After the Award: Order Changes, Declined Slices, and Re-Sourcing Without Starting Over

Comparison tables, shortlists and split-award setup are the visible part of the job. In natural stone, the real test starts after the award: a block leaves the quarry late, a vein runs differently than expected, freight moves. The supplier comes back with a new number instead of a confirmation, or declines their slice of a split award altogether. Rather than leaving these exceptions to ambiguous email threads, MarbleMap routes each of them into a defined state with a single decision point. This guide walks through the three post-award scenarios, the counter-proposal, the declined slice and re-sourcing, from both sides of the table.

An order is issued, but nothing is confirmed on your behalf

When you award and start orders, each supplier receives their own order with the status Issued. A supplier can confirm it as issued; but if something changed on the ground, they can also come back with a counter: a new amount or a revised lead-time note. The order then moves to Change proposed, the order confirmation record stays awaiting confirmation, and the platform never confirms anything on your behalf. The decision is entirely yours.

You see the counter in the Orders & confirmation section of your demand's Offers tab, on that supplier's order card: the old amount, the new amount and a note that your decision is required. The move is also logged on the Activity tab as a proposed order change, so the answer to who asked for what, and when, always stays on the record.

Accept or reject: both paths have a defined ending

The card gives you two buttons, and both outcomes are unambiguous. Accept the change and the order moves to Confirmed at the new amount; the confirmation record, with its document number, buyer and supplier details, lines and totals, is re-snapshotted onto the revised figure. Once every order on the demand is confirmed, the demand completes.

Reject it and the order becomes Cancelled, its confirmation record lapses, and the line returns to re-sourcing. The demand does not complete, but the process does not collapse either, because the rejected work flows into a defined next step. The status line on the card tracks the whole journey: first Issued, then Change proposed, and finally Confirmed or Cancelled.

A declined slice does not send you back to square one

If you split the lines across several suppliers instead of awarding to one, the Split Award Board tracks each supplier's decision separately: Pending, Approved, Declined. When a supplier declines their slice, that slice's lines drop into the Re-source list at the top of the board, with the supplier's reason shown next to the line if they gave one.

The Re-assign button next to a line lists the other suppliers who quoted it, with their prices; offers submitted after you built the split are included, while the supplier who declined is not. Pick one, and the line moves to them with their decision reset to Pending. If no other eligible supplier quoted that line, the list comes up empty and you gather fresh offers for it.

Here is the crucial part: approvals already given by the other suppliers stay in place. One declined slice never forces you to rebuild the split from scratch. Once every slice is approved, the board unlocks Start orders, and nothing is ordered until you click it. While an approval is missing, the board says so plainly: waiting on all suppliers to approve before starting orders. The Split Award Board and the multi-order flow are a higher-plan feature.

The supplier's view: only your own share

The sealed-bid rule holds after the award, too. If you are a supplier in a split award, you see only your own share: the lines assigned to you and the value of that share. The other winning companies, the lines that went to them and their amounts remain hidden. Your Approve or Decline decision applies only to your own slice; it does not touch anyone else's lines or amounts.

That asymmetry is deliberate. The buyer sees all offers side by side and conducts the orchestra; the supplier cannot see competing prices, offer counts, or even whether a competitor has corresponded with the buyer. Instead of positioning against a rival's number, you are encouraged to put your best offer forward the first time. Payment does not run through the platform; the parties settle the commercial side between themselves, and MarbleMap takes no commission.

Open a demand, or place your bid

A deal does not end with the award; a good platform keeps the exceptions after it just as defined. If you are a buyer, opening a demand on MarbleMap is free and commission-free: publish your demand, compare sealed bids, award it, and if a counter-proposal or a declined slice arrives, keep moving with the flows above. If you are a supplier, you place sealed bids on demands from vetted buyers and, when you win, you focus only on your own share. Start at marblemap.co