RFQs and supplier quotes
You’ll need: Request for quotes, Supplier quotes — if you cannot see these, the module may be switched off for your business or outside your permissions. An administrator can change either.
Before you commit, you ask. These two modules make asking a record rather than a phone call nobody can reconstruct.
The request
A request for quotes has an RFQ number, a request date and a subject. It names the supplier it went to, the currency you want to be quoted in, and the delivery location it should be priced to.
Two dates: expected response date — when you need their answer — and expected delivery date — when you would need the goods. Both matter, and they are different questions.
Lines are what you are asking about, and notes carry the conditions.
Quote to the delivery location
The delivery location field is easy to skip and expensive to skip. A price to your central warehouse and a price to a branch three hundred kilometres away are different prices, and a supplier who was not told will quote for the easy one.
Naming the location in the request means the quote you compare is the quote you can actually accept.
The answer
A supplier quote records what came back: their quote number, the request for quote it answers, the supplier, the quote date and — importantly — valid until.
It carries their currency, delivery location, expected delivery date, payment terms, lines and notes, plus a status.
Supplier quotes expire exactly like the ones you send. A price from six weeks ago is not a price; it is a memory. Recording the validity is what tells you whether you are still comparing offers or reminiscing about them.
Comparing like with like
Three quotes are only comparable if they answer the same question. Before comparing, check they agree on the delivery location, the currency, the quantity and the payment terms.
A cheaper unit price with worse payment terms and delivery to a different location may cost more. That comparison is impossible after the fact if the fields were never filled in — which is the real reason to record quotes rather than keep them in an inbox.
Payment terms are part of the price
Thirty days to pay is worth money, particularly when cash is tight. A supplier who is two percent more expensive but gives you a month is often the better deal, and you can only see that if the terms were recorded alongside the number.
Try it
On staging.feeprime.com, raise an RFQ to two suppliers and record two quotes against it with different terms and validity dates. Then try to decide which is better — the exercise makes the point about comparability faster than reading about it.