RFQs

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is a priced competition over a defined list of line items. It’s the workhorse of the sourcing module and the standard route to a purchase order. Only buyers, PMs, and admins can create and issue RFQs. Requestors raise intake requests instead.

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Creating an RFQ

From scratch. Click New Request and choose the RFQ card (creates a silent draft and opens the editor), or use the RFQ tracker’s new-RFQ entry, which shows a basics-only form and creates the draft when you click Save as draft. Either way, the draft then opens in the full RFQ editor. From an intake. On an intake’s detail page, open the create-RFQ dialog: pick which intake items to include (all are pre-selected), set a title and a supplier response deadline (defaults to 7 days out), and confirm. The new RFQ inherits the intake’s division, department, project, and budget, and the selected items become RFQ line items with all their detail intact — section grouping, SKU, unit, cost category, estimated budget, and specifications. The RFQ opens directly in edit mode so you can adjust suppliers and terms before issuing. Note: a buyer can only create an RFQ from an intake that a PM has assigned to them. From an RFI or RFP. Use Promote to RFQ — the scope fields and supplier shortlist carry over (see the Sourcing overview). No one is notified when a draft is created; notifications happen at issue time.

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The RFQ editor

The editor is organized in tabs: Basics, Context (division / department / project), Line items, Suppliers, Terms (currency, tax, incoterm, budget), Addresses, and Specs. A KPI strip tracks completion, supplier count, item count, days to deadline, and a risk indicator (high when you have fewer than 3 suppliers or under 7 days of response time). There are two dates: the RFQ deadline and the supplier response deadline — the response deadline is the one quoted to suppliers.

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Line items

Line items live in a spreadsheet-style table:

• Sections group related items (for example “Mechanical,” “Electrical”). Add sections, rename them inline, and collapse them while you work.
• Each row has SKU, Description (with an instant hover tooltip when text is clipped), Quantity, Unit (a dropdown fed by your organization’s units catalog), an estimated price, notes, and a Cost category picked per row from your organization’s cost categories (Settings → Financial → Cost Categories). New rows start with no category.
• Edits save automatically — a saving/saved indicator confirms each change.
• Search by description or SKU, filter by cost category, and switch to fullscreen for large BOQs.

CSV import. Click the download icon to get a 5-column template (SKU, Description, Quantity, Unit, Cost category), fill it in, and upload it — .csv and tab-separated files both work, so you can paste straight from Excel. Units are matched against your catalog by name or symbol (unmatched values are kept as free-text labels), and imported rows land in their own section for review. Rows without a description are skipped.

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Inviting suppliers

Add suppliers from your directory on the editor’s Suppliers tab, or via Manage suppliers on the detail page. Duplicate protection is built in twice: suppliers already on the RFQ don’t appear in the picker, and the server ignores any duplicate additions — a supplier can only ever be on the list once. If you add a supplier after the RFQ has been issued, Seloria automatically sends them the invitation email so they don’t get stranded on the list without ever being notified.

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Issuing: two paths

• Save as draft, send later. Save the RFQ and leave it in Draft for as long as you need — collect approvals, refine the BOQ, adjust the shortlist. When ready, open the detail page and click Publish RFQ.
• Issue directly. If everything’s ready at creation time, go straight from the editor to the detail page and publish immediately.

Clicking Publish RFQ opens a confirmation listing every supplier who will receive the invitation. Click Confirm & Send. Each supplier receives an email with the RFQ as a PDF attachment and a personal portal link for submitting their quotation — no account required. Emails are sent in each contact’s preferred language. The RFQ status changes to Issued once all emails go out, and a banner records the send date. If some emails fail, you’re told exactly which suppliers were affected and the RFQ stays in Draft.

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Editing after issue

You can still edit an issued RFQ. Once you save changes, the disabled Issued button becomes Re-send. Re-sending:

• Stamps a revision on the RFQ number (RFQ-012 Rev.1, Rev.2, …).
• Marks previously submitted quotations as superseded.
• Sends fresh portal links to all suppliers.

The confirmation dialog warns you about this before anything is sent.

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After issue

The detail page tracks the competition across tabs: Quotations (submitted bids), Analysis (side-by-side comparison), Questions (supplier Q&A — answer clarification questions directly from the tab), and Documents. Once quotations arrive, the primary button becomes Award RFQ, which can route through an approval if the amount exceeds your organization’s threshold, and then generates purchase orders per awarded supplier.

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Audit history

The History tab is a day-by-day feed of everything that happened: creation, every edit with before → after values per field, status changes, publishes and re-sends — each entry timestamped and attributed to a user. The same feed exists on POs, RFIs, and RFPs.