The NetSuite Request for Quote Feature

NetSuite for Administrators

When making a significant purchase, you may wish to request several vendors to share their purchase contract terms. Rather than tracking these all manually, you can use the NetSuite Request for Quote (RFQ) feature. Let’s take a quick look at this feature and how it works to keep all your quote data in one place.

NetSuite Request for Quote Overview

What information does the NetSuite Request for Quote feature track? With this feature, you can specify which vendors you will request quotes from. On the quote form, you can designate the pricing tiers you’re looking for and any special instructions. It allows you to set a start and end date, establishing the timeframe in which any contracts will be valid. As your vendors begin sending back their contract pricing, terms, and conditions, this feature keeps a record of all that information and simplifies the process of selecting the best offer.

NetSuite Request for Quote Setup

How to set up this feature? You’ll need to enable the Request for Quote feature on the Basic Features section of the Transactions tab in Enable Features. In order to enable this feature, the feature Purchase Contracts will also need to be turned on.
There is one Request for Quote preference under the Order Management subtab in Accounting Preferences (Setup > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences). The preference Default Number of Request for Quote Pricing Tiers allows you to set how many pricing tiers will automatically appear on new RFQs. Of course, you can always change this number on individual RFQs.

Entering a Request for Quote

To create an RFQ, navigate to Transactions > Purchases > Enter Request for Quote. Then, fill out the following information.

Primary and Classification Information

First, you’ll need to fill out the Primary and Classification field groups on the header level.
NetSuite Request for Quote Primary Information

Some of the key fields you need to fill out are the Start Date and End Date fields, which set the parameters for when the RFQ is valid. The Bid Open Date and Bid Close Date fields, on the other hand, tell your vendors the timeframe in which you plan to accept any offers that have been submitted.

The Effectivity Based On field allows you to specify when new POs will be bound by the terms of an accepted vendor contract. The two options include Order Date and Expected Receipt Date. If you select Order Date as the effectivity date, then the terms of your vendor contract will be effective for any orders you place within your Start Date and End Date. If you select Expected Receipt Date, however, then the terms of your vendor contract will be effective only if the expected receipt date for an order is within your Start Date and End Date.

Items

You will use the Items subtab to specify what items you are looking to purchase. The field Number of Pricing Tiers reflects your default number of tiers, but you can change it. Notice, however, that you cannot change the number of pricing tiers you set for individual items, although you can set different amounts within each tier for individual items.
NetSuite Request for Quote Items Subtab

In other words, if you have three pricing tiers, you might want to see vendor pricing on Item A for quantities of 0-49, 50-99, and 100+. For Item B, you still need to have three pricing tiers, but you may want to set the actual amounts to 0-25, 25-49, and 50+. To set the exact amounts on your pricing tiers, select the plus sign in the Additional Pricing column next to an item. Then, fill out the amounts for each pricing tier in the pop up box. 

Request for Quote Pricing Tiers

Terms

After selecting your desired items, you will need to set the terms you are offering for this quote. In the Terms tab, you can establish the payment terms (for example, Due on Receipt or Net 30). You can also use the Incoterm field to define when ownership of the items will transfer over. And the Discount tab allows you to set header discount terms.
NetSuite Request for Quote Terms Subtab

Special Instructions

The Special Instructions tab is where you would record any specific instructions for your vendor. Categories of instructions include Purchase Order Instructions, Product Labeling Instructions, Packing List Instructions, and Billing Instructions.
NetSuite Request for Quote Special Instructions Subtab

Vendors

The Vendor tab allows you to select vendors that you wish to send the Request for Quote. NetSuite has a standard email format that will be sent to these vendors, including all the items, terms, and instructions on the RFQ. But if you want to customize the message that goes out to these vendors, you can do that using the Email Introduction field.
NetSuite Request for Quote Vendors Subtab

Wrapping Up a Request for Quote

After an RFQ has been created, it will be emailed to all your selected vendors on the Bid Open Date. Your vendors will make any changes they need to make to the RFQ and record their prices for the items and pricing tiers you have indicated. When the bidding period closes, NetSuite adds an Awards tab to the Request for Quote record. On this tab, you can review the responses from your vendors and select the most desirable one.

Conclusion

With the NetSuite Request for Quote feature, you can easily manage all your vendor quotes. If you enjoyed this blog, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list below to receive each week’s latest NetSuite blog post directly in your inbox.