and optionally buyout_strategy, scope_text, need_date, scope_nodes). An import never deletes a package: one missing from the file is listed under Not in this file.

To edit a package or archive it, open its Scope and select Edit package or Archive….

4. A package's Overview

The Overview shows where the package stands: bids received, rows to review, open checks flags, the leveling and the award, as tiles that each open their section. The bidder grid lists each bidder's current revision with its stated total, whether the lines add to it (✓ Matches, a difference, Can't check, No total, No lines), rows to review, placed lines, leveled total, rank and flags. Select a bidder to see every revision, newest first.

Next steps lists what waits, each with a link: invite bidders, receive bids, review a bidder, build the takeoff, choose the award, publish it. When nothing waits it says Nothing waits here now.

Opening the Overview also picks up any overnight reads and mappings that have finished (section 6).

5. Bids

Receive a bid

On Overview or Bids, select Receive a bid. Three steps:

1. Bidder. Choose an invited bidder, Another company bidder…, or A new bidder…. A bidder chosen here is invited to the package.
2. Files. Drop the bid's files, or choose them: Excel, CSV, PDF, Word, text or an image. Add the cover letter or qualifications pages too. Each file is read as it is added and shows Read, Already filed, or Not read with the reason.
3. Confirm the receipt. Check the Received date (the date its prices speak for), the Currency, and the Stated total: choose a total row the files hold, type one, or choose No total. Quote shows at once whether the lines add to it. Select Record received.

What is read without AI: the priced lines of Excel (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xls), CSV, text PDF, Word (.docx) and text files. A legacy .doc is refused: save it as .docx or PDF. Files up to 64 MB are accepted.

What needs AI: scanned PDFs and photos (AI reads PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP images), the fine print of every document (qualifications and commercial terms), and the priced lines of any document the importer read no lines from.

A new revision of a bid is a new bid, never an edit of the earlier one. It becomes the bidder's current bid once it is recorded received. Withdraw… on a bid keeps its documents and lines.

Review what was read

Open a bid to review it. The review has three panes:

• Source, on the left: the document, with each row read from it marked on the page (an AI proposal dashed, a recorded row solid, a row needing attention amber). Select a mark to select its row. Fit width and Fit page set the zoom.
• Rows, in the centre: grouped as Lines, Totals, Qualifications, Terms and Mappings, with filters Needs attention, Clean, Recorded, Rejected and All.
• Inspector, on the right: What was read, Findings and Decision. A row's origin reads Without AI, AI · {confidence}, or AI, accepted.

Decide each row: Accept, Edit then Accept with edits, or Reject with an optional reason. On a recorded line, confirm its WBS node, area and unit; a confirmed unit spelling is learned for later bids. Accept as the bidder wrote it accepts an arithmetic difference as stated.

A row is clean when it has no finding and its confidence meets the review threshold (Settings, Thresholds; it starts at 0.9). Accept all N clean and Accept selected clean (N) accept clean rows only, each recorded as its own decision. Reject selected (N) needs a reason, recorded on each row.

Keyboard: A accepts, E edits and R rejects the selected row, Esc cancels, and ? lists every key.

Read with AI

On the bid's review, Read with AI reads the bid's scans and fine print now. It may read Read again with AI, Continue reading with AI or Retry from page N with AI when a read stopped part-way. Read overnight reads it at half the credits, usually within a day. When a read finishes, What the read found opens; select Review them. A page AI could not read is listed under Not read by AI; enter by hand: with Show it and Mark as entered.

An overnight read reserves its whole cost against today's AI limit when it is sent, so on a long scan it can be refused for the day.

Changes between revisions

From revision 2, the tab Changes from revision N lists the lines Added, Removed and Changed against the earlier revision, with the change in the stated total.

6. AI jobs

AI jobs, on the Overview and Bids ribbons, opens the package's AI work:

• Read overnight sends every bid in the package to be read at half the credits.
• Mapping suggestions: Suggest mappings now, or Map overnight at half the credits. A line whose code or name matches the library exactly is confirmed without AI; AI suggests a WBS node, an area and, where the unit is not recognized, a unit for the rest. Every suggestion waits in its bid's review until a person accepts it.

Quote has no timer: finished overnight work is picked up when the package is opened or someone selects Refresh. Its results are recorded when someone who evaluates bids opens the package.

7. Scope

Scope holds the package's details, its WBS scope, its scope kind and checklist, the package scope documents and the takeoff.

