How to request a quotation?

How to request a quotation? 

A request for quotation can be sent at any status from “Draft” and any status prior to “On Order”. Usually the natural point in an requisition\order life to send a RFQ is either inn “New Requisition” status or “Approved Requisition”

1. Open the «Draft» / «Requisition» you wish to send a request for quotation for
2. Include one or more suppliers to the order. For more details on how to include suppliers and the features and functions for the supplier picker. Please see the chapter: How to use the Supplier picker?
3. Click the “Order Line” tab → “Pre-quotation” tab
4. If needed, you may remove certain items from the RFQs for certain suppliers by unticking the “check boxes” in the first columns. Each supplier is represented by a letter “A”, “B”, “C” etc, hovering the mouse on top of the columns will show the supplier’s name as a tool tip  
5. You can adjust quantities and add remove order lines if needed.
6. Once the requisition is ready be quoted, click the  [Send Request for quotation] button.
7. This will open the Send RFQ dialog. This dialog may change slightly in appearance depending on the “send type” selected for the included suppliers. Each send type variant will be described below. However, the top section is the same for all “send types”.  
8. The top section is a list of the included suppliers.

1. Unticking the check box in front of the supplier’s name, will exclude them, and an RFQ will not be sent to them.  
2. Select the preferred “send type”, In the column named “Type”. The default send type, configured for the supplier is pre-selected. If a default send type has not been set for a supplier, it will be set to “Email”. The send type defines how the RFQ will be transmitted to the supplier.

The following options are as follows. (For more details on each type, see below) i. Print/Fax

1. E-mail
2. E-mail with Excel (XLS) iv. E-Commerce portal (It will show the name of the e-commerce portal)

v. E-Commerce portal with e-mail

1. If the selected “send type” supports attachments can be included.
   1. [Add external]: Will open a file browser, allowing to pick any file from the available files on the current computer.
   2. [Add internal]: Will open a list of all the attachments linked to the current requisition
2. It is possible to generate a preview of the RFQ, being sent to a supplier, by clicking the [Preview attachment] button. This will open the RFQ as a PDF.
3. Click the [Send Request for Quotation] button to generate the RFQs for each included supplier. Depending on the send type chose what happens next will vary, but the result will be that an RFQ is generated and sent to the supplier.
4. Status for the order will be set to “Price Requested”.

Send type: Print\Fax

This option can be used if the RFQ will be given manually to the supplier or send by FAX. If this option is selected the system will generate the RFQ report and open the “print” dialog to print the document. When a supplier where the “send type” is set to “print is selected in the top grid, this is what the dialog will look like.

-mail

This option will alter the appearance of the dialog to an email dialog. With the following fields

“To:”: The “supplier email address 1” will be auto filled in the “To:” field, clicking the [To:] button will list any of the other supplier email addresses related to the current supplier (email 2 and any contact persons emails), selecting one of them will add it to the “to:” field. It is also possible to manually enter an e-mail address, just remember to separate them with a semi-colon “;”

“CC:”: It is possible to pre-define one or more addresses to be automatically inserted in the CC: Field 

How to do this is described in the chapter: “Personal Settings” - RFQ & Order email CC and BCC.. Clicking the [CC:] button will list any of the other supplier email addresses, related to the current supplier (email 2 and any contact persons emails), selecting one of them will add it to the “CC:” field. It is also possible to manually enter an e-mail address, just remember to separate them with a semi-colon “;”

“BCC:” If you wish to send a copy of the email you are sending out, without the email showing up in the email the supplier receives the email address can be added to the “BCC” field. It is possible to predefine a list of addresses available when clicking the “BCC” button under system settings.

“Subject”: The email subject, this can be manually entered, or it can be predefined, as a subject template, in [System] – [Settings] – “Order settings” tab → “Email Options”. Variables can be used in the subject template such as (Vessel Name, PO Number, Username, User Email address, Users Telephone number) It is possible to define one “subject” template when sending an RFQ and one when sending an “Order”.  

“Text”: (e-mail body text) This can also be manually entered, or it can be predefined the same way as the “Subject” filed can be predefined in [System] – [Settings] – “Order settings” tab → “Email Options”. Variables can be used in the subject template such as (Vessel Name, PO Number, Username, User Email address, Users Telephone number) It is possible to define one “body text” template when sending an “RFQ” and one when sending an “Order”.  

-mail with Excel (XLS)

This option is basically the same as the “Send type: E-mail” but with two differences. 

When this send type is selected the RFQ email will include the RFQ as an Excel sheet, as an attachment. The supplier can enter their quotes directly into the excel sheet and return it. When received the excel sheet can be dragged and dropped, into the “middle section” of the order overview which will trigger an import routine, importing the quotes to the appropriate requisition. For more details on this function see chapter: How to use the RFQ excel sheet?

It is also possible to define a different e-mail body text for when the “XLS” option is chosen, allowing to insert instructions to the supplier about the included excel sheet. This is done in the same location in the program as the other predefined text templates  

Send type: E-commerce portal (ShipServ)

This option name will change based on what “e-commerce” portal the system is configured to use. To be able to select the “e-commerce” send type the supplier needs to be configured with an “ecommerce ID”. This is an ID maintained by the e-commerce portal and will ensure that the supplier used in TM Master is possible to identify by the e-commerce portal. This number is also displayed in the “Number/Address” column next to the “Send type” column.

It is possible to attach additional documents internal and external.

When the [Send Request for quotation] button is pressed a file is generated in a predefined folder under “integration Settings” where the e-commerce portal providers transfer software will pick it up.

-Commerce portal and E-mail  

This option will generate a e-commerce portal file to be shipped to the e-commerce portal provider, but will in addition send an e-mail directly to the supplier in question.