About Bidding

Bidding is a set of tools that allows agencies to specify work and absences (for example, vacations) and have employees make bid requests for their assignments.

In work bids, employees make bid requests to be assigned work. In absence bids, employees make bid requests to take absences. Bids are typically set up to include absence quotas, which prevent too many employees from taking absences at the same time.

When preparing an absence bid, accrual balances are considered. Accrual balances define how much absence time employees have accumulated and can select in a bid. Accrual balances can be imported from human resources systems to update accrual balances in Trapeze OPS.

Note: Bids can combine work and absences, but it's typically more practical to have them as separate bids.

Table 1. Bidding Phases and Their Related Tools
Phase	Related Screens/Tools	Description
Bid Data Setup	Absence Quota Types ancillary data screen Bid Units ancillary data screen Bid Questions ancillary data screen Bid Day Exception ancillary data screen OPS Roster Scenario ancillary data screen OPS Roster Type ancillary data screen OPS SignUp Periods ancillary data screen Day Types ancillary data screen Holidays ancillary data screen OPS Rosters Management screen Schedule Import screen	Bid data is added to Trapeze OPS so bids can be configured. This includes creating ancillary data and receiving schedule information from external systems. Fixed Route information is typically provided by Trapeze FX and/or Trapeze BlockBuster. Demand Response information is typically provided by Trapeze PASS. In addition to external sources you can use the OPS Rosters Management screen to create additional rosters or edit schedule information.
Bid Configuration	Bidding Configuration Wizard in the Bidding screen	Bids are created and configured. Bids can be absence (vacation) bids, work bids, or a combination of both.
Bid Configuration Modification	Bidding screen	After bid configuration, bids are updated with any required changes.
Bidding Timetable Creation	Bidding Time Parameters ancillary data screen	If your agency is using the OPS-Web Bidding Requests add-on, a bidding timetable specifies the order in which the employees make their bidding requests.
Bidding Requests	OPS-Web Bidding Requests add-on module	Employees make their bid selections. If this isn't done with the OPS-Web Bidding Requests add-on, it's done by asking the employees.
Bid Conduction	Employee Bid Wizard	Using the results of the bid requests and seniority consideration, bidding assignments are created for employees.
Alternate Roster Bid	Bid Alternate Roster screen	Used if you want to switch out one roster for another roster over a given period (for example, Thanksgiving Weekend). Roster must be used to access this screen.
Bid Finalization	None	Indicates no more changes will be made to bids.