Suppliers & RFQs

Suppliers are simply your contacts marked as a supplier. Once you have some set up, an RFQ lets you list the work you want priced and invite several suppliers to quote against it. Each supplier gets their own private link, fills in their prices with no need to sign up or log in, and their figures come straight back to you for comparison.

How to run an RFQ

1. Create the request. From the RFQs screen, start a new request. Give it a title (for example "Stainless kitchen fabrication"), optionally set a closing date, and optionally link it to one of your live jobs.
2. Invite your suppliers. Tick any suppliers you'd like to invite straight away. Suppliers are just your contacts marked as a supplier - if you don't have any yet, add them as contacts first, or come back and invite them later. The request starts out as a draft.
3. Add the line items. Open the draft and add what you want priced - a description for each line, plus a quantity and an optional unit, such as "ea" or "m²". You can add and remove lines freely while it's still a draft.
4. Invite more suppliers if needed. You can keep adding suppliers to the request up until you send it.
5. Send the request. Once you have at least one line item and at least one supplier, send it. This marks the request as out to tender.
6. Share each supplier's link. Every invited supplier gets their own link. Use the copy button beside their name and send it to them however you normally reach them - email, message, or otherwise.
7. The supplier responds. They open their link, see your list, and enter a unit price against each line, with an optional note per line. They can also add lead time, how long their quote is valid for, and payment terms, then submit. They can reopen the same link to update their prices at any time until the request is closed, or decline with an optional reason.
8. Compare the quotes. Back in BuilderDash, the suppliers and quotes view shows a comparison grid - every line down the side, every supplier across the top, with prices filling in as responses come in.
9. Award the work. When you're happy, award the request to a supplier. If it's linked to a job, BuilderDash then offers to raise a purchase order pre-filled with the winning supplier's prices, which you can adjust before sending.

Good to know

• No login needed for suppliers. Each invited supplier responds through their own unique, private link - no account or password required. The link is the only thing that identifies them, so only share it with the supplier it's meant for.
• Prices are entered per line. A supplier enters a unit price against each line, and BuilderDash multiplies it by your quantity to give a line total. Their overall quote total is the sum of the lines they've priced, and they can leave some lines blank.
• The cheapest figures are highlighted. In the comparison grid, when more than one supplier has priced a line, the lowest price is highlighted, and the lowest overall quote total is highlighted at the bottom. A "lowest quote" figure also appears as a headline number on the request and in your RFQ list.
• Only suppliers can be invited. A contact needs to be marked as a supplier (or as both a client and a supplier) before it can be invited, and the same supplier can't be invited to a request twice.
• Request statuses: Draft (still being built), Out to tender (sent, awaiting quotes), Quotes in (at least one supplier has responded), Closed (no longer accepting quotes), and Awarded (you've picked a winner).
• Each supplier's status moves through Invited, Viewed (they've opened their link), Quoted (they've submitted prices), or Declined.
• Line items and suppliers lock once sent. While it's a draft you can freely edit; once sent, the line list is fixed and suppliers can no longer be removed from the comparison.
• Closing or awarding stops new quotes. Once a request is closed or awarded, a supplier opening their link is told it's closed and can't submit or change their prices.
• Resubmitting is fine. A supplier can revisit their link and update their prices at any time until the request is closed - their latest submission replaces the previous one.
• A full history is kept. Creating, sending, inviting, receiving a quote, a supplier declining, and awarding are all recorded against the request.