Bid on a Project

Seek Clarifications from Buyers (prior to bidding)
You can seek project clarifications from Buyers before placing your bid. This way, you can first clear your doubts on the scope of the project or any other issue at hand and then place a bid with all the information available to you.

'Pro' and 'Vantage' members can seek unlimited clarifications from Buyers while 'Basic' and 'Individual' members have 3 and 15 clarifications available to them every month. "Seek Clarification" link is available on the Project Details page.  



Click the 'Seek Clarification' link and send a clarification request to the buyer.



To view the clarifications sent to you by the buyer, please visit your 'Inbox' tab and select the 'Project Clarifications' link.



Click any message to view the detailed description. You will also be informed by an email when a buyer sends you any clarification. 

       

How do I submit a bid? 
Bidding on a project requires two actions on your part:

• Describing your Bid Proposal, and
  
• Creating a Project Contract
  

Project Contract is a mutual agreement between buyer and service provider on scope, deliverables, payment and schedule of a project. This offers an increased transparency, mutual trust, and sustained monitoring of the project at every stage. Each project has a Project Contract as accepted by both the parties to the project.

Project Contract may consist of Milestones, Work Hours, Tasks, Project Duration and Bid Amount, depending upon the type of the project - Hourly, Pay Per Task or Fixed Price. You should make sure that the Project Contract clearly defines your understanding of the deliverables, hours available and the payment terms. The milestones section is applicable for Fixed Price projects only. It outlines when and how much the provider will be paid after the completion of each milestone..

You can search for projects through LimeExchange search bar and place a bid by clicking the "Bid for free" link appearing below each search result. You can also click the Project Name on the search results page, view the full project details, and then click the "Bid on this Project" link from the left side menu to place your bid.

In the Bid Proposal section, you can explain your understanding of the project. This may encourage the Buyer to award you the project.

The next step is to create a Project Contract. If you are bidding on a Fixed Price project you may choose to create single-amount bid for the entire project or create a schedule-based bid. A scheduled-based bid means multiple milestones and corresponding project amounts for each part delivery of project. You can also send an attachment with your bid. The attachment could be a brief profile or a formal proposal.



If it is an Hourly project then make sure you create a realistic project contract mentioning your rate, work hours and duration by which you will complete the project. It is recommended to provide exact details to help buyer understand your bid clearly while increasing your chances of winning the project.

If it is a Pay Per Task then it is important to indicate your rate per task, number of tasks you can complete each week, and the total number of weeks you will take to complete the project. The project contract should be filled realistically after understanding the project requirement, timelines and most importantly the buyer’s budget.

After creating a project contract, you can submit your bid. You can also update your bid by clicking on "View my bid" from the project details and search result page. 

After you place your bid, you can visit the project details page and communicate with the buyer using the Project Message Board.

W9 Form
If the Buyer has requested LimeExchange 1099 Tax Form service on the project, we will require your W9 Form (1099 is applicable to U.S. based persons only). To know more about 1099 and W9 Form, please visit our Help section for '1099 Service'.

Bid Invitations
To view the bid invitations received by you:

• Go to the "Inbox" tab.
• Click on "Bid Invitations" link.
  
• Click on a bid invitation to view its detailed description. You can also view the project details/buyer profile and bid on the project.

Notifications
If you have configured notifications for projects, you would be notified via email as per your notification preferences. Click on the link contained in the email to visit the project details page where you can place a bid by clicking on "Bid on this Project".

Email notifications for Featured Projects
We recommend you to set up a notification for Featured Projects and start getting updates on all such projects of your interest.