How to – Project Search
Q: How do I find projects on BidCentral?
A: To find projects on BidCentral, click on Projects -> Project Search. Once there, on the left hand side you have a number of search options:
My Searches: This is where it will show your Saved Searches. These are your searches that you have saved for future quick reference. For more information on Saved Searches, check out Saved Searches.
Keyword: Enter the word or phrase that you would like to search. Note that this is NOT case sensitive so you can enter uppercase and lowercase.
City: Enter the name of the city you wish to search. You can also leave this blank to search all cities.
Zones: Select the geographic region you wish to search. Select BC or leave blank to search the entire province.
My Projects / All Projects: You can search for projects you posted versus projects that have been posted on to BidCentral. This is applicable if you are posting projects up on to the platform for companies to bid on.
Dates: There are several options you can select here.
Date Created: Search by the creation date of the project.
Closing Date: Search for projects by their closing date.
Site Meeting: Search for projects by the date of their site meetings
Last Updated: Search for projects by the date they were last updated
Alternatively, you can leave this blank to search all dates.
Classification of Work: This is an optional field that lets you select whether to search for ICI (Industrial / Commercial / Institutional) projects, Civil projects, or both.
Owner Type: This is an optional field that lets you select what type of project owners you would like to search for. (Residential, College/University, Commercial/Office/Retail, Federal Government, Healthcare Facility, Municipal Government, Schools, Provincial Government).
Stage: The default Stage is set to Open. This is a required field that lets you select which stages you would like to search. Options include: PreBid, Open, Permits, Closed, Unofficial Results, Awarded, Cancelled. You can select one or more of these options by clicking on the names to filter your results. To search “all” categories, remove any current options (click x on Open) and search with this Stage set to blank.
Procurement Type: This field allows you to search by different types of project procurement stages. The default option is set to ALL, but other options include: Request for Information, Request for Standing Offer, Pre Qualification, Expression of Interest, Notice of Proposed Procurement, Request for Tender, Request for Proposal, Request for Quote.
Funding Type: This field will display the funding source for projects. These include Private, Public or P3. You can select one or more of these options to filter your results.
For more information on how to search for projects, check out this helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt3Wh_EblAc
Q: What is “My Searches”?
A: My Searches is a list of your saved search configurations that you can select. The goal of My Searches is to save you time by not having to re-enter the same search parameters over and over.
To setup a saved search, go into the project search screen and perform a search. Once you have searched, click on Save Search. It will then ask you to enter a name for the search…Give it a name that you will remember “Drywall on Vancouver Island” for example. Then hit Save.
The next time you go into the search projects screen, “Drywall on Vancouver Island” will be an option in the drop-down under My Searches. Select that option and click the magnify glass icon to perform the search.
You can setup as many saved searches as you like and it will save you a lot of time!
For more information on how to setup saved searches, check out this helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMvcOVzEG54
Q: What is the VIEW MAP button on the search page?
A: The View Map button allows you to perform a search and then view the results on a geographical Google map. As with Google maps, you can zoom in / out for more details, change terrains, do a street view and click on the red icons to view the specific projects. For more information on how to use the map view, check out this helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN84EEUX0FI
Once you’re finished with the map view you can click the “Go back to Results” link in the top right hand corner to return back to your search.
Q: How do I change the columns that are in the search results?
A: You can add or remove columns from the search result by clicking on the gear icon and selecting or de-selecting items. Remember to click Apply and it will add / remove the columns. Here is a list of all of the available columns you can add into your searches:
Project Number, Project Title, Closing Date, Owner, Addenda, Site Meeting, Project Location Zone, City, Tender Stage, Funding, Owner Number, Bidders, Project Contact(s), Addenda Notes
For more information on how to add / remove columns in your search results, check out this useful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npi6Nr1QNd8
Q: How do I sort my search results?
A: Once you have completed your search, you can sort by column by selecting the arrows on the header of the column to sort by this column. This will allow you to sort by newest to oldest (or oldest to newest), by closing date, and other columns alphabetically or numerically.
