Request for Quote

See the following help topics to set up the Request for Quote feature in your account:

A Request for Quote (RFQ) is a request you send to one or more vendors asking them to provide specific information. This information is about their pricing, terms, and conditions in regard to a purchase contract for a product they provide. Usually the pricing request is tiered, which means that as you purchase larger quantities of an item, the price per individual unit goes down. A vendor might also provide an additional discount when a specified total amount has been spent across all items purchased within a specified time frame.

Set up the RFQ to define the item, pricing tiers, and other information, and an open and close date to define the bidding period. Then, send the RFQ to all vendors you would like to have submit a quote. The vendors can access the RFQ to define and submit their pricing, terms, conditions and other details of their quote.

After all the vendors have submitted a quote, your buyer can analyze the submissions to determine the best overall deal from the quotes provided.

After analysis, you buyer can mark which items are to be purchased from which vendors.

After selecting the best vendor for each item, the buyer can create purchase contracts for future purposes. A buyer can creates one or multiple purchase contracts from a single RFQ.

For example, Annie, a buyer at Wolfe Industries uses the Request for Quotes process as follows:

Annie enters a Request for Quote to get pricing from vendors for Deluxe Widgets. She uses two vendors for widget procurement: Acme Widgets and WidgetCo. The RFQ is specified as below:

Item: Deluxe Widget
Terms: 30 days
Pricing tiers: 0–24 units, 25–49 units, 50–74 units
Special instructions: Widgets must be delivered fully assembled
Bid open date: January 1
Bid close date: January 15

Annie marks the RFQ to indicate the request should be sent to Acme Widgets and WidgetCo, then she submits the RFQ. A notification email is received by the specified contacts at both vendors. Then, the vendors log in to the Vendor Center and define the details of their quote.

After each vendor saves their Vendor RFQ, the quote goes back to Annie. On the Vendors subtab of the RFQ, the Response Date field on the vendor line includes a date. This date is a link to the quote sent by the vendor.

After analyzing both submitted quotes to find the best deal, Annie decides to use WidgetCo, who submitted the following quote:

Item: Deluxe Widget
Terms: 30 days
Pricing:
- 0–24 units: $1.50 each
- 25–49 units: $1.40 each
- 50–74 units: $1.25 each
Special instructions: Widgets will be delivered fully assembled

Annie selects the Deluxe Widget and generates a contract for WidgetCo.