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If an owner-agency sets the ability for vendors to ask questions in the solicitation options, then vendors will see the Ask a Question button when the solicitation is advertised.
Only the contract administrator, manager, and solicitation manager roles can answer and publish questions. The Q & A reviewer role can answer questions, but not publish the answer.
If you have your Q & A notifications on, you will receive a email when a vendor asks a question. A flag indicating the number of unanswered questions displays next to the solicitation status on the Our Solicitations tab.
Open the solicitation to see the questions in the Q & A section. The Bid Express service displays all the questions for the solicitation, including the vendor that submitted the question and when the question was submitted.
Question status
Questions can have three statuses:
| New | Question has been asked by the vendor but not yet answered or published. |
| In Progress | Question has been answered by the agency, but the answer is not yet published, or the published answer has been edited and not yet republished. |
| Published | The question has been made public by the agency and can be seen by anyone. The question does not need to have an answer in order to be published. |
Use the filter to see all the questions of the selected status.
Answer a question or edit an answer
Click the down arrow next to the status to answer the question or edit an answer already given. Select Answer or Edit. The Bid Express service displays an Answer Question or a Question window, depending on if the question has already been answered or made public.
The Question window displays the last answer entry and a history of the answer, including
when it was published.
For either window, enter the answer in the Answer field.
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To keep the answer private and visible only to members of your agency, click Save. If your role is the Q & A reviewer, this is the only option you have.
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To make the answer public and visible to any vendor, click Publish. Select OK in the confirmation message. Only the last answer will be published.
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Once a question or answer is made public, the Bid Express service sends an email to all members of the business that asked the question. In addition, the service sends an email to all vendors who signed up for Q & A notifications.
Publish a question
You do not have to answer a question in order to publish it.
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Select the circle on the upper left side of all the questions you want to make public or click Select All to choose all the questions.
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Click Publish Selected, located on the upper right side of the table.
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Click OK in the confirmation window.
Published answers for questions on a restricted solicitation will be visible only to those invited to bid. The name of the user who published the message displays under the question but is not displayed publicly. The status of the question will change to Published for the vendor.