Requesting a Clarification from Industry

An acceptance review must have been started for a company within a solicitation and category before sending individual clarifications.  

1. Select the Organization

1. Click the View Details button in the desired Solicitation and Category (see Figure 1).
2. Click on the desired Company/row.

Figure 1. The Program Official Dashboard displays the View Details link within a Solicitation and category.

Program officials use the Organization link during the Evaluation phase to view the Submission details. The left menu provides navigation to the Submission Details, Assignment, Technical Evaluation, Business Evaluation, Modify Score, Evaluator Uploads, and Clarification screens.

2. Select the Clarifications tab

The clarifications tab provides the ability to enter a new request for clarification or view the clarification history (see Figure 2). 

Figure 2. The individual Clarification screen.

• Authorized users can only send one clarification per proposal submission at a time. 
• Clarifications are ordered from newest to oldest and the default is set to a response being required.

3. Enter the request for clarification 

1. Provide the request for clarification details in the text box provided (see Figure 2). A maximum of 2500 characters is allowed.
2. A deadline must be entered if a response is required. Use the date and time fields to enter a future deadline (see Figure 2). Pay attention to the Eastern Time date and timezone conversion.
3. Save and continue to go to the attachments step.

4. Provide attachments

Upload as many documents as necessary to support the clarification request if needed. Files must be an acceptable type and cannot exceed 20 MB. Continue or go back as needed.

5. Review the Clarification

Save or Send to Offeror

• When users save a clarification, the Evaluation Status updates to Clarifying or Request Created. Go back to edit or save the clarification request for another time.
• When users Send to Offeror, the clarification status will be Waiting on Offeror. 

6. Return to the Main Dashboard

The Program Official Dashboard shows the total number of Clarification requests (see Figure 1). 

Clarification status can be: 

7. Track Clarifications 

Program officials can use the View Details button on the Dashboard to monitor the clarification phase of the solicitation and the Clarification notification updates for each offeror that has an evaluation in Clarifying status. 

Track clarifications per solicitation 

The Program Official Dashboard shows the total number of Clarification requests per solicitation (see the orange Clarifications text in Figure 1). When users send a clarification request to an Offeror, they can see the number of Clarifications updated. 

1. Use the Clarification update notification to view a sortable and searchable table. An offeror may display more than once if they have clarifications in more than one solicitation. 
2. Select a row to go to the Clarifications screen for the organization listed. 

Track clarifications per category (Pool/Domain) 

Users can monitor how the clarification phase of the solicitation is going and the Clarification notification updates for each offeror that has an evaluation in Clarifying status.

1. Program officials can use the View Details link within the solicitation card to see the Clarifications or Mass Clarifications sent within a category (see Figure 1). 
2. The Clarification table displays the Organization Name, UEI, Solicitation/Pool, Clarification Count (if configured), and Clarification Status (see Figure 3). 

Figure 3. The Clarification Table displays the Clarification Count when configured.

• Each column is sortable. 
• Use the search box to filter the clarification results. 
• An offeror should only display once. 

8. Review Clarifications

Users will see a Read-Only View of the clarification communications and can view the clarification request and sent details. This view remains until the clarification expires or the offeror responds. 

• Modify the deadline when the clarification is waiting on the offeror. 
• Symphony prevents recalling the request once it is Sent to Offeror because a notification email goes to the organization’s SAM POCs, proposal managers, and proposal contacts immediately after submission.

The clarifications tab will list the history in the order that the communications occurred. Use the scroll bars to view the Clarification Status, Type, Deadline, Program Office request, and Offeror Response if required. If the offeror includes attachments, use the download icon to retrieve the files.

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