Purchaser FAQs

How does it work?

As a purchasers you sign up and create a brief profile of yourself. You will then be asked to link your account to a paypal account. Once this is done you will be able to jump straight in and create a Request for Tender which will allow Suppliers to bid for your job in a competitive bidding process. You will be able to select specific Suppliers to bid for the job from your “favourites” or make the job available to any Supplier on the tender3D website. You will then be able to choose the right bid that suits you.


From here you will enter the custom built project management software - a set of milestones will be created with set payment for each milestone. You will be able to view all your files from here and make notes on any images etc that have been uploaded with our software allowing a record to be kept of all correspondence between the parties.


As each milestone is started, payment will be handed over to Tender3D to be held in escrow. Only when the Purchaser has signed off on a completed milestone is this payment released. The job continues in this fashion until all the milestones have been completed to the satisfaction of the Purchaser and as agreed between the parties.

How do I sign up?

As a purchaser the site is free to use.

  1. Click on the Purchaser sign up on the middle right hand side of the home page.
  2. Click on the “Sign Up” and “Pricing” link on the top link bar on the home page. Then click on “Purchaser Sign Up” in the middle of the page.
  3. Enter your details.
  4. You are now ready to start putting out RFTs (“Requests for tenders”)!
How do I post a RFT (Request for Tender)?

You can post a RFT by going to “Tenders” – “Request Tenders” on the main navigation menu at the top of the page.

  1. Give your RFT a title.
  2. Choose what category of 3d your project falls into. If it falls into multiple categories you can CTRL click on each one and they will all feature in your RFT.
  3. If you have a preference for the desired software used on your project you can choose that in “Desired Software. Again CTRL clicking will allow you to select multiple software packages.
  4. Enter your Budget – this will not be displayed to Suppliers. It is only for your own use to help you filter tenders.
  5. Enter a deadline from the drop down calendar.
  6. Enter a “preferred location” or “no preference”.
  7. Choose the number of weeks you would like you project posted for. The maximum is 4 weeks.
  8. “Post Visibility” – You can choose the privacy of your project.
    • Public - For maximum exposure to potential Suppliers choose “Public”, this means anybody that visits Tender3D will be able to view your RFT.
    • “Private” – only Suppliers logged into the site as Suppliers will be able to see this RFT.
    • “Send only to my favourite Suppliers” – the RFT will only be visible to Suppliers who you choose. ** Important**You need to choose these Suppliers before you create your RFT.
  9. Rights of Use
    • “Supplier may use work in their portfolio” - This means a Supplier will be able to use any work created for this project in any marketing or promotional material
    • “Supplier may not use work in their portfolio” - A Supplier will not be able to use any work created for this project in any marketing or promotional material
  10. Posting Type
    • “Standard” – this will be a standard RFT.
    • “Featured” – your RFT will have a “featured” tag on it, letting Suppliers know that you are serious about getting your project done and might be under deadline pressure.
    • Your RFT will only accessible for Premium Suppliers to bid on.
  11. You can now preview your post by clicking on “Preview Post”.
  12. You will be brought to the “Preview Page” showing your RFT. If you are happy with the RFT you can click through to “submit Project”. Your project is now live and open for bids!
How do I evaluate tenders and hire the right Supplier?

You can view your active RFTs from four places.

