Bidding with an Excel Spreadsheet

When Excel bidding is enabled, the sponsor prepares a special bidding spreadsheet for the bidders. If Excel bidding has been enabled for the Live Event, you upload an Excel file that contain your bids. Your bids must be contained in an Excel Spreadsheet with a very specific format where you can map columns to specific field data in SmartSource. Frequently project sponsors attach the Excel spreadsheet you should use to the project.

NOTE: For Excel bid reporting, see the Excel Bid Report.

»To bid with an Excel spreadsheet

If the sponsor has included the Excel bidding spreadsheet as an attachment, navigate to the Attachments section and click the name of the bidding spreadsheet.

Save the spreadsheet to your computer.
Open the spreadsheet.

NOTE: If you attempt to open attachments from a Mac, you may see a window with options to Cancel or Save. If they choose Save, the document appears on their desktop as an MPEG file. After they save the file to their desktop, they can select the file, then click File > Get Info to change the application their computer will use to open the file.

Type your bids for the lots and/or items in the highlighted column.

Save the spreadsheet.
From the Live Event window, click the name of the lot you want to bid on.
Click Submit Excel File.

The Upload Excel File window appears.

Click Browse to open the Choose File window.
Select your bidding spreadsheet and click Open.
SmartSource displays the Upload Excel File window with the selected file path and name displayed.
Click Submit. SmartSource submits bids from your bidding spreadsheet into the Live Event.

Rank Feedback

When a bid has been submitted, you will see how your bids compare to your competitors bids. The type of feedback you receive depends on how the project sponsor set up the project. They can choose one of the following options:

Rank only (bidders can only see their rank)
Rank with the lowest bid (bidders can see their rank as well as the current lowest bid)
Full disclosure (bidders can see other bidders represented by a letter, as well as the time and amount they last bid)

After seeing your ranking, you may decide to bid again. In Excel bidding, a you can simply leave the spreadsheet open, change the bids, save the spreadsheet, and resubmit the file in the Live Event.

NOTE: No matter which lot you have selected to bid on, all changes made in the spreadsheet will upload simultaneously.

Troubleshooting

There is a chance that you will see errors when submitting a bidding spreadsheet. Possible errors are:

A bid has tied the leading bidder's bid
A bid is higher than the previous bid
A bid did not beat the winning bid by the minimum bid decrement (or increment)

Remember to SAVE your spreadsheet before you submit it with new bids.