Tip of the Month for: December 2015
Vendor Request for Quote
A Vendor Request for Quote program is available to make it easy and convenient to request pricing from your vendors for a variety of items. This program allows you to create a single list of items that are stock, non-stock, drop-shipping, or combination and then build a list of vendors you wish to request pricing from. Each vendor is sent (or you can print) a nice, easy-to-read form that lists the item, vendor part # (if available), quantity you are requesting, and then requests a price and expected ship date. Items can then easily be converted from the request for quote list to a purchase order.
This program is found under Purchasing Management > Daily Processing. The format of the program is similar to Order Entry and Purchase Order Entry.
Each RFQ is assigned a unique six-digit number which Answers can assign automatically, or you can enter your own number as desired. For each RFQ, a list of vendors is selected with a delivery method for each vendor. RFQ's can be set to print, email, or fax. When the user selects to Send the RFQ, each vendor request is submitted via the method selected.
When entering items, Answers can show the cost by default for stock items. The cost does not print on the RFQ form. There is an option under the Options toolbar to include or exclude the cost on the lines on screen. Regardless, the costs do not print. If there is a vendor part # on file for the item, that vendor part # will be printed on the form.
Users can select to send an RFQ to an individual vendor, or they can select to send them all at one time.
As RFQ requests are returned by the vendors, the line items can be updated to reflect the vendor part number and the cost. Currently only one vendor part number and cost can be kept on each line. The Vendor Request for Quote program is very flexible, letting you edit the vendor list as desired, so if you wish to remove vendors that are no longer needed on the quote, or add new vendors to the quote, you can do so at any time. The RFQ's also allow for scanned documents, so if you wish to scan and attach copies of the vendors returned RFQ that option is available.
Answers also has a Vendor Request for Quote Log Viewer that is found under Purchasing Management > Inquiry and can be used to review the RFQ's that have been sent as well as enter the response date once the request is returned by the vendor. This program can assist in keeping track of which requests have been sent and are still open.
Items can be converted from an RFQ by selecting a vendor and using the "Create P/O" button on the RFQ Totals tab. This will convert the entire RFQ to a puchase order. Users can also search the RFQ's from within Purchase Order Entry using the Searches pull-down menu and from there select individual lines to be copied onto the RFQ.
RFQ's are not deleted automatically once they are converted to purchase orders, or once lines have been copied onto purchase orders. There is a separate purge program that allows users to purge out older RFQ's. This program is found on the Purchasing Management > End of Period menu.