This article will walk you through responding to an RFQ. You can use the shortcuts below to navigate to specific information within the process.
- Opening RFQs
- RFQ Details
- RFQ Attachments
- Part Documentation
- RFQ Responses
- Submit Responses
- Troubleshooting Errors
- Complete RFQ Responses
- Accepting Awards
Opening RFQs
To get started on responding to your customer’s quote request, from your All RFQs page click on its RFQ Name.
RFQ Details
Each RFQ provides at the top a high-level Details summary, as well as a Responses section below it. Click on Show Details in the top right corner of the quote to view important RFQ information.
This expands the RFQ Details section, where you can see the following information: RFQ #, Created Date, Supplier, Customer, End Customer, Due By, RFQ Name, Created By, RFQ Type, Partial Responses, Allow Crosses and Status.
- Allow Crosses indicates if your customer is willing to accept quoted alternates instead of their requested part to be quoted (outside of part corrections).
- Partial Responses informs whether you'll be able to submit your quote line items as partial submissions. When marked as "Not Accepted", then any partially RFQ quoted line items submissions will not be sent to your customer until all the required fields have been entered.
To the far right, the summary will also include line item breakdowns. These include: Submitted / Total Lines, Total CPNs / MPNs, Quoted CPNs / MPNs, Unquoted CPNs / MPNs, Rows with Errors, and Accepted / Awarded Lines. When you have finished reviewing the RFQ's Details information, then click on Hide Details to minimize the summary.
RFQ Attachments
Within your RFQ, there’s a tab for Attachments that will contain any additional documents that your customer has shared with you pertaining to this RFQ, such as a cover letter or the Terms and Conditions.
You can also upload your own supplemental documents for your customer from this tab. Click on Browse to select the file from your computer. It will automatically upload and then be displayed here.
Part Documentation
Within the Responses section, you can find supplemental part Documents attached for line items (when available) between the Comments and IPN/CPN columns. You will see a document icon in the Doc column when there are drawings available for a line item. If there are no drawings attached to that part, then the Doc column will be blank.
When there are drawings available, you can quickly download each attachment. Click on the Doc icon for the line item, and then on the file name that you want to download.
There is also the option to Download all shared Docs at once, which is available through the Project dropdown in the top left of your RFQ above your line items. It will automatically download all part documents.
RFQ Responses
The Responses tab in your RFQ provides a table of the line items that need to be quoted. To see all of the columns you may need to scroll right. You can either add your line items responses directly within Supplyframe or by uploading an excel file.
System Standard and Required Columns
Supplyframe offers your customers a set of "System Standard" column fields that they can use when sharing line items with you to be quoted. However, your customers can choose to hide specific standard columns and/or create their own columns in order to match the type of information that they are looking to collect from you.
Some of these columns may be identified as "Required Columns", which means that your customer won’t consider items if missing this information. Required columns are identified in the application with a yellow border around the cell.
Responding within Supplyframe
You can complete your customer’s responses by directly filling in all of the fields. Anything you enter in these fields is automatically saved in the system and can be changed at any time prior to completion.
When responding directly within Supplyframe manually, click on the cell that you want to modify. The cell will be highlighted and you can type in the new information within the cell. Use the enter key to save your modification.
The following columns are some of those available for your response:
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Comments – You can add a comment to an item by clicking on the small dialogue icon. The icon will display a button after your comment has been saved for the part.
- DOC – If this column has a PDF icon, then there are drawings attached. You can click on the icon to download and view the attached file. Blank cells mean that there are no available documents. You can download the documents individually for each line, or click on "Download all Shared Docs" to export them at once.
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MPN/Manufacturer – You can suggest alternates or make part number corrections for an MPN or Manufacturer name by clicking into the cell. Be sure to check if "Allow Crosses" in RFQ Details says "Yes" (accepted) before quoting alternates. Type your response within the "Recommended" field and click on Submit to save.
