Getting started with Axis Capture
This page takes a workspace from "we bought Axis Capture" to "the team is finding and pursuing work in it": subscribing, choosing a plan, giving people the right role, and the setup steps that make every other screen useful. Plan on an hour for the first pass, most of it on the company profile.
TL;DR — A workspace administrator adds Axis Capture from the Marketplace, then gives each person a Capture role in Settings → People. Fill in Company profile (capabilities and target codes first), list the states you sell into, save a search or two, and check each person's notification channels. Opening Axis Capture lands on the Dashboard.
Before you start
- You need to be a workspace administrator to subscribe and to hand out roles. Workspace administrators act as Capture Administrators automatically.
- Gather your company's identifiers and targeting: legal name, UEI, CAGE code, the NAICS and PSC codes you pursue, certifications and set-aside statuses, target agencies and states, and a few past contracts.
Subscribe
Open the Marketplace
From the workspace, open Marketplace and find Axis Capture under Business Development.
Compare the plans
Open the card's plans to compare what each one includes (see the table below).
Choose a plan
Depending on how your workspace buys, choosing a plan subscribes directly, sends a request for approval, or puts you in touch with sales.
Wait for setup to finish
The workspace prepares Axis Capture's storage for you. Until that finishes the module is not yet available; it normally takes moments.
Plans and what each includes
In the Marketplace the three plans are named Standard, Advanced and Enterprise. On these docs' tier badges the same plans appear as Essential, Professional and Enterprise.
| Field | What it does | Accepted values / default |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (Essential) | Every screen in the module. | Discovery across contract notices, SBIR/STTR topics and grants — by keyword, or by meaning for contract notices — private leads you can save and pursue, Company Essentials, matches with the reasons behind every score, capability gaps, saved searches, the pipeline and its four views, bid/no-bid worksheets with approval to commit, deadline alerts, awards and competitor intelligence, Accounts, GSA readiness, Analytics, seven roles, confirmation for high-impact actions. |
| Advanced (Professional) | Everything in Standard, plus AI assistance and export. | AI solicitation summaries, AI requirement extraction, the written explanation of a match score, the AI bid/no-bid second opinion, "What to do first" on the Dashboard, and exporting the pipeline and My opportunities as files. |
| Enterprise | Everything in Advanced. | Adds dedicated database placement and region pinning. |
Two limits apply on every plan unless your agreement says otherwise: a workspace keeps up to 25 saved searches, and one exported file holds up to 5,000 rows. AI features also have fair-use limits per person and per workspace — see AI features.
The seven roles
Every person who uses Axis Capture holds exactly one Capture role. A workspace administrator assigns it in Settings → People (open the person, then their module access). Someone with no Capture role cannot open the module. A role change takes effect on the person's next request, and the change is recorded in the audit trail.
| Field | What it does | Accepted values / default |
|---|---|---|
| Read-Only User | Reads every screen except Analytics. | Cannot change anything, including adding tasks. |
| Standard User | As Read-Only, plus adds tasks to records. | Cannot see Analytics. |
| Analyst | Reads everything, including Analytics, and adds tasks. | Does not change pursuits, saved work, matches, CRM records or any other record. |
| Business Development User | Finds and works opportunities. | Saves and pursues work, moves pursuits, scores bid worksheets, dismisses matches, keeps saved searches, private leads and forecast watches, edits the CRM and the states you sell into, the parts watchlist, GSA readiness, documents and requirement checklists. |
| Proposal Manager | Runs the response. | Everything a Business Development User does except edit the CRM and the states you sell into — plus records won contracts and exports lists. |
| Manager | Owns the company's capture decisions. | Everything above, plus edits Company Essentials, approves or rejects commitments to bid, and removes saved opportunities, private leads and CRM records. Does not change the bid scoring weights. |
| Capture Administrator | Configures the module for the workspace. | Everything, including the bid scoring weights. Workspace administrators hold this role automatically. |
Capture Administrator is a high-privilege role
Set up multi-factor authentication for anyone who holds it. Where your workspace requires multi-factor authentication for high-privilege roles, a Capture Administrator without it cannot open the module. Approving or rejecting a commitment to bid also needs a passkey — see Exports and confirmations.
The first hour
A new workspace's Dashboard walks you through the first setup steps. The order below is the one that makes each step pay off in the next.
Fill in Company profile
Open Set up → Company profile (the page is titled Company Essentials). Add the identity, capability and targeting fields, then the detail sections — at minimum your capabilities and your target codes. Matching looks only at open solicitations in your target NAICS and PSC codes, so with no target codes there is nothing to match. Only a Manager or Capture Administrator can edit the profile. See Company Essentials.
Say where you work
Put the states you want work in under Target states on the profile, and the states you sell into — with whether you are registered to bid there — under Find work → State & local → Where we sell. Match scores read both. See State and local government.
Score your matches
Open Find work → Matches and choose Refresh scores. After that, scores refresh daily on their own. See Matches and scoring.
Save the searches you run every week
In Discovery, set up your filters and Save this search with alerts on. Each saved search is checked overnight. See Discovery and saved searches.
Add the people you deal with
Add the agencies, primes and partners you work with, and their people, in Set up → Accounts. See Accounts and relationships.
Check the scoring weights
A Capture Administrator reviews the bid/no-bid weights — and the pipeline stages, match scoring, data sources and alert timing — in Capture settings before the team starts scoring.
Have each person check their alerts
Deadline, match and saved-search alerts default to in-app and email. Each person can change that in Account → Notifications. See Notifications and alerts.
Common gotchas
- "A colleague can't see Axis Capture." They have no Capture role. Assign one in Settings → People. Granting a role needs a live subscription; removing one never does.
- "The AI buttons say they are not part of our plan." AI assistance is on Advanced and Enterprise. On Standard, every screen still works — the scores, reasons and decisions never depend on AI.
- "The AI buttons say AI is switched off." The workspace's AI switch is off. A workspace administrator controls it; see AI features.
- "Matches is empty after we filled in the profile." Check that the profile has target codes, then choose Refresh scores. Also check Where the data comes from — matching needs federal solicitation data to be flowing.
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