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A supplier quote is a supplier’s priced response to a . It records price, lead time, and shipping for each requested item and quantity. It is distinct from a , which your company sends to a customer. Each RFQ exchange stores one quote per supplier. You can compare the responses and convert the selected quote into a . Conversion also updates the item’s supplier-part price for later orders.

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Where a quote comes from

Most quotes are the response half of an RFQ. You send a purchasing RFQ to several suppliers, and each supplier’s reply becomes its own supplier quote, all hanging off the same request. The RFQ email carries the files attached to the RFQ and its lines, plus each part’s original CAD file (the file you uploaded or pushed from CAD). Models go in as attachments while the email stays under 25 MB; the rest are download links in the email that work for 7 days. A quote can also be entered directly, without a preceding RFQ, when you already have pricing to record. Either way the quote lives under a supplier interaction, the umbrella record that ties this supplier’s quote, RFQ, and any resulting purchase order together so you can trace the whole exchange in one place.

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Lines and pricing

A quote line names one item (or a G/L account line for non-stock spend) and the quantities you’re pricing. Because you usually ask for a price at several volumes, the line’s requested quantities are an array, and each quantity carries its own price row. This is the quantity-break table: a lead time, a unit price, and a shipping cost per quantity.

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Lifecycle

A quote is editable only while it’s a “Draft”. Finalizing moves it to “Active”, which is the state comparison and conversion read from. Everything past Draft is locked.
Sending the quote emails the supplier a private link along with the request — no Alforse login needed. The supplier prices the work directly on the page: for each quantity they choose, they enter a unit price, a lead time in days, shipping cost, and tax, and can attach a note per line. When every selected line has both a price and a lead time, “Submit Quote” lights up; they enter their name and email and submit. They can instead “Decline Quote”, optionally leaving a reason. Both flows are open only while the quote is a “Draft”; once submitted or declined the page is read-only, and a Draft past its expiration date shows an expired state. Each visit stamps the link’s last-accessed time, so you can see whether the supplier has opened it. Whoever holds the URL can open the page — send it to the right contact and nowhere public.

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From quote to purchase order

When you’ve picked a winning quote, “Convert to Order” turns it into a purchase order. You choose which lines and which quantity tier to buy, and Alforse raises a purchase order for that supplier with the item lines, the supplier’s contact and location, and the exchange rate all carried across from the quote. If the quote came from an RFQ, the new order is linked back to that RFQ. Conversion also updates the item’s supplier part. For each converted line, Alforse writes quantity-break prices to the supplier’s supplierPart record (source: Purchase Order) and sets its primary unit price to the best tier. Later orders can reuse these prices. For what happens to the order once it exists, see purchase orders.