Lesson 1: The ABCs of RFQs

RFQs are at the core of Fairmarkit and are built to help you be more efficient and effective in your sourcing process.

RFPs can be created automatically through an ERP/P2P integration, or manually within Fairmarkit. You see existing drafts to edit or send on your RFQ list page, or create a new one by choosing “Create a new RFQ”.

Once you’re within a draft, you will see the RFQ has 4 sections: the header, request line items, supplier invitation, and files.

The header section contains the general information regarding everything in the RFQ. This is where you communicate information to suppliers such as the shipping address, the RFQ timeline, and category information. For customers with integrations, many or all of these fields will already be populated from your ERP/P2P system.

The request line items contain all the details about what you are looking to purchase. These fields can be pre-filled through an integration, manually entered/edited on the draft page, or imported from an Excel template all at once.

Supplier invitations is where our recommendation engine displays suppliers that match the category and line items of your RFQ. Here, you can manually alter which suppliers receive the invitation to bid. Add suppliers through the dropdown and search for them by name, email, or tag. Remove suppliers by clicking the trash icon next to their name. You can also write notes to them if necessary below the recommendations.

At the bottom, you can attach any necessary documents that you want suppliers to reference in the “Files” section. If you want suppliers to be aware that it’s an urgent request, you can select urgency from the drop down.

From here you can save and submit your request to open the RFQ and invite your suppliers to quote.

In the next section, learn how you will communicate with suppliers once an RFQ is open.

If you need more detailed information on creating or editing an RFQ, see these articles:

• Creating a manual RFQ
• Importing an RFQ from Excel
• Managing suppliers on a request

Find our next lesson here: Lesson 2: Communicating with your suppliers