EdiBuild Europe DRAFT eTendering FAQ

Version Information

FAQ Revision K - 02/02/2009

Terminology and Notation

The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, when they appear in this document, are to be interpreted as described in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comments (RFC) 2119.1

Example – A representation of a definition or a rule. Examples are informative.

[Note] – Explanatory information. Notes are informative.

[Rn] – Identification of a rule that requires conformance. Rules are normative. In order to ensure continuity across versions of the specification, rule numbers that are deleted will not be re-issued, and any new rules will be assigned the next higher number - regardless of location in the text.

Introduction

Here are some frequently asked questions and answers concerning the EdiBuild Europe e-Tendering draft standard implementation. The draft standard, derived from UN/CEFACT e-Tendering standard of which it is a proposed update, includes two documents: InvitationToTenderDetails and Tender.


FAQ Index

Q1: How do you deal with a Breakdown Statement in an Invitation to Tender and a Breakdown Statement in a Tender (Offer)?

Q2: An Invitation to Tender (Details) has a Project Description Breakdown Statement and a Price List Breakdown Statement. What Breakdown Statements should be included in the Tender?

Q3: How do you link an item in a Project Description Breakdown Statement to an item in a Price List Breakdown Statement?

Q4: How do you identify that a price has been given for information only?

Q5: If you have a number of items which have the same common description how should this be dealt with?

Q6: How do you use ID, PrimaryClassificationCode and AlternativeClassificationCode elements?

Q7: What are the requirements for Item IDs?

Q8: Is there a recommended format for ebXML filenames?

Q9: How should you use the EdiBuild Europe Code Lists?

Q10: What are the right Code Values to use for TenderBreakdownStatement/Type and TenderBreakdownStatement/Type (at the Breakdown Statement level)?

Q11: Where do you put Prices?

Q12: How do you deal with Lump Sums?

Q13: How do you indicate if you require, or do not require, sub-totalling at a particular GroupedWorkItem level?


Q1: How do you deal with a Breakdown Statement in an Invitation to Tender and a Breakdown Statement in a Tender (Offer)?

A: Pending an updated standard which will have two different, explicit, ABIEs please see Rules R17, R18, R19 and R20 below.

[R17] For the Invitation to Tender it is RECOMMENDED that you create two different Bills of Quantities, one describing the project (Project Decription) with the descriptions and quantities, and the other for prices (Price List).

[R18] For the Tender (Offer) it is RECOMMENDED that your create a Breakdown Statement containing just the prices, and add the "Project Description" Breakdown Statement from the Invitation to Tender for complete information and to calculate the tender amount(s).

[R19] For the Project Description Breakdown Statement the TenderBreakdownStatement/Name SHOULD be "Project Description" AND TenderBreakdownStatement/Type SHOULD be "PRD".

[R20] For the Price List Breakdown Statement the TenderBreakdownStatement/Name SHOULD be "Price List" AND TenderBreakdownStatement/Type SHOULD be "PRI".

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Q2: An Invitation to Tender (Details) has a Project Description Breakdown Statement and a Price List Breakdown Statement. What Breakdown Statements should be included in the Tender?

A: See Rules R4, R5, and R6 below.

[R4] The Tender SHOULD include the Price List Breakdown Statement (now priced) AND the Project Description Breakdown Statement (not priced) to allow for computation of total prices and/or control the pricing context, for example where the prices in the price list are restricted to this tender.

[R5] The GroupedBasicWorkItem/IDs, or ItemBasicWorkItem/IDs MUST be present AND MUST be the same as the IDs in the Invitation to Tender (details).

[R6] The descriptions SHOULD be repeated in the Tender Breakdown Statement(s) for auditability purposes.

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Q3: How do you link an item in a Project Description Breakdown Statement to an item in a Price List Breakdown Statement?

A: See Rules R1 and R2 below.

[R1] In the Project Description Breakdown Statement, ItemBasicWorkItem/TypeCode MUST be "UPR" (from the EBPRT Code List).