• WBS scope. The WBS nodes this package covers. Change scope, search the project WBS, and Save scope. AI suggests WBS nodes only from these nodes and everything beneath them; with none picked it is offered the whole project WBS.
• Scope kind. Choose the package's scope kind and Save scope kind. Its checklist is what bids of that kind normally address, and analyzing qualifications checks each bid against it (section 10).
• Package scope. Upload scope document. The Estimate basis shows whether Jakten Assurance has published a basis for this package and whether it is bound: Request the estimate basis, Check for a newer basis, and Use version N.
• Takeoff. The lines the leveling runs down. Add line (description, quantity, unit code, WBS code), Import takeoff file (.xlsx, .xls, .xlsm or .csv, all or nothing, exact matches only), or Start from the bids, which adds one line for each confirmed WBS and unit the current bids carry, with no quantity.

8. Leveling

Leveling compares the bids line for line against the takeoff. Its tabs are Unplaced lines, Matrix, Adjustments, Proposals and Inclusions and exclusions. It opens on Unplaced lines while any wait.

Unplaced lines. A bid line is placed in the takeoff row with its WBS code and unit. A line in no row says why: its WBS or unit is not confirmed yet, no takeoff line has that WBS and unit, more than one does, or a person placed it in no row. Move to… places it by hand. Place lines before reading gaps in the matrix: a gap may be scope a bid does carry.

Matrix. One row per takeoff line, the takeoff quantity, the Estimate basis column once a basis is bound, the Library band (not escalated) once the rate library has enough rates, and one column per bidder. The head rows give each bid's stated total, leveled total and its adjustments, arithmetic checks, lines placed, and qualifications. Select a cell to see its lines and to Add adjustment.

Evaluated bids. Each bidder's raw total, direct and indirect leveling and carried adjustments, leveled total and rank, with the low, the high and the spread. Leveling adjustments make the bids comparable; only carried ones travel with an award into its evaluated value.

Add an adjustment. Select a cell, then Add adjustment (or Add indirect adjustment for the whole bid). Choose:

• the type: Quantity correction, Missing scope, Excluded scope, General requirements and conditions, Bonds and insurance, Inter-vendor leveling, or Other;
• the purpose: Leveling (comparison only) or Carried (travels with an award);
• the source: Manual (say how in the reason), Another bidder's line, An estimate basis line, or Library band (company rate library, not escalated);
• the amount in the bid's currency (negative to take off), or for a quantity correction the line and the quantity change, priced at the line's own rate;
• a Reason, required for a manual source and for Other.

An adjustment is never deleted: Withdraw stops it counting and keeps it, with the reason. One that no longer applies, because its bid was revised, its row removed or its currency changed, shows why.

Proposals (AI). Propose adjustments finds the gaps itself: a row a bidder left empty that others priced, a quantity that differs from the takeoff, and each exclusion. AI then proposes an adjustment for each, priced from the evidence: the other bidders' lines, the estimate basis lines, and the library band. Accept, Edit then Accept with changes, or Reject…. Nothing counts until a person accepts it.

Inclusions and exclusions. What each bid includes, excludes, assumes and clarifies, side by side.

9. Checks

Sanity checks compares each bid's stated rates and quantities with the other bidders, the estimate basis, the library band and the takeoff, and lists arithmetic findings. A rate or quantity more than the threshold away from its comparison is flagged (25% unless your company changed it in Settings, Thresholds); exactly at the threshold is not. Every comparison is shown with its evidence. The checks use no AI.

To clear a flag, select it, fill in Why this needs no action, and Dismiss. A dismissal applies only while the evidence is what it was dismissed on; if the evidence changes, the flag reopens. Dismissals are kept, and Reinstate reopens one. Arithmetic findings are acted on in the bid's review.

10. Risks

Risks holds the package's risk register.

• Analyze qualifications (AI) classifies the qualifications nobody has classified, and checks each bid against the scope kind's checklist for what it leaves silent. Set the package's scope kind first (section 7), or silent exclusions are not checked. Its proposals wait under Proposed risks: Accept, Accept with changes…, or Reject….
• Classify… classifies a qualification by hand. Record a risk records one in your own words, or a checklist item the bid does not address.

Each entry has a risk type, a severity (Low, Medium, High), an exposure (what it could cost; left empty it reads Not priced), an owner and a disposition:

Close an entry once its disposition is decided; Withdraw… removes it from the register and keeps it. The same risk across bidders shows who carries each risk: the owner or GC, the bidder, conditionally, or not stated.

11. Award

Choose the bid to award lists the current bids. Choose one. If anything is still open on it, such as risk entries, checks flags, undecided proposals or arithmetic findings, Quote lists them: Acknowledge and record the award records them with the award. Recording is refused only when it would mean nothing: the bid is not the bidder's current bid, states no currency, or its leveled total does not add up.

An award is never edited. Supersede… records a new one with the reason; Withdraw… withdraws it, until it is published: a published award is withdrawn by withdrawing its publication (section 12). Earlier awards stay listed under Earlier awards.

