Asking Several Vendors for a Price (RFQ)

A request for quote (RFQ) is how you ask more than one supplier to price the same basket of goods, so the order goes to whoever is genuinely best rather than whoever answered first. Nothing about a request orders anything, reserves any stock, or touches your accounts — it is a question, not a commitment.

You will find it under Purchases → Requests for Quote.

StepsCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Purchases → Requests for Quote and click New Request.
2. In Request Details, set:
   • Responses due — when you want the prices back. It defaults to a week out.
   • Goods needed by — when you actually need the stock. This is what lets you see later which quoted lead times still make your deadline.
   • Deliver to — the location the goods should land at, if it matters.
   • Notes for vendors — anything every supplier should know: packaging, delivery window, part numbers.
3. In Items to Price, click Add item and pick everything you want priced. On each line set the Qty you need and the Unit you want it priced in. There is no price column here on purpose — this is the question; the prices are the vendors' answers.
4. On the right, under Vendors to Invite, click Add and pick each supplier you want to ask. One quote is just a price; three is a comparison.
5. Save from the amber bar at the bottom. The request is created as a Draft, numbered for you, and you land on its own page.
6. On that page, click Send to vendors. The request becomes Sent and every invitation is timestamped.

New to the screen? Click Show me how at the top right of the editor for a short guided tour.

What you can and cannot change afterwardsCopy Anchor Link

• While it is a Draft, you can edit everything — click Edit on the request's page.
• Once it has been sent, the basket is fixed. That is deliberate: changing what you asked for after suppliers have priced it would quietly invalidate every price they gave you. If the basket really has changed, close this request and raise a new one.

If something is missingCopy Anchor Link

• Send to vendors is greyed out until the request has at least one item and at least one vendor. A request with neither is an empty form, not a question.
• If you add the same item twice, the screen tells you it is already on the request — change its quantity instead.
• If Responses due falls after Goods needed by, the date is rejected: you would be asking for prices after the goods were needed.

Where to go nextCopy Anchor Link

• Recording What a Vendor Quoted
• Comparing Quotes Side by Side