Bank Overview - Creating A Bank

A Bank is primarily a container that holds a group of Lines. These Lines can be chosen automatically by the program to be placed in the Bank because they contain the criteria that matches your request. A Bank can also be created by manually selecting Lines from the Unselected Lines , and then placing them in a Bank yourself without using the search process. The Lines in the Banks will be submitted in exactly the order that they are displayed as one large bid to either your LOFBID or RLFBID unless you edit the order your Banks , or change the order of the Lines that are in the Banks.

Regardless of how many Banks you have created, each one is identical in its function and purpose. You may create an unlimited number of Banks, and each one can be edited or deleted at any time. Once a Line becomes part of a Bank, either automatically through a search or manually by the user, it has effectively been removed from the pool of available Lines and is unaffected by any additional searches. Manual bidding is discussed under a different topic. This section relates to creating a Bank automatically through the search process.

Starting on the Criteria Selection screen, you must first create a combination of criteria  with which to Search.

Next, click on the Search button at the bottom to initiate a search for all of the Lines in the bid package that fit this combination of criteria.

The resulting number of Lines that fit this particular combination of criteria are displayed in the blue box in the top, left hand corner of the screen.

The large number '1' is the Bank number. The smaller number (18) is the number of Lines in the Bank that fit the criteria after the search. (The blank, blacked out area on these graphics is not normally there. They have been blacked out so as not to create any confusion with the additional information that is displayed there while this topic is explained. That area is called the Bank Summary Window .)

**Please be aware that you are able to conduct additional searches on the same Bank using slightly (or considerably) different types and number of criteria. This allows you to play "what if" games until the combination of criteria, and the resulting number of Lines, is exactly what you want. It is recommended, at least in the beginning until you become more familar with the program, that you add only one criterion at a time in between the searches while working on a particular Bank. This technique will help you to better understand the results of your search. Otherwise you may end up creating a combination of criteria that simply does not exist, and the result of your search will be zero.

In this next graphic, notice the slightly changed combination of criteria (in the 3rd criterion - 0900 is changed to 1100), and the resulting different number of Lines (15) - in the same Bank.

Once you are satisfied with your results, you can then click on the 'Add' button...

...and begin the process again on a new Bank 2. (You can click on the View button at any time after a Search to view the Lines in a Bank .)

Notice that there is now a new Bank 2 ready to go. There has not yet been any criteria selected for this Bank. Also notice that the 15 Lines in Bank 1 remain saved and intact.

Now click on the Recall button.

This action causes the the criteria from Bank 1 to be applied to Bank 2.

Now please pay attention to the next couple of paragraphs. This is where some critical understanding needs to take place.

Since the criteria that we recalled for Bank 2 is identical to that of Bank 1, then if we were to initiate a search for Bank 2, the result of the search would be zero Lines. That is because all of the Lines that fit this particular combination of criteria have already been selected and placed into Bank 1. There are no more. Period. A Line cannot exist in more then one place at a time. It is always either selected and placed into one Bank only, or it is in the Unselected Lines , which is basically all of the Lines in the bid package that have not yet been selected.

The only way to produce additional and different Lines for Bank 2 is by adjusting the criteria. Please note, when you adjust the criteria it must be less restrictive, not more, then in the previous Bank.

For example, let's look at the 5th criterion of "250 dollars Holiday Pay (Min)". This means $250 is the least amount of holiday pay that we will accept in our Line. This also means that all of the Lines that have $250 or more of holiday pay (along with the other criteria) have already been included in the first search for Bank 1. If we were to adjust that criterion to $350 for Bank 2, and then did a search, we would still end up with zero Lines. If $250 is the least amount that we will accept, then the amount of $350 has already been covered by this criterion because it is more then $250. What we would need to do is adjust the criterion in the other direction. An amount of $150 would produce additional Lines because now we are saying that the least amount that we will accept is lower then before. This places all of the Lines with the higher amount in Bank 1, and all of the Lines with this next lower amount in Bank 2. This keeps the user in control of the order of the quality of the Lines as they see fit.

Notice in this next graphic that the minimum holiday pay amount has been changed to $150. And the result of the Search is an additional 6 Lines for Bank 2.

Now click on the 'Add' button...

...which creates a new, empty Bank 3.

This time, we will use a combination of days on and off as the criteria for Bank 3.

The result is an additional 17 Lines for Bank 3.

Although we are able to use any combination of criteria we want for each successive Bank, the smartest thing to do is to continue to use only slight adjustments of the criteria so that you are better able to understand the results of your search. BidPlus allows you to create an unlimited number of Banks.

Now that you understand what a Bank is and how it works, it is time to understand how you are able to edit your Banks for even greater control and flexibility. For details on Bank editing, click here.