Alright, I'll give a shot at translating the "Contract Implantation of Bid Period Processing" slide show on the website to a fellow new guy....

1. You submit your bid between the "Bid Open" and "Bid Close" window.

2. The "Bid Award" comes out.

3. Immediately after that until the "Close Conflict/Input" is when you can do the following....
a. Bid for your recurrent/PC sim schedule.
b. Expand/Slide your vacation.
c. Mess with carry-over trips
d. Change your answer to the questions asked when you bid.
(Do you want your reserve line converted, want to protect min days off, etc.)

4. Once the Conflict/Input window closes, you will get Crew Notifications that trips were dropped because of conflicts and what your vacation now is.

5. Now you enter the "View/Add" window. Now you can...
a. If you had trips dropped due to carry-over or training, you may now select trips from open time to use as "Make Up" (CIA-ONLY) so your bid line comes back to the target you originally had. (Or a new value you want - **You may only select trips of equal value to those that were originally dropped (cumulative) and (with a small added buffer.)
b. This is also when you can enter a custom line request (just after training, missed the bid due to leave, etc.)
c. You may also now input your VTO requests. **Note that these requests will NOT be processed until after the "View/Add" window closes**

6. The "View/Add" window closes.

7. Trips are awarded from open time to those that had "View/Add" CIA eligibility.

8. VTO lines are now built with the remainder of open time.

9. VTO lines are published at the "Secondary Lines Complete" day.

10. Now comes "Midnight Madness" or the minute "Open Time Release" happens. Now EVERYTHING is up for grabs. ANYONE may now....
a. Pick up open time for ANY reason.
b. Swap your current trips with open time.
c. Submit Drop Trip Requests.
d. Submit Swap R-day Requests.
e. Enter Pilot-2-Pilot swaps, PDO bump, and everything else you can do on the "Bid Line Adjustments" link.

Hope this helps!