The matrix says what they asked for. This is where you answer it.
A compliance matrix ends with a list of requirements and a pointer into your own shelf for each. Then somebody opens an empty document and starts copying. The proposal draft is that next step, done for you: the proposal laid out in parts, each requirement in the solicitation's own words, the passages of your own documents that answer it underneath, and one box a part for your text.
a missing requirement costs the bid; an awkward one costs nothing
Laid out in parts, in the order a proposal is written
Open the compliance matrix of a notice whose solicitation has been read and press Start the proposal. The draft opens with the same requirements, now grouped into the parts of a proposal.
The rules that get a proposal returned unread lead the page, as they lead the matrix: the page limit, the font, the margins, the due date and where it is sent, each in the solicitation's own words.
Every draft your account has started is listed on the Proposal drafts screen, under More for proposals in the Proposal part of the menu.
- Every requirement in the document's own sentence, with its paragraph number
- Up to two passages of your own under each, with the document each came from
- One box a part for your text, with a word count
- A requirement nothing in your library answers says so
the same joined record carries the search, the price and the invoice
Start from my passages
Start from my passages copies your own words into the box, in order, each under the requirement it answers and marked with the document it came from. It is your text, cut and put in order. Nothing is written for you.
Text you have already written is never replaced by one press. Starting from passages over text that is there adds below it. Leaving a box saves it, and a save that fails says so beside the box and leaves the text where it is.
- Mark a part done
- Give a part an owner, on an account with more than one person
- A viewer seat reads the draft and changes nothing
What is still to write, and how long it is running
The top of the draft counts the parts that have text and lists every requirement you still have to write: one that nothing in your library answers, in a part with no text yet. Each line jumps to its part. Clauses and paperwork are not counted, because nobody writes to them.
Where the solicitation sets a page limit, the draft says how many pages your text comes to, for one part and for the whole proposal, and marks it when it is over. That is an estimate worked from the word count, and the screen says so. Figures, tables and your own layout change it.
When the solicitation changes
The outline is worked out from the solicitation each time the draft opens, so an amendment cannot leave it stale. Your text is what is kept. If an amendment moves things, text you wrote is shown under the part that now holds the same requirements, with a note to read it against them again.
Text written for a part the solicitation no longer has is not dropped. It is shown at the foot of the draft until you copy what you need or remove it yourself.
Out as a file
The whole draft leaves as a Word file or as plain text: every part with your text, and at the end every requirement with the part that answers it. The file holds what is saved. Your own work is never counted against the export rows of your plan.
AI writing is optional, and it is off until you turn it on
The draft works with no AI. No model lays out the parts, finds a passage or fills a box.
AI writing is a separate switch on the account. It is off until the account owner or a manager turns it on, and before it turns on the screen shows exactly what is sent and to whom and asks you to confirm it.
Turned on, it lets anybody working in the account press Write this part from my passages on a part of a draft. Each press sends three things: the requirement sentences of that part, the passages of your own documents shown under them, and your company name. They are sent to the AI provider that writes for this product. If the account has an AI key of its own, they may go to your own AI account instead: the AI key on the Account screen sets which is used first, and the other is used when the first cannot answer. Nothing else in your library is sent, and nothing is sent until somebody presses that button.
What comes back is shown beside your text as a suggestion. It is never saved over what you wrote. A sentence that names no passage of yours is removed, and so is a sentence carrying a number that is not in the passage it names, and the screen says how many were removed. Where your passages do not say what a requirement asks for, the suggestion says what you have to supply. Each press is one of your plan's AI readings for the month, unless it is written on the account's own AI key. The account owner or a manager can turn AI writing off again at any time.
Where it stops
The proposal draft comes with the plans that have a library, which is every paid plan. It needs a solicitation that has been read: a notice with nothing readable on it yet has nothing to draft from, and the screen says so. A passage is a paragraph of a document in your library, so an empty library gives every requirement and no passages. It is a first draft of the words. It does not price the work, lay out the pages or submit anything.
Where it is in the app
Proposals, under Proposal in the menu. Proposal is the part of LastAwarded that builds the response, one of the eight parts.
Related
- Shred the solicitation NewThe compliance matrix the draft starts from.
- Your libraryThe documents the passages are found in.
- Key personnel NewThe named positions, and who on file answers each.
- Bid worksheetThe price that goes beside the words.
- Your own AI keyWhich AI account a reading is written on.
See who was last awarded in your NAICS
Every code, every buying office, every vendor and every recompete, organized from the federal record and read nightly. Open it with a plan.