[R2] In the Project Description Breakdown Statement, ItemBasicWorkItem/PriceListID MUST be the ItemBasicWorkItem/ID of the referred to item in the Price List Breakdown Statement AND ItemBasicWorkItem/ID/@schemeID MUST be the TenderBreakdownStatement/ID of the Price List Breakdown Statement.

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Q4: How do you identify that a price has been given for information only?

A: See Rule R3 below.

[R3] In the Project Description Breakdown Statement: TotalCalculatedPrice/TypeCode MUST be "INF" (from the EBPRT Code List).

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Q5: If you have a number of items which have the same common description how should this be dealt with?

A: The preferred way to deal with items that refer to common descriptions is to use GroupedWorkItems for the common parts of the description so that the full description of a BasicWorkItem is the concatenation of it's "parent" GroupedWorkItems descriptions. The hierarchy of common descriptions in a Description Breakdown Statement and the hierarchy of common descriptions in a Price List Breakdown Statement should be consistent. An alternative way is to reference common description items outside the hierarchy. Also see Rules R7, R8, R9 and R10 below, which apply to both solutions.

[R7] In an Invitation to Tender Details, an ItemBasicWorkItem, or ItemGroupedWorkItem with a common description, the TypeCode MUST be “DES“, from Code List EBWIT, which indicates a description common to all Work Items that reference this Work Item.

[R8] In an Invitation to Tender Details, an ItemBasicWorkItem, or ItemGroupedWorkItem with a common description, the RequestCode MUST be “NTP“ for “not to be priced“."

[R9] An ItemBasicWorkItem, or ItemGroupedWorkItem with a specific price referring to a common description MUST have a Work Item Type “RGD“ which indicates that the description incorporates a common description.

[R10] An ItemBasicWorkItem, or ItemGroupedWorkItem with a specific price referring to a common description MUST have a ReferenceID with a value of the ID of the common description item or GroupedWorkItem to which it refers.

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Q6: How do you use ID, PrimaryClassificationCode and AlternativeClassificationCode elements?

A: The ID is a unique "internal" ID which is used to identify an Item or GroupedWorkItem in a Bill of Quantities. It is not intended that this ID is displayed to users. The PrimaryClassificationCode should define the structure of the project. The AlternativeClassificationCode can be used to index a Breakdown Statement in as many ways as required such as a reference to a Standard Library.

[R23] To display an Item Reference to users you SHOULD use PrimaryClassificationCode and SHOULD NOT use ID.

[R24] The PrimaryClassificationCode SHOULD define the structure of the project. By default, the structure is based on the hierarchy of the Bill of Quantities and the PrimaryClassificationCode SHOULD be consistent with this hierarchy.

[R25] The AlternativeClassificationCode MAY be used to index a Breakdown Statement in as many ways as required.

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Q7: What are the requirements for Item IDs?

A: They are used to link the item offered to that in the tender and data in a database. Rules R11 and R12 below apply.

[R11] Item ID's MUST be unique for the issuer and mention the corresponding Code List Scheme adopted.

[R12] Item ID's MUST be unique in the identification scheme to which they refer.

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Q8: Is there a recommended format for ebXML filenames?

A: A naming convention has been proposed, concatenating the following parameters: Procurement Project ID (with a 12 character limit), Lot number (LotNN), Variant number (VarianteNN), Bidder ID (with a 12 character limit), VXY: V+ version number, .ZZZ: file extension (.xml for ebXML documents). See Rules R13, R14 and R15 below.

[R13] It is RECOMMENDED that this naming convention is used until a format is internationally agreed.

[R14] The parameters in the filename SHOULD be separated by an underscore ( _ ) character with the exception of the file extension which MUST be preceded by a decimal point character (.).

[R15] It is RECOMMENDED that the filename, excluding the file extension, is given in TenderInvitationDocument/ID and TenderDocument/ID.

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Q9: How should you use the EdiBuild Europe Code Lists?