  • From your main dashboard – RFT Updates.
  • From your mini dashboard – Recently Updated RFTs.
  • From your main menu – Tenders/ View all RFTs.
  • From you quicklinks tab at the top right of the page – “Active RFTs”.
    1. This will bring you to a list of all your RFTs.
    2. Click on the RFT that you are interested in.
    3. This will bring you into the specific RFT and any updates to it.
    4. From here you will be able look at the Suppliers portfolio, tender and previous ratings.
    5. You can view the tender by simply clicking “View” on the actions menu to the right. This will show you all the details of the Suppliers bid.
    6. You can view the Suppliers profile here by clicking on the Suppliers underlined name or clicking on “Profile” in the actions menu to the right.
    7. This will reveal a dropdown with the Suppliers overview, history and portfolio. You can browse through this and decide whether the Supplier fits your needs.
    8. Once you have properly reviewed each tender you can decide how to deal with each one in an easy system designed to organise your tenders in the simplest way possible.
    9. You can leave a message, asking the Supplier for more information before you decide on the tender.
    10. You can shortlist the tender to the shortlist list. This will allow you to pick your favourite tenders and review them side by side.
    11. To access the shortlist, simply click on “Shortlist” beside the “All Tenders” button on top of the tender submissions.
    12. You can delete the tender by clicking on “Delete”. This will send the tender to the “Delete” list. You can easily restore tenders you might have deleted by mistake by going into the “Delete” list beside the “Shortlist” tab.
    13. You can award the job to the specific tender by pressing the “Award” button to the right of the actions list.
How do I manage a project?

You can access your active projects that have been awarded to Suppliers in a number of ways.

  • From your main dashboard – Active Project Updates.
  • From your mini dashboard – Recently Updated Active Projects.
  • From your main menu – Projects/ Active Projects.
  • From you quicklinks tab at the top right of the page – Active projects.
    1. You will see your list of Active Projects here. Click on the one you want to view.
    2. This will bring you to your “Project Overview” where you can view all the information you need to know about your project such as original RFT/ Winning bid/ Due date/ Project milestones/ Uploaded files/ Make a Payment and Project history.
    3. You can also create a Dispute from here if you are unsatisfied with the way the project is progressing.
    4. Click on “Uploaded Files” to gain access to any files that have been uploaded over the projects life cycle.
    5. Click on “Make A Payment” to pay for an upcoming milestone.
    6. Click on “Project History” to see a blow by blow account of the projects life cycle so far.
    7. To view individual milestones you can click on the “Milestone” tabs to the left of the screen.
      • You can view previous signed off milestones here with their complete history.    
      • You can also view current and upcoming milestones and leave new messages and view uploaded content or messages from the Supplier.
      • You can pay for the milestone here by clicking on the Paypal button.
      • You can sign off a milestone here when the milestone has been finished. This will release the funds from the escrow to the supplier
Why cant I send the amount of money I want?

We recommend that everybody verify their Paypal when they sign up for Tender3D. If your account isn’t verified then Payapl will set limits on the size of your transactions and the number of transactions you can process a month.


Verifying your paypal account is simple but can take between 3-5 days. You can find all the details you need to know about verifying your paypal account here

So how do I pay?

Purchasers can pay easily using either their existing Paypal account or by setting up a new account. You will be flagged at every stage of payment and the Paypal logo will be clearly displayed. You can just click on this to bring you through to Paypal which will then lead you through the payment process. At the moment Tender3D is set up for transactions to be paid through Paypal. While this will change in the future to embrace more payment methods, Paypal is currently the only option.

How do I rate a Supplier after a job?

After a successful project you will be asked to rate your Supplier. This is a great way for your Supplier to build up a reputation for quality service or, receive a review for unsatisfactory service. We would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a review after every project as it gives other Purchasers more information in making a decision for future RFTs in respect of the Suppliers. You simply click on the star rating (out of five) and leave a short review about the pros or cons of your Supplier.

What if both parties agree to changes in the scope of the project? If both parties agree to a change in the scope of the Tender then we would strongly recommend that a new Milestone be created which would then alter the terms of the existing contract between the parties with respect to that amendment.
How do I create a dispute?

If either the Purchaser or the Supplier feels they can no longer work with the other then a dispute can be flagged. To do this you can click on “create dispute” in the project overview box. A member of the Tender3D team will then be notified. Once a dispute is resolved both parties will be informed of the decision. It is Tender3D policy that the Purchaser will be charged the administration fees for whatever money they have put through on the disputed milestone.