The RFQ template is your foundation of the values that will appear on your RFQ.  Some of those values will be provided by you, like item part number and description.  Other values will be provided by the supplier like cost and lead time.  When you are thinking about creating your template make sure you are considering:

• What is the information you must have from the bidders to make a decision - these are your "response required" fields
• What information would be nice to have from a bid - these are "response optional"
• What details do the suppliers need to give you accurate bids - these are your fields to fill out (item/part number, description, materials).

Create your template

Using an excel or csv file create the template by labeling the top row. Many buyers simply download their bill of materials from their ERP and use that file. 

You can include as many as you need but you MUST include the following:

• Part Number
• Quantity
• Cost
• Unit of Measure

The example excel file below includes the four required fields in red plus a few extra details the buyer will provide like drawing number, part description.  Additionally the suppliers will be asked to provide lead time & delivery date in addition to the unit price. Note that the body of the excel file is empty.  I've only included a header row.  (The information comes later when building the RFG).

Next, Upload Your File

1) From the Items Page - Click the green "New Template" button, choose your excel/csv file and click open

2) Choose a name for your template and enter it in the "Name" input box - be sure to choose a name that you will remember as you will use this template later to create your request

3) Set the values for your columns, starting out it will look like this:

4) Choose the Type of data for each of your fields.  

• text - letters, numbers and special characters
• number - numbers only 0-9
• date - numbers and forward slashes in this format mm/dd/yyyy

5)  For information that would be nice to have from the suppliers but not absolutely critical click "Response Optional".

6) For information that the supplier must provide you on each bid click the "Response Required" check box. 

7) For information that you are provided leave Response Optional and Response Required blank.  Headers/Fields without these boxes checked will be not be open for the supplier to provide information.  For example, when you map the Part Number, Quantity, & Unit of Measure those field are only open to you to provide, since you will be telling the suppliers what part, amount, and UOM you are requesting for the bid.  

8) Then map your primary required fields in the table on the right - In this case I named them the same thing so that they would be easy to map.  In the end it should look something like this:

7) Hit the blue save button at the top of the page.

Updating Your Template

Things change, if you need to update your template after you have saved you can quickly and easily make updates. Note:  You cannot remove columns or add columns at this step.  If you would like to do this, it's easiest to just upload a new template.

1) Click on the "Items" tab and you will see your saved templates in the left navigation

2) Click on your template

3) At the top of the page you will now see update and delete buttons

4)  Make the changes, and then click update.  If you want to remove the template, just press delete.