Request quotes from subs by email
Send subs a private link to submit a quote - no account needed.
- 1Open the project and go to the Quotes & Bids tab (under Buyout).
- 2Create a quote request with a title, trade, scope, and optional due date. Attach plans if you have them.
- 3Pick the TRADE from the dropdown - your subs in that trade appear underneath as a checklist. Tick the ones you want (or Select all) and they are invited the moment you create the request.
- 4You can still add more afterwards: pick a sub from your Directory, or type a name and email.
- 5Press Invite. That sends them the quote request there and then, and tells you which address it went to.
- 6Watch responses come in as subs submit - the status moves from invited to viewed to submitted.
ONE BUTTON DOES THE SENDING. Each invited sub has a single "Send invite" button - or "Send reminder" once they have been told, because a second email to somebody who has not answered IS a nudge and says so. Everything else is behind the dots beside it: copy the link, copy the email text, open it in your own mail app, or send with a note if you want to add a line or use a different address.
A sub with a name but no email address is still worth adding - the row gives you Copy link as its main button, and you can text or WhatsApp them the link. It says "Not sent yet" until somebody has actually been emailed.
You cannot invite the same sub to one request twice - it will tell you they are already on it. Use Send reminder to chase instead, which is what a second email would have been anyway.
PACKAGE FIRST, AND IT ANSWERS THE MATERIAL QUESTION. Labor + material means the sub brings it; Labor only means you buy it; Material only means they are the supplier. Those three fill in "who supplies the material" for you, so a request can never go out saying "Labor only" over "Subcontractor supplies material". Measure & quote is the one that genuinely leaves it open, so that is the only one that still asks.
THE TRADE IS THE KEY, so it is a dropdown rather than something you type. Pricing out electrical? Pick Electrical and every electrician in your Directory is listed underneath with a tick box - five of them go out in one press. Each option shows how many subs you have for it, which is also how you spot a typo: if you see "Electrical (13)" and "Electric (1)" in the same list, one sub has their trade spelled wrong and will not appear with the others until you fix it on the Directory page. Subs with no trade at all are grouped under "No trade set" so they are still reachable.
Every standard trade is in the list even if you have nobody for it yet, because the trade also fills in the included / not included / need back lists from a template. The free-text box sits under them and is optional - it is for the handful of things a template cannot know, like site access or working hours.
Subs do not need a SyteNav account. The link opens a simple page where they enter an amount and attach their quote.
If you picked the sub from your Directory and they DO have a SyteNav account, they also get a notification and the request shows up under Quote requests on their My Bids page - so it does not get lost in an inbox.