A: A file containing all EdiBuild Code Lists is included in the XML Schema Pack.

[R16] In some cases there are several Code Lists can be used. Therefore for all code Elements, the attributes "list Name" and "List Agency Name" MUST be included.

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Q10: What are the right Code Values to use for TenderBreakdownStatement/Type and TenderBreakdownStatement/Type (at the Breakdown Statement level)?

A: Please see table below.

Code values to use at the Breakdown Statement level (only yellow parts are mandatory)
Case 1: Project description and Price list (including item descriptions) are in separate Breakdown Statements
Case 2: Project description and Price list are merged in a single Breakdown Statement
 
Document Type Breakdown Statement Type Code (Code List EBBQT) Tendering Request Code (Code List EBREQ) Information Status (NOTE SUPERSEDED ELEMENT. NOW ASSOCIATED ABIE. NO CODE LIST.]
List of common code values PRD (Project description) TBR (To be returned) Quantified and priced
PRI (Price list) NTR (Not to be returned) Quantified and unpriced
PDP (Project description and price list) TBQ (To be quantified) Not quantified and unpriced
  NTQ (Not to be quantified) Not quantified and priced
  TBP (To be priced)  
  NTP (Not to be priced)  
 
InvitationToTenderDetails (Case 1) PRD (Project description) TBR (To be returned) or NTR (Not to be returned) (default value) and Quantified and unpriced (default value)
TBQ (To be quantified) or NTQ (not to be quantified) (default value) and Not quantified and unpriced
NTP (Not to be priced) (default value)  
PRI (Price list) TBP (To be priced) Not quantified and Unpriced (default value)
InvitationToTenderDetails (Case 2) PDP (Project description and Price list) TBP (To be priced) Unpriced (default value), quantified; (default value) or Not Quantified
 
Tender (Case 1) Project description should not be returned    
PRI (Price list)   Priced
Tender (Case 2) PDP (Project description and Price list)   Priced
 
Coded values are available in the Code Lists spreadsheet included in the EdiBuild Europe e-Tendering Bundle.
  Yellow = mandatory
The code values at Grouped Work Item or Basic Work Item levels are needed only if different from the upper level values.

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Q11: Where do you put Prices?

A: Unit Prices go in UnitCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount elements and Total Prices go in TotalCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount elements at the relevant level within the Breakdown Statement.

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Q12: How do you deal with Lump Sums?

A: A Lump Sum can be indicated in the Unit of Measure and/or the Price Type. If the Bidder is required to submit a Lump Sum price for an item then the Unit of Measure in the Item Description will be a Lump Sum Item (Case 1). If the item has a quantity and unit of measure e.g. m2 but the Bidder wants to indicate that his price for that item is a Lump Sum (rather than a rate), and is therefore not dependent on the quantity, then he indicates that by marking the Price as a Lump Sum (Case 2). These two Cases are are dealt with in Rules R21 and R22 below.

[R21] Case 1: In the Invitation to Tender Details Breakdown Statement ItemBasicWorkItem/TotalQuantity MUST be 1 AND ItemBasicWorkItem/TotalQuantity/@unitCode="LS". In the Tender Breakdown Statement the UnitCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount MUST be 0 (nil) AND TotalCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount MUST be the lump sum amount.

[R22] Case 2: In the Invitation to Tender Details Breakdown Statement ItemBasicWorkItem/TotalQuantity SHOULD be the appropriate quantity AND ItemBasicWorkItem/TotalQuantity/@unitCode SHOULD be the appropriate Unit of Measure. In the Tender Breakdown Statement the UnitCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount MUST be 0 (nil) AND TotalCalculatedPrice/ChargeAmount MUST be the lump sum amount AND TotalCalculatedPrice/TypeCode MUST be "LSI" (from Code List EBPRT).

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Q13: How do you indicate if you require, or do not require, sub-totalling at a particular GroupedWorkItem level?

A: Use code values "STR" or "NST" (from Code List EBREQ) in the RequestCode element.

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