Running an analysis
Starting the AI review and understanding what happens during each phase.
Once your RFP and bid documents are uploaded and parsed, you're ready to run the analysis.
Before you start
Quick checklist:
- All RFP documents show Completed status (check the Upload RFP step in the sidebar)
- The bid has at least one document with Completed status
- You have enough credits (check your balance in the top bar)
Optional but recommended:
- Evaluation criteria are configured (gives you scoring and comparison data)
Starting the analysis
Click Analyze Bids in the sidebar workflow. You'll see a card for each bid showing its current status and document count.
Click Run Analysis on the bid you want to review. The analysis starts immediately and runs in the background — you can watch the agent activity panel on the right or navigate away and come back later.
The sidebar shows a spinning loader next to "Analyze Bids" while an analysis is running.
Analyzing multiple bids
If you have several bids ready, click Analyse All at the top of the Analyze Bids page. The system runs each bid's analysis one after another automatically — when one bid finishes, the next one starts. You don't need to babysit it.
If your organization runs out of credits mid-batch, the remaining bids will stop and you'll see why. Buy more credits and re-run.
Unsupported file warning
Before starting analysis, check the bid's document view. If any uploaded files have unsupported types (e.g., images, older Office formats), you'll see a warning listing them. These files are kept for reference but won't be included in the AI analysis. Make sure the important content is in supported formats.
What happens during analysis
The analysis moves through four phases. You'll see which phase is active in the agent activity panel on the right side of the results view.
Preparation
The AI reads your RFP documents to understand the requirements. If you've configured evaluation criteria or lots, it pulls those in too. This phase builds a map of what the vendor needs to deliver.
What you'll see: The agent reading through your RFP sections and extracting the structure of requirements.
Specialist review
Specialist agents jump in to extract specific information from the proposal. If you have evaluation criteria set up, each criterion gets its own specialist — "Does the vendor have ISO 9001?", "How many years of experience do they claim?", etc. If you have lots configured, each lot gets reviewed separately too.
What you'll see: Multiple agents working in parallel, each focused on a specific criterion or lot. The progress counter climbs quickly during this phase.
Main analysis
This is the heavy lifting. The lead analyst compares what the RFP asks for against what the proposal says. It reads specific sections, searches across documents for evidence, and raises findings when it spots gaps, contradictions, or missing information.
Findings from the specialist review are combined with the lead analyst's own findings. Each finding gets a provenance badge so you can see where it came from.
What you'll see: The progress counter climbing steadily as the agent works through its checklist of requirements.
Verification
A separate AI reviews the most serious findings (Critical and Major). Think of it as a second opinion. The verifier re-reads the evidence and either confirms the finding, downgrades its severity, or flags it as a false positive.
This phase exists because AI can make mistakes, and you want the high-severity stuff double-checked.
What you'll see: Each Critical and Major finding being reviewed one by one, with a verification status appearing next to each.
How long it takes
This depends on document volume and complexity:
| Scenario | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Small procurement (30-50 pages total) | 5-10 minutes |
| Medium procurement (100-200 pages) | 15-30 minutes |
| Large procurement (500+ pages, many criteria) | 30-60 minutes |
The progress indicators give you a sense of how far along things are. If you navigate away, the analysis keeps running — come back anytime to check progress.
For very large procurements, the AI may briefly pause mid-analysis to reorganize its working memory. This is normal — the progress counter will resume on its own after a few moments.
Viewing results
Once the analysis completes, the sidebar shows a green checkmark next to "Analyze Bids". Click the bid name in the sidebar's Bids section to see the full results, or use the View Results button on the Analyze Bids page.
See understanding your results for a detailed guide on reading the report.
Clarification requests
Sometimes the AI hits something ambiguous and needs your input. When this happens, the analysis pauses and waits — its workspace is preserved exactly as the agent left it, so it can pick up cleanly when you reply.
You'll see the question on the results page (and in the activity feed). Type your answer in the clarification panel and click Send Response. The agent resumes with your input factored in — no re-run, no lost progress.
Clarifications are rare. If you're not watching the run live, check back periodically — there's no time limit on how long a paused run can wait.
Credit cost
Each analysis uses credits. The amount depends on:
- How many pages of documents there are
- Whether you've configured criteria (more criteria = more work for the AI)
- Whether verification runs (it does by default for critical/major findings)
A typical analysis of a medium-sized procurement uses 10-30 credits. See pricing for more detail.
You can't cancel an analysis once it starts - it runs to completion. This is by design: partial results would be misleading. Make sure your documents are ready before hitting Analyze.
Re-running an analysis
You can run the analysis again on the same bid at any time — for example, after uploading updated documents or changing evaluation criteria. Each run is saved independently, and you can switch between them using the run selector dropdown on the results page. See run history for details.
When things go wrong
If an analysis seems stuck (no progress for a long time):
- Check if there's a clarification request waiting for you
- Refresh the page - the analysis runs server-side, so your browser just needs to reconnect
- For very large procurements, brief pauses are normal - the AI reorganizes its working memory and continues automatically
- If it's been more than 2 hours with no progress, contact support
See troubleshooting for more common issues.