15.04.00 Comparing and Awarding eQuotes

Once you've received responses from all Suppliers and have imported their pricing into Quick Bid, you'll want to compare pricing and award an eQuote in its entirety or individual Items from an eQuote.  Accepting an eQuote updates the Material pricing and Supplier for associated Items.  If you have rights to update Item Masters, you will be prompted to do so when accepting an eQuote price for an Item.

Comparing_eQuotes

Quick Bid makes it easy to compare different Supplier quotes side-by-side.  It is easy to see which Supplier provides the best price per Item and overall.  Use this information to negotiate with your preferred Suppliers to get a better deal.  (We made our prices overly simple, just as an example).

You may need to resize Quick Bid (width) so that the Supplier columns fit (the Supplier columns automatically resize based on how big the Quick Bid window is) so you are able to see the returned pricing.  

Minimum Order Quantity Notification

The supplier may return an eQuote that requires a minimum order (which can be more than what is needed for the project).  When this occurs, an Alert icon displays next to the amount under that specific Supplier's name.   To learn what the Alert is, hold the mouse cursor over the  and a message indicates that a Minimum Order Qty is … with the required number of the supplier filled in to complete the message.   

Be aware of minimum quantity requirements - be sure you are comparing "apples to apples" between Suppliers.  Although one supplier may have a better price for a given Material, the minimum requirement may drive up the overall cost.

eQuote Details

As noted in the previous article (Receiving eQuotes from Suppliers), the eQuote Details screen shows you any minimum quantity requirements, expiration dates, and Item or eQuote Notes from the Supplier:

UnQuoted Items (Items not priced by Supplier)

If the Supplier hasn't provided pricing for an Item, you can:

• Uncheck the Item so that its pricing is not accepted with the other, priced Items
• Manually enter a price within the eQuote details for that Item
• Remove that Item from the eQuote BEFORE accepting the eQuote (this removes the item for ALL Suppliers, though)

• If you accept a Item with "0" as its pricing, the Material will be updated to a $0.00 price!  

Adjusting Supplier Pricing

If your Supplier returns an eQuote and doesn't price one or more Items, or you simply want to adjust the pricing the Supplier returned, you can do that in the eQuote grid.  When you 'override' a Supplier's pricing, the font turns blue to indicate the change.

• When you VIEW or PRINT an eQuote, you are seeing what the Supplier quoted/returned.  When you override a Supplier's price, that override is shown only in the Grid.

Obviously, if you adjust a Supplier's pricing, the Supplier is not obligated to honor that pricing.

To restore the pricing the Supplier sent, just type "0" for the Item price in the Supplier's eQuote column.  Quick Bid restores the pricing to what the Supplier sent in and the text turns black.

Accepting (Awarding) an eQuote (entire)

To award an entire eQuote to a Supplier,

• Click the checkbox below the Supplier's name (this is the select all/de-select all toggle)
• This ticks the checkbox for each individual Item in the eQuote
• Click on the Supplier's name - this opens a drop down (the drop down obscures the checkbox below the Supplier name, our screenshot was modified for the sake of this example)
• Select Accept Quote (If you have rights to update Master Items, and the option to prompt to "Ask before updating master material pricing" is checked in Tools > Options, you are prompted to update Master Material Pricing - see the next section for details.  If you have disabled the Prompt OR you do not have access rights to modify the Master Items, only the bid-level pricing is updated).

• If you accept an entire eQuote (or an Item) that has 'no pricing' returned by the Supplier, the Material pricing will be set to zero in your Bid.  Be sure to un-select or remove unpriced Items from an eQuote before accepting. You will, of course, be warned about this...
  
  
  

We are going to proceed with accepting this entire eQuote as-is and then circle back to correct the missing pricing!

• If you have rights to update Master Items AND if the option to "Prompt to update master" is enabled (see below), you will be prompted to update the Master - at this time you can update the Master Item's with pricing and Supplier.

