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Creating a Project

Creating a New Project for an RFP or Security Questionnaire

Tom Ritzker avatar
Written by Tom Ritzker
Updated yesterday

Overview

In AutoRFP, a Project comprises all the questionnaires related to a specific opportunity. A single Project can contain multiple documents, including the RFP documents and other elements like Security Questionnaires.

This guide will walk you through creating a project and importing response documents from Word, Excel, PDF and Web Portal sources. If this is your first time completing an import, we recommend reading this entire guide.

Video Guide

Create the Project

  1. From your dashboard, locate the "Projects" section.

  2. Click the "Create Project" button.

Upload Project Requirements

You have two modes for creating project requirements:

Option 1: Upload Files

Upload one or multiple Word, Excel, or PDF files containing your requirements (you can also upload zips containing these files). After uploading, you'll be redirected to the project importer to choose the requirements for import.

Option 2: Web Portal

Create a blank project and add requirements using the Chrome extension. This is useful when working with a project issued via an online portal.

For more information on using the Web Extension, please review the guide.

Enter Project Details

  • Customer Name: Specify the organisation issuing the project.

  • Customer Owner (optional): Receive notifications when the Project is complete.

  • Project Name: Assign a name for identification (e.g., "CRM Procurement 2023").

  • Project Owner: Receives more detailed notifications on the Project progress.

  • Description (optional): Summarise the project's purpose.

  • Collaborators (optional): Add team members working on the project.

  • Due Date: Define the project's deadline.

  • Project Analysis: The AI analyst will run your preset questions and allow you to ask a one-off question at the bottom of the view. See our article on the Project Analysis feature for instructions on setup.

File Importer Explained

For AutoRFP.ai to generate accurate responses, you must first make selections to highlight which areas of the document you want the response engine to scan.

Selecting Requirements

Once you are in the project importer screen you can proceed to select requirements, responses, compliance, sections, info and more.

Click on the first requirement/question on the document viewer. Note that you do not have to manually highlight the text, you can simply click on a line and it will capture that piece of information.

Select "Requirement" from the list that shows up once clicked. Requirements are the only mandatory selection for you to use AutoRFP.ai.

In Excel, the system will try to detect all of the other requirements that match the format automatically. Word documents may require more manual selections due to the shifting formats within the document.

Using the Smart-Select Feature

The Smart-Select feature will have the system comb through the document tab, and select cells within the same column. If turned on before importing a document, the system will attempt to make selections in the document on it's own. If you toggle on Smart-Selection while working, it will attempt to detect similar cells after you make your first selection. This feature is most effective in excel format or documents that are laid out in a very orderly fashion.

Requirements

Requirement: AutoRFP defines a requirement as any question or statement that will be met with a response within our system. This is the most common element to import.

Example:

Child Requirement: Consider using the child requirement selection when you want an item to be answered separately but would like the response engine to consider the context of a parent requirement when drafting a response.

Example:

Combined Requirement: This selection will merge multiple cells, or points into one requirement. Use this selection where one response is needed for multiple cells of requirements horizontally or vertically.

Example:

Responses

Responses: AutoRFP defines responses as the selections directly correlated to a requirement. Use responses to export into a customer's formatted document, including Excel and Word Tables. If this is not selected, you can only export into standard template formats and not back into your customer's format.

Ensure you select a response for each requirement you want to export into the customer's format.

Example:

Compliance Dropdowns

Dropdowns can be used within tables to denote a particular set of responses to a requirement, to be answered within a singular table cell. For more information on how to use dropdowns, click here.

Horizontal Compliance Response Columns

Response columns can be used within tables to mark compliance horizontally. To use response columns, simply highlight the columns within a table row to bring up the option to mark the columns:

By default, AutoRFP.ai will detect the table headings and automatically mark them with the column headers.

For more information on using response columns, click here.

Tip: Key-binds can help speed up the importing process. to learn them see the Guide Tab on the importer.

IDs Sections & Subsections

ID: Searchable Identifiers for a requirement (could be numbers or text).

Section: Breaks the document into categories (e.g. Functional & Non-Functional) that can then be filtered in the responses view.

Subsection: Breaks Sections down further into sub-categories such as (Implementation & SLA)..

Tabs in Excel documents can also be marked as sections:

Example:

Importer Tips and Tricks

Table Selection

When selecting content in tables, you can:

  • Click and drag to select multiple cells.

  • Click in one cell, and then Shift+Click in another cell to select all of the cells in-between.

Selection

Unmarking Cells

First, select the cells you wish to unmark. After selecting, you can either use the 'Unmark' button or press the esc key.

Select Column

This will select all the cells below the selected cell in a column, useful for manual selection in complex excel documents.

Undo Action: Press Ctrl + Z or to undo recent actions. You can also use the "Undo" button in the toolbar.

You can also clear all the markings for a particular tab in a spreadsheet by clicking the three dots in the upper right of the importer and selecting “Clear all Selections”.

Zoom +/-

Choose Source Documents

Choose the content for the system to reference when responding to this project's requirements. In most cases you can simply select all of your content. Only select specific content if you want to deliberately omit information from other sources, or are confident in the exact place you want the response engine to search. You can later refine your content selections in the "Edit Project" tab of your live project.

You can also select information you are sourcing by tags if you are utilizing the tags function. Note that this is not absolutely necessary as the AI response engine will be searching the entirety of the content library for accurate first draft responses with the application of tags.

Set Response Mode

Use the response settings feature to calibrate the response engine's first draft answers. This can be adjusted from project to project as required.

Note: You cannot change response mode settings in a live project.

  • Profile: Concise, or standard. Standard allows for slightly longer answer format by default.

  • Mode: Specify the level of "AI" you want the response engine to incorporate. This is editable on a live project, as well as within the response editor.

  • Multi-lingual Feature: Bring documents from other languages into the system, work in your preferred language, and then export back to requestor's language.

  • Response Length: Set a limit on word or character count as defined in your proposal.

When you are happy with your Content selection, Tags (if applicable), and Response Settings go ahead and create your project.

Start Reviewing Responses!

Once you've imported your requirements, AutoRFP.ai will begin generating responses. You will automatically be taken to the Response Editor where you can review, collaborate, and export responses for your finalized RFP or Questionnaire.

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