NetSuite’s Request for Quote feature lets your purchasing team ask suppliers to bid on a requirement, compare their responses and award purchase contracts. It is a buying workflow. When a customer asks your company for a selling price, your sales team uses an estimate instead.