The Materials Tab updates to reflect the chosen Supplier, Pricing and the date that pricing is updated and an Accept Quote icon displays in the column for that Invited Supplier (the Suppliers pricing columns are also colored to indicate the eQuote is accepted).

Notice, because we manually overrode the pricing for some of the Items, they are labeled "(OVERRIDE)" then the Supplier name.  This lets you immediately identify prices you modified.

Once you have accepted an eQuote, you cannot change the Items included.  However, keep reading...

Now... what about that unpriced Item?  Well, let's return to the eQuotes grid and take care of that.

If you want to adjust the eQuote with pricing FOR THAT SUPPLIER, you have to un-accept the eQuote (see below), set the price, and re-Accept it.

If you want to award THAT ITEM to a different Supplier, simply tick the checkbox for that Item under the intended Supplier...

Now, Accept the eQuote for the new Supplier.  You will be notified that one or more of the Items in the newly Accepted eQuote were PREVIOUSLY priced.

Click Yes to change the Supplier and Pricing to the new eQuote...

Accepting (Awarding) Individual Items from an eQuote (partial)

To award selected Items from an eQuote to a Supplier,

• Tick the checkboxes for the Items you want to award to a Supplier, notice that the 'select all' box under the Supplier's name turns 'semi-selected'...

• Click on the Supplier's name - this opens a drop down
• Select Accept Quote (again, based on your Options settings and access rights, you may be prompted to update Master Material Pricing)
• The Materials Tab is updated to reflect the Supplier's pricing and name and the date the price was updated only for the selected Items...

• Although you can select which Items from an eQuote to accept, you run the risk of your Supplier not honoring prices if you do.  The Supplier is basing his/her quoted prices on the eQuote as a GROUP (meaning he or she may be offering a special price on item X because of some a price break when it is included item Y).  

Unaccept an eQuote

It is possible to Unaccept an eQuote after it has already been accepted.   To Unaccept an eQuote, click the drop down arrow next to the Supplier's name, then click Unaccept eQuote.

Unaccepting an eQuote does not restore the material pricing to its former values, it only removes the Supplier information for this Bid.  Click Bid > Refresh Material Pricing or accept a different Supplier's eQuote to update pricing.  If the Master pricing was updated during eQuote acceptance the pricing would be the same and would need to manually be updated.

Miscellaneous eQuote Notices

Verify eQuote Price

Let us say, for example, that we were quoted for one size of drywall by one Supplier and another size of the SAME drywall (X58) by another Supplier.  We were able to send the same Item through different eQuotes because the Item is Sized by "Sizes".

When we accept the eQuote,

• If the Item's Material Price method is by UOM, meaning there is one price for the Item, regardless of Size, that ITEM's pricing is updated, for all sizes.  For the matching size, the Supplier is updated based on the accepted eQuote.  For non-matching sizes, the Supplier column will show "Verify eQuote Price".  You can modify the pricing for these sizes manually.

• If the Item's Material Price methods is by "Sizes", meaning there are separate prices for each Size of the Item, then a separate eQuote/price can be accepted for EACH Size.

Update Master Material Confirmation

As mentioned previously, if you have access rights to update Master Items AND the option to prompt is turned on, you will be prompted to update the Master Items' Pricing when you accept an eQuote.

To enable this setting, click Tools > Options and select Ask before updating master material pricing in the Confirmations section.

If the current user does not have access rights to update the Master, they will not receive this message.  See Setting Estimator Access Levels (Security) for details on setting estimator rights within a database.

Once the confirmation is turned on you will be prompted to update the master material price when a Supplier's eQuote is accepted. 

• Select No, Quick Bid only updates the material pricing for the current Bid
• Select Yes, the Master Item is updated to reflect the new pricing and the supplier is added to the Master Item - existing Bids where this Item was already used are not affected by this update unless the estimator manually does so by clicking Bid > Refresh Material Pricing from within a specific Bid.

• Updating the Master Material pricing is immediate and irreversible (there is no way to undo this change).

Linking Quick Bid and On-Screen Takeoff