• Report (Word) and Report (PDF) render the bid tabulation: summary, leveled comparison, adjustments, risk register, the open items acknowledged, the recommendation and the citations, all from the award as recorded.
• Recommendation. Write… writes the recommendation narrative by hand. Draft with AI drafts it from the recorded award, with citations; Accept, Edit and accept…, or Discard…. Nothing is written until a person accepts it.
• Outcome. Once the award is published, each bidder's bid is tagged Winning, Losing, or No bid, and the outcome follows what Assurance records: published, compared, realized, or withdrawn. Refresh the outcome picks up the latest.

12. Publication to Assurance

Publish to Assurance publishes the recorded award to Jakten Assurance: the awarded bid's lines as the award recorded them, with the carried adjustments. It is all or nothing. Nothing is published, and each item to fix is listed with a link, while anything has moved since the award, a line's mapping is not confirmed, a line is in no takeoff row, an arithmetic finding is not accepted, an AI proposal is undecided, or the bids' currencies are mixed. Some of these can be acknowledged when the award is recorded, but must still be settled before it is published. A published award no longer changes. To publish a change, supersede the award and publish the new one, which becomes the next version; earlier versions stay readable.

Withdraw… on a publication withdraws it, with a reason, and ends the award. It takes the Publish permission.

In Assurance, the award appears in the Should-Cost Register, on the package, under Quote award. An Assurance user chooses Compare to award vN. The comparison lists each WBS and area with the estimate, the award's evaluated amount and the vendor's raw amount, and flags rate, quantity, scope and indirect differences over the threshold. A difference is flagged when it is over both the percentage and the amount of the threshold; every difference is shown. A flag is settled by changing the estimate, or by a disposition (Accepted difference, Out of scope, Duplicate, Scope gap) with a required reason. The comparison never changes an estimate value.

13. Letters

Quote drafts letters and never sends them: export one as Word or PDF and send it yourself. A letter to a bidder never names another bidder or shows another bidder's price.

• Assemble clarification letters drafts one letter for each current bidder with something open: its register entries marked Clarify with the bidder, with their questions, and its open qualifications. A bidder with nothing open, or with a clarification letter already, is skipped. No AI is used.
• Draft RFI… takes Questions, one per line, optionally with each bidder's own open clarification questions.
• Draft BAFO request… takes Offers due and an optional note. It never carries an adjustment amount, a leveled total, or another bidder's name or price.

In a letter, edit the Subject and Letter, then Save. Polish with AI proposes a rewrite of the saved letter; Accept the rewrite or Discard. Export Word and Export PDF export the saved letter. Withdraw… keeps a letter as it was and stops it being edited or exported.

14. Ask the bids

Ask answers a question about the package's documents (AI). Type it in Your question and select Ask. The answer streams in and cites the passages it rests on. It is instructed to mark a figure it calculates as calculated (Quote does not check it), to say when a point comes from general construction practice, to say when the documents do not answer the question, and to give no legal opinion or bidder recommendation. Check an answer against its citations.

The line above the question says which documents it reads and which it does not, and why. Every question and answer is kept for everyone who can open the package, under Questions asked about this package, with who asked. Show in document opens a cited passage. If a document changed since a question was answered, the answer says so. Only the person who asked can remove a question.

A question costs more after a pause with no questions, because the documents are sent again (see the Company Administrator Guide, What a credit buys).

15. Company pages

Bidders. The company's vendors, shared by all its projects. New bidder adds one with a contact, email and phone. Each bidder shows its bids on this project and its rates.

Rate library. The company's vendor rates from every bid Quote read, across its projects. Choose a WBS node and a unit to see the band: low, median, high, how many rates and from how many bidders, per currency. Filter by bid dates and outcome (winning, losing, carried in the award). Rates are shown as quoted, at their own bid date, never escalated. Export Excel and Export CSV export them. A line counts only once its WBS node, unit and area are confirmed and it states a rate; lump sums never count.

Leveling, the checks and AI use a band only once it has at least 3 rates from 2 bidders; below that they say there are not enough rows. The Rate library page always shows the band.

Settings (for the people who can change them):

16. Roles

A project Contributor evaluates bids and uses AI; awarding and publishing are a project Manager's. Reviewers, Executives and project Viewers read only. Your company administrator assigns Quote seats and roles (Company Administrator Guide, sections 4, 5 and 7).

17. When AI is unavailable

When an AI step cannot run, Quote says why in the step's place, with what is left and, where buying would fix it, a link to Subscription and billing: offline, AI off for the company, not opted in, no subscription, credits used up, today's limit reached, or busy. Offline, it reads AI is offline; deterministic reading still works, and so does everything else in Quote. A refused read is recorded as Not started, and nothing was sent.

Everything that does not need AI keeps working. The company's AI subscription, limits and usage are in the Company Administrator Guide, section 10, Jakten AI. What AI sends and keeps is in Jakten Quote AI Data Handling.

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