A CIP lists planned projects alongside their estimated cost, timing, and funding source — bonds, grants, state revolving fund loans, or general fund dollars — and it's typically adopted through a public budget process, often with a council or board vote and public hearings along the way. The level of detail varies widely across projects in the same CIP: a project three years out might be a single line item with a placeholder budget and no scope yet defined, while one scheduled for the current fiscal year is often fully designed and close to going out to bid. Because it's a planning and budgeting document rather than a procurement document, a CIP is usually public well before a project shows up on a bid board or procurement portal — often years earlier. That gap matters commercially. A CIP is frequently the earliest public signal that a project exists at all, while it's still just a budget line and a rough scope description rather than a live opportunity. Nonlinear can monitor CIPs alongside bid boards and procurement portals, so a contractor, manufacturer, or rep sees a project's future pipeline — not just what happens to be open for bid this month.
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