Write reusable answers, approve them, mark them stale or archive them as they age, keep them current with review dates, and insert approved answers into tender responses.
The Answer Library holds your organisation's reusable answers to questions that come up in tender after tender: company background, quality certifications, data protection, insurance, accessibility, social value. Each answer is written once, reviewed, approved and then inserted into responses. The library is shared across all tenders.
Open Answer Library in the Tenders menu.
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
Task | Permission |
|---|---|
Browse and search the library | View Tenders ( |
Add, edit, approve, mark stale, archive, restore and delete answers | Manage Answer Library & Past Submissions ( |
Insert an approved answer into a tender response | Create & Work on Tenders ( |
Library content outlives any single bid, so approving an answer is kept separate from ordinary bid work. Give Manage Answer Library & Past Submissions to the people who own your standard content. See roles and permissions.
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
Use the filters above the list, then choose Apply.
Filter | How it matches |
|---|---|
Status | One status, or All statuses. Applies as soon as you change it. |
Search | Any part of the title, question or answer text, ignoring upper and lower case. Press Enter or choose Apply. |
Tag | Entries that carry exactly this tag, including upper and lower case. |
The list shows the most-used answers first, then the most recently updated, a page at a time.
Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
Answer | The title, with the question underneath. |
Status | Where the answer is in its lifecycle. |
Tags | The answer's tags. |
Used | How many times the answer has been inserted into a response. |
Actions | Edit, Delete and the lifecycle actions available for the answer's status. |
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
Choose New answer.
Fill in the fields.
Choose Save. The answer is added as Draft.
Field | What to enter | Limits |
|---|---|---|
Short title | A name people will recognise in search results, such as "ISO 27001 certification". | Required. Up to 500 characters. |
Question / requirement this answers | The question as issuers usually phrase it. This is what search and the assistant match against. | Required. Up to 20,000 characters. |
Approved answer content | The answer text, written so it works in any tender. | Required. Up to 100,000 characters. |
Tags (comma-separated) | Topics for filtering, such as | Up to 50 tags. |
Review by date | When the answer should next be checked. | Optional. |
If any of the three required fields is empty, the form shows Title, question and answer are all required.
You can also create entries from a finished tender with Promote to library; see record the outcome.
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
Every answer has one of four statuses. The actions in the Actions column change it.
Status | Meaning | Actions |
|---|---|---|
Draft | Being written or changed. Cannot be inserted. | Approve when the wording and evidence are checked. Archive. |
Approved | Ready to reuse. Only approved answers can be inserted into responses. | Mark stale when the answer may be out of date. Archive. |
Stale | Flagged as possibly out of date. Cannot be inserted. | Approve it again once you have checked it is still correct. Archive it if it no longer applies. |
Archived | Kept for reference, no longer offered for reuse. | Restore returns it to Draft. |
Editing an Approved or Stale answer returns it to Draft. It must be approved again before anyone can insert it, so unchecked wording never reaches a bid.
Before you approve an answer, check that every claim is current and can be evidenced: certificate numbers and expiry dates, insurance limits, staff numbers and named references.
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
Set a Review by date on answers that go out of date, such as certifications, insurance and headcount. To change or remove the date, edit the answer, change or clear the date, and choose Save. Editing an approved answer returns it to Draft, so plan to approve it again.
Nothing changes automatically when a review date passes. Run the Answer Library Freshness & Reuse report in Reporting to see which answers are due for review or stale, how many are approved and how often answers are reused; see run and export a report. Use Mark stale on an approved answer you suspect is out of date, so nobody inserts it until it has been checked. If it is still correct, choose Approve again; if it needs changes, edit it, which returns it to Draft, and approve the new wording.
To remove an answer completely, choose Delete and confirm Delete answer. This cannot be undone. Archive an answer instead when you want to keep a record of what was used.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId}/documents/{documentId}/sections (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open the tender, go to Output documents and open the document, then use Insert from library under Section progress.
Open the tender, go to Output documents and open the document you are writing. The Document Sections page opens.
In Section progress, choose Insert from library on the section.
Search the approved answers and choose Insert on the one you want.
The dialog lists approved answers only, with how many times each has been used. Insert adds the answer at the cursor position in the section, or asks whether to replace the section's current text or add the answer after it. The answer's Used count goes up by one.
Tailor the inserted text to the tender: the buyer's name, the contract's scope and any figures the issuer asked for. See write, review and approve sections.
Product location: /tender/workspaces/{workspaceId}/chat (fallback: /tender/workspaces). Open the tender and choose Chat with AI.
Ask the Tender Assistant for library answers to a requirement, for example "Which library answers cover business continuity?". It searches the approved answers by meaning as well as by keyword, so an answer about "GDPR" can match a question about "data protection". With Create & Work on Tenders, you can ask it to insert a suggested answer into a section. See the Tender Assistant.
Product location: /tender/answer-library. Open Answer Library in Tenders.
The information security manager chooses New answer and enters the title "ISO 27001 certification", the question "Describe your information security management system and certifications", the answer text with the certificate number, scope and expiry, the tags security, certification, and a Review by date one month before the certificate expires.
After checking the evidence, the bid manager, who holds Manage Answer Library & Past Submissions, chooses Approve.
In a new tender, a response author opens the technical proposal, chooses Insert from library on the "Information security" section, searches for "27001" and chooses Insert.
When the certificate is renewed, the security manager edits the answer with the new expiry date. The answer returns to Draft, and the bid manager approves it again before the next tender uses it.
