Quote Form Templates — Ask Each Vendor the Right Questions

Not every vendor sells the same thing. A shipping line needs to tell you the vessel, the sailing dates and how many free days you get at the destination port. A bag supplier needs to tell you the bag weight, the colour and how fast they can deliver. Asking both the same questions wastes everybody's time — and asking a bag supplier to "book with the main shipping line only" makes you look careless.

A Quote Form Template is how you say, once, what a particular kind of purchase should ask. Every RFQ of that kind then carries the right conditions in its email and the right questions on the vendor's quote page, automatically.

What a template controls

Each template holds three things:

Part	What it does	Where the vendor sees it
Our Requirements	Conditions the vendor must accept, one per line	The OUR REQUIREMENTS list in the RFQ email
Extra Questions	The details you want back, beyond rate and validity	The PLEASE QUOTE list in the email, and the fields on the quote page
Options	Whether the vendor may quote per port, and whether they may add their own extra charges	The shape of the quote page

Requirements are per template, never site-wide. They used to be one list shared by the whole system, which is why bag suppliers were once sent ocean freight booking conditions. Each template now carries its own, and a template with a blank Requirements box prints no requirements at all.

How the pieces fit

flowchart LR
    head["Cost Head\ne.g. Bags"] -->|Quote Form Template| tpl["Quote Form Template\nPlain White PP Bags"]
    costing["Export Costing"] --> rfq["RFQ for that head"]
    head -.->|template copied onto the RFQ| rfq
    tpl --> email["Vendor email\nrequirements + questions"]
    tpl --> page["Vendor quote page\nthe same questions"]
    rfq --> email
    rfq --> page

The chain starts at the Cost Head. When you raise RFQs from a costing, each RFQ picks up whatever template its cost head points at. Change the template and every future RFQ for that cost head follows — you never edit an RFQ by hand.

Setting one up

1. Point the cost head at a template

Go to Cost Head and open the head you buy this thing under — for example Bags.
Set Quote Form Template.
Save.

The Bags cost head with its Quote Form Template set to Plain White PP Bags

A cost head with a blank Quote Form Template still works — its vendors just get the plain rate-only form with no requirements and no extra questions.

2. Fill in the template

Open Quote Form Template and the template you just linked.

The Plain White PP Bags template showing its six extra questions and its requirements

Extra Questions — one row per detail you want back. Label is what the vendor reads; Mandatory means they cannot submit without it. Keep the list short: every question is friction between you and a quote.
Requirements — one condition per line, in plain words. Leave it blank if this kind of purchase has no standing conditions.
Allow Port Rates — leave OFF when the RFQ already fixes the port, or when ports are irrelevant (bags ship to your mill, not to a port).
Collect Misc Charges — turn ON only where vendors genuinely have extras you want itemised, such as freight.
Description is an internal note for your own team. The vendor never sees it — do not paste your enquiry text here expecting it to be sent.

What the vendor gets

The same template drives both the email and the page, so they can never drift apart.

A bag supplier is asked about bags:

Vendor email for a bag RFQ, listing bag conditions and bag questions

A freight forwarder, on the very same system, is asked about freight:

Vendor email for an ocean freight RFQ, listing booking conditions and sailing questions

Clicking Submit Your Rate opens their private quote page, which asks for exactly what the email promised. No login, no password.

The vendor quote page for a bag RFQ, showing the six bag questions

Whatever they fill in comes back to you as a Supplier Quotation, with their answers attached to it.

Everyday questions

Do I need a template for every cost head?
No. Leave it blank wherever the plain rate-only form is enough. Add a template when a kind of purchase has questions or conditions of its own.

I changed a template — what happens to RFQs already sent?
Nothing. A vendor who already has your email keeps the version they received. New RFQs pick up the change.

Can two cost heads share one template?
Yes — Ocean Freight and Sea Freight already share the Ocean Freight template. Point as many heads at a template as you like.

A vendor says the questions do not apply to them.
That usually means the RFQ went out under the wrong cost head. Check which head the charge line sits on, and which template that head points at.

Setup Guide