When indexing finishes, BidScript assigns every document in your workspace one of three classifications. The classification determines how the document is treated for the rest of the bid — in particular, only Response Documents are broken down into sections and used for question extraction.
Classifications are applied automatically, and you can change any of them. It is worth reviewing them before you extract questions.
The three classifications
Response Document | A document the bidder writes into. |
Appendix | A supporting document that receives no bidder input. |
Other | A document the bidder reads to inform their response, but does not write into. |
Response Document
A response document is any document whose primary purpose is to receive written or structured output from the bidder. These are documents a supplier actively writes into, not just reads.
Examples:
Pricing templates with empty cells to be completed
Scored questionnaires with response boxes
Tender response forms, and ITT and RFP response packs
Supplier questionnaires and method-statement templates
Quality submission templates
Signs a document is a response document
Word limits given per question
Weightings or scores assigned to specific questions
Sections labelled "Bidder to respond" or "Supplier response"
Second-person instructions, such as "describe your approach…" or "provide your method for…"
These cues support the classification but none is decisive on its own. What matters is whether the document contains content the bidder is expected to write or complete.
Appendix
An appendix is a supporting document that accompanies the main tender pack but receives no bidder input.
This includes annexes, supplementary schedules, technical or commercial attachments, and reference materials.
Other
Other covers documents the bidder reads and uses to inform their response, but does not write into directly. It is the broadest category.
Examples:
Specifications, statements of requirements, technical and security requirements documents, and scope-of-works — these describe what the supplier's solution must meet, while the bidder's response is captured elsewhere
Instructions to tenderers, evaluation methodology documents, and general terms and conditions
Background and context material
Telling Other apart from Response Document
Look at the grammatical person the document uses. If it describes what "the system will do" or what "the supplier must hold", it is describing the solution in the third person, which makes it an Other document rather than a response document.
Where there is genuine doubt between the two, BidScript defaults to Other. This is the safer classification: it is easy to correct, and it avoids surfacing documents incorrectly as response documents.
Change a document's classification
In the Workspace tab, find the document's row.
Click the ⋯ icon on the far right of the row.
Select Change category.
Choose the correct classification.
If you reclassify a document as a Response Document, it is broken down into sections and becomes available for question extraction.
To reclassify several documents at once, select them first and then apply Change category to the whole selection.
Related articles
Document Workspace: Overview — how documents move from upload through to extracted questions.
Section classification in response documents — the next layer down, inside each response document.
BidBot question extraction — pulling questions from your classified response documents.