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Flags – You can flag an item with the following categories: Non-Cancellable/Non-Returnable, RoHS-compliant, PB (Lead) Free, Obsolete, Tariff, andNo Bid. Click on the flag to toggle it on (green) or off (gray).
- Stock– Quantity available for sale. (Integers only)
- LT(WKS) – Lead time in weeks. (Integers only)
- Min/Mult – Minimum and multiple order quantities. (Integers only)
- Package Type – You can mark items with the following package types: ammo, bulk, cut tape, tape & reel, tube, tray, and mini reel.
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Qty[1, etc] / Price [1, etc] (Integers only) – Depending on the number of quantity breaks, you will see a Qty and Price field for each break with a number next to it. Make sure to fill in your pricing for each requested quantity break. Populating the price fields completely will ensure that your answer is appropriately gauged by your customer.
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Currency - You can use your local Currency for entering in the price. To change the currency, just click on cell and enter the new currency. Then hit enter to save the new currency.
Responding via Excel upload
You can respond to RFQs using an Excel download. From the Project dropdown, click on Export to automatically generate and download an Excel file of your customer’s RFQ.
You can fill in the Excel sheet on your computer, then click on Upload Responses to select the file and bring your Excel responses back into Supplyframe.
For more information on how to respond via Excel, please refer to the help article.
Submit Responses
In order for your responses to be shared with your customer, you must click on Submit Items to send your RFQ submissions.
The Submit Items modal will appear for you to confirm that you want to submit your responses. Be sure to verify if "Partial Responses" are accepted within the RFQ Details if submitting incomplete responses. Click on Confirm to finish submitting your responses.
After submitting, you can use the Filter actions dropdown to "Show Not-Submitted Only Items". This helps you to easily see if any lines were not submitted.
Troubleshooting Errors
After entering your responses, you will notice the system showing any errors by the rows highlighted in red. Click on the Filter dropdown and select Show Errors Only Items to easily see which line items need to be corrected. The specific column(s) in a row that need to be updated will have a red border line around the cell field.
Hovering over the cell will provide more details regarding the errors for that cell. You can then make any needed corrections on the page. They will be automatically saved.
Complete RFQ Responses
Changes can continue being made to your RFQ, prior to you marking your RFQ as "Complete" or before the RFQ is closed by your customer. You can verify your RFQ's current Status in its field in the RFQ Details section. When ready, click on the button Complete to finish submitting your responses.
The Complete the RFQ modal window will ask you to verify that you've already submitted all of your line items responses. Be sure to check that none of your lines show as "Not-Submitted". When ready to complete your RFQ responses, then click on Confirm.
Your RFQ will now have a "Completed" status. This submits your final bid to your customer and alerts them that you are done responding. After you’ve marked your responses as completed, then the quote will be locked unless the customer re-opens the RFQ for you. You will need to contact your customer directly for assistance in unlocking your RFQ.
If a customer has closed an RFQ on their side, you’ll no longer be able to input responses for line items or upload an Excel file response. You’ll notice that fields within the table are no longer editable.
Accepting Awards
Once a customer has awarded you line items, then you can see and manage them using the Awarded, Quota and Acceptance columns.
- Award - this column will indicate if there is a status of “Awarded” for a part.
- Quota - identifies if the award is 100% or less, as it represents the percentage of the Qty that you were awarded.
- Acceptance - column by which you can inform the customer of your acceptance or rejection of the awarding.
After some lines have been awarded, the Accept Award button will now be visible. You can finalize the RFQ by accepting the award(s).
Click on Accept Award to choose your awarding response. The following options are available:
- ACC - Accepted
- REJ - Rejected
- TBA - To Be Accepted (Default)
You will specify in the Award Acceptance modal if you want to apply this status to "All items" or "Selected items only". Then click on Confirm to complete your award acceptance.
An email will be sent to the customer at this time to notify them of your acceptance. This is the last step of responding to an RFQ.