aACE has tools to help you track and manage the quote requests you send to vendors. Let's use an example to demonstrate the tools.
Let's say that you want to get a few quotes on a custom built gadget. There are 3 companies that you want to get bids from, and you want to track the status of the quoting process. Here's how.
- Navigate to the Purchase Orders module. From the main menu: Accounts Payable > Purchase Orders.
- Click the New button at the top of the screen and select Purchase Order.
- In the PO Items list, select the categories. In our example, we selected Gadget.
Note: Because the preferred vendor attached to the Gadget category is Widgets & More, it automatically appears in the vendor section. You can clear this or leave it for now.
- Click the RFQ Management tab. Here is where you list the vendors you wish to contact for quotes. You can build the list using the Build RFQs link or you can select the vendors using the finder.
Note: When a category has one or more linked vendors, they all appear automatically when you click the Build RFQs link.
- When you're finished building the vendor list, click Save.
- When asked if you wish to open the PO, click Not Yet. This action saves the record in a pending state. You can manage the RFQs, but the purchase order record is not yet available to the rest of the system.
- To manage the status of the RFQs for each vendor, use the drop-down list at the end of each row. You can print, email and award the RFQ.
The status indicators are color coded for easy reference.
Yellow = pending
Green = emailed or printed
White = awarded
Gray = lost
Attaching documents
To attach a copy of the returned RFQs, click the paper clip icon to activate the document manager. For more information on uploading documents, see the topic on Uploading Documents.
Awarding the winning bid
Use the drop-down list to award the bid to the vendor of choice. When you award the winning vendor, the vendor's information is automatically saved to the vendor section of the purchase order.
In Edit mode, you can log the bid totals from each vendor. Once the bid has been award, you can open and process the purchase order.
