Getting Started
Welcome to flexureflow! This section will guide you through the basics of using our application.
Search paytems, bid prices and contracts
The following figure shows all filters and features for a typical pay item search for Illinois Department of Transportation. This can also be used to search for all pay items of a contract if you know the contract number.
Search contacts using keywords from contract/bulletin description
The following figure shows all filters and features that can be used to search IDOT contracts using keywords from contract/bulletin description.
Using plotting tool to estimate cost of a pay item
The following figure shows how to use the plotting tool to visualize the variation of the unit price of a pay item with the quantity. This includes plots for three different data points, as shown in the legend, which can be turned on/off by clicking.
Additional tools to estimate the cost of a pay item
Following are two additional options to estimate the unit price of a pay item:
Weighted Average Tool
Use the Weighted Average tool to see a quantity-weighted average unit price for the awarded bids in your current search results.
How it works
- Run your search filters
- Click “Calculate Weighted Average”
- Adjust the price range sliders
- The Lower bound slider lets you ignore very low awarded prices (potential lowball or outlier bids).
- The Upper bound slider lets you ignore very high awarded prices.
- Watch the numbers update. As you move the sliders:
- The weighted average is recalculated instantly.
- The line below the sliders shows how many awarded items are included in the calculation.
Apply item, district, county, and other filters as usual. The tool uses only the items in the current results.
The tool calculates the quantity-weighted average awarded unit price and displays it above the sliders.
Only items with awarded prices between the two sliders are used in the average.
Tip: Start with the default range, then slowly tighten the bounds to see how sensitive the weighted average is to low or high outliers.
AI-Powered Estimate
Effortlessly estimate the unit price of pay items with our AI-driven tool, designed using IDOT historical bid data. Get accurate estimates in seconds to enhance your cost analysis. Please be aware that predictions for 'Lump Sum' units may be less reliable, and the model will not generate estimates for pay items not included in its training data.