When setting up a solicitation, you will be prompted to choose your procedure type in the tab labeled "Procedure" on the right hand side of the screen. When choosing your procedure type, you will notice 5 setting options below:
Offset time between end of offer phase and visibility of offers - This setting will create a period of time between the end of the offer phase and when you, the buyer or evaluator, can see the offers. If this setting is not chosen, the offers will be visible as soon as the offer phase expires.
*This option is for sealed procedure types only*
Evaluate survey without price visibility - This setting will hide the price of offers until after the surveys have been evaluated. This is used for buyers/evaluators to be able to evaluate the survey and quality of responses without knowing the price of the offer in the back of their mind. After evaluating and giving the score of the offers, the prices will become visible.
Best and Final Offer Phase - Also known as "BAFO", this allows for negotiation between the buyer and suppliers. The way this works in the system is any supplier who you would like a final offer from, you can move to the BAFO Phase, where they will have a certain amount of time (time chosen by your organization) to give their BAFO. This can be done for one or multiple suppliers. Similar to the Offer Phase, when the BAFO phase ends, all offers will be visible to the buyer/evaluator.
Pre-Award Supplier Verification: - Basically what this does is after the evaluation phase, the "awarded" supplier(s) will be moved to this "supplier verification phase" where before confirming their award, they will need to answer additional questions (typically asking for certificates). This is used so that not every supplier is asked for certificates etc. in the offer phase, saving time for the buyer and the supplier.
Apply BAFO-verification: This is essentially the same as the Pre-Award Supplier Verification, however instead this verification phase takes place after the BAFO Phase (both described above).