Compare the bids
Three prices for three different jobs isn't a comparison. Mark what each bid covers, price the gaps, and see which one is actually cheapest.
The low bid is usually low for a reason
Three roofers quote $41,000, $47,000 and $48,500 and the decision looks obvious. Then the cheapest one turns out not to be tearing off the old roof, not pulling the permit, and not taking the debris away — none of which was hidden, exactly, it just wasn’t mentioned. By the time that surfaces the crew is on site, nobody else is competing for the work, and the price of the missing pieces is whatever it is.
This is why the unit of comparison here is the scope line, not the bidder. You list what the job actually involves, mark every bid as including, excluding or silent on each line, and price what’s missing. The comparable total is every bid brought up to the same job. Often it reorders them.
Silence costs more than an exclusion
A bidder who writes “permit by owner” has done you a favor — you can price it. A bid that simply never mentions the permit leaves both of you assuming, and assumptions get settled by change order. The tool marks those separately for that reason, and it will not quietly treat an unpriced gap as free.
Where it meets the other tools
Big items usually arrive here from the capital plan — the roof came due, so it goes out to bid. Once you have picked someone, check their insurance is current on the COI register before the award, not after, and if the building is pre-1978 and this disturbs paint, the lead rule check decides who is allowed to do it.
Awarding it turns the winning bid into a work order, and anything added afterwards belongs on a change order — which is the document that stops the savings you just found leaking back out. Bidders you enter are saved to your address book, so the next time this comes around you already have them.
A comparison of figures you enter. CompliMaint does not price work, solicit bids, recommend contractors or judge whether a bid is reasonable — the scope, the prices and the cost of every gap are yours. Everything runs on your device.