CFC tender software
Extract the line items from a tender spreadsheet, send price requests to the right suppliers and compare bids line by line, without retyping a thing.
| Line item | Qty | Berger SA | Novaco SA | Alptech SA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete C30/37 · m³ | 1 240 | 185.— | 179.— | 192.— |
| Vertical formwork · m² | 3 480 | 68.— | 72.— | 64.— |
| Rebar B500B · kg | 96 000 | 2.85 | 2.70 | 2.95 |
| Bid total | 284 500 | 271 900 | 296 200 | |
A tender rarely arrives clean. It is a spreadsheet of several hundred rows, with mixed lots, empty columns, long descriptions and units that change from one chapter to the next. The project manager spends half a day turning it into a workable table before writing to a single supplier.
Cantaia reads the document as it arrives — spreadsheet or PDF — and produces a structure of lots, chapters and line items, with quantity, unit and description. CFC codes and NPK nomenclatures are picked up when present; otherwise line items are grouped by material family, which is enough to start the price requests.
What changes
No more retyping
The engineering office's file is read as is. Line items come out with their quantity and unit, even on documents running to several hundred rows.
Targeted price requests
You assemble packages of line items and send them to different suppliers. Each request goes out with its own tracking code.
Aligned comparison
Incoming bids sit as columns next to the line items. Gap to the best price, total per supplier, remarks and conditions for each.
Follow-ups that go out
Suppliers who have not replied show up in the tracker. A follow-up is triggered from the screen, with the thread history behind it.
How it works
- Step 01
Drop the file
Spreadsheet, PDF or an email with an attachment. The document is filed under the project and analysed in the background.
- Step 02
Check the line items
The extracted list appears by lot and chapter. You fix a quantity, a unit, a description — corrections are kept.
- Step 03
Send the requests
You pick the line items, then the suppliers. The email goes out with the item detail and a tracking code unique to each recipient.
- Step 04
Compare and award
Replies file themselves into the table. You award the lot, and the accepted prices feed your internal price history.
Who it is for
This solution is for general contractors, construction management offices and finishing trades who receive tenders to compare rather than to issue. If you handle between two and twenty lots per project and the comparison currently happens in a home-made spreadsheet, that is exactly the gap Cantaia fills.
The prices you award do not disappear: they build your internal history, reused to place later bids in context. A CRB price reference acts as a benchmark while you have no history of your own on a given item.
Frequently asked
Which tender formats are accepted?
Spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls), PDF, and documents received as email attachments. Large files are processed in blocks, which avoids losing line items at the end of a document.
Do CFC codes have to be present?
No. When CFC or NPK codes appear in the document they are carried over as they are. Otherwise line items are grouped by material family, which is enough to build coherent price request packages.
How do supplier bids get back into the table?
Every price request carries a tracking code. When the supplier replies, the email is recognised and matched to the right request, then prices are extracted from the attachment and placed against the relevant line items.
Compare your next tender
Create your organisation, drop in a real tender file and look at what comes out. No credit card.