Solutions

Solutions, under Bower in the sidebar, drafts a bid document for you: a Statement of Work, a solution proposal, a compliance matrix or an executive summary. Bower reads the tender and your files, asks what it still needs, prices the work from your organisation's rate card and price lists, and writes the document. You download it as PDF, Word, HTML or Markdown.

Solutions is in beta: check every figure and claim before you send a document.

Before you start

Generate needs a rate card. It is what your organisation charges for people and services: each role or item, per hour, day or each, ex GST. Owners and admins add it with Add rate card at the top of Solutions, and change it with Edit. Members can view it.

• Also called lists other names for a role, so "Lead Engineer" in a tender finds your Senior Engineer rate.
• Project management adds a % of the other labour cost, priced as the role you choose. The document states the basis under the pricing, for example "Project management: 10% of the other labour cost."
• An item priced each, such as an after-hours cutover, is listed as a service, not equipment.
• A change applies from the next Generate. Documents already made keep their rates.

Import a rate card from a file

In the rate-card dialog, Import from a file fills the lines from a file in Files, or one you upload.

• A spreadsheet (Excel or CSV) is free. It is read by its column names: role, also called, per, rate. Template CSV gives you a file with those columns.
• A PDF or Word file costs about 1 credit. Bower reads it. If it finds no rates, nothing is charged.
• Every rate is checked against the file. Lines to look at are flagged with the reason: two rates (the first is in), no rate, a rate that isn't in the file, or a rate that looks like it includes GST. Pick an answer or type the rate.
• Nothing is saved until you press Save. Undo puts the form back as it was.

Add a price list

Price lists are optional: supplier product prices. Without one, Bower asks you for each item's price. Owners and admins press Add price list and choose a CSV or Excel file. It costs 0 credits.

• The file needs three columns: part number, description and unit price, ex GST. Other columns are ignored. Template CSV gives you one.
• Columns are matched by name first. When a name isn't one we know, the column is guessed from what is in it, with the reason shown. Check them, and change any from its menu.
• If the prices look like they include GST, you're told before you add it.
• Rows that will be skipped are listed with their row number and why, such as a price of "POA", before and after Add. Fix them in the file and add it again, or Bower asks for those prices when it needs them. Section headings are skipped too; there is nothing to fix.
• A file without the columns says which are missing and which names work.

Start a solution

1. Press New solution, pick the document, and give it a title if you like. The document type is fixed from here on.
2. Tell Bower about the work in the chat: attach the tender documents with Files, or describe the scope. Bower asks for anything missing — the client, the vendor, who installs, the support term — and you can answer with the buttons or in your own words. What you say about your own business, such as "We are an Aruba partner", goes into the document once, as you said it.
3. If your organisation's ABN is linked, Bower offers past contracts that look relevant. Tick the ones to cite as experience, or choose None.
4. When the Brief on the right says Complete, press Generate.

In the Brief, About you holds what you said about your business; press Edit to change it. Prices names the rate card and price lists. Once a version exists, it names the ones that version was priced from.

You can also start from a conversation: ask Bower to write your SoW and it answers with Open in Solutions, which opens a new solution with the same documents attached.

Credits

A generated document is metered by stage, not by question. Before anything starts, Generate shows an estimate and your organisation's balance — for example "About 50–90 credits · balance 1,240" — and asks you to confirm. Credits come off as each stage finishes. If the balance is below the estimate the run still finishes; at zero it does not start until you top up or the balance resets.

While it runs

The chat shows each stage: reading, analysing, pricing, drafting, checking and, when the check finds something, one fix. You can leave the page; the run carries on and the solution's status shows in the list. Stop ends the run; finished stages stay charged.

If a line in the pricing has no price, the run pauses and asks. For each line, enter a unit price, a list price minus a %, or leave it as TBC. TBC lines are shown in the document and left out of the totals. Once every line is answered, the run continues.

A run that fails says why in one sentence. Try again starts a new run.

The document

Open on the file card shows the viewer:

• Document — the version as it will download. Look switches between Default and Plain; the choice is saved on the solution and costs nothing.
• Check report — the code checks every document passes, and the review: what it found and what the fix changed.
• Markdown — edit the text yourself. Saving makes a new version at 0 credits after the code checks; manual edits are not reviewed.
• Versions — every version, with what changed, its credits and who made it.
• To confirm — the TBC price lines and the open items from the analysis.

To change the document, ask in the chat — "make support 5 years" — and Bower revises the sections that change and saves the next version. A revise that leaves a line without a price asks first, the same way as the first run. A revise keeps the version's prices; a new solution re-prices from the current rate card and price lists.

Sharing

A solution is Private until you switch it to Organisation. Members of your organisation can then open it, read the chat and download every version. Only the person who created a solution can change it: generate, revise, stop or edit.

Deleting a solution

Open the More menu (⋯) at the top of the solution and choose Delete solution. The creator can delete it, and so can an owner or admin once it is shared with the organisation. Its versions and chat go; the files stay in Files. Stop a run before you delete. Deleting can't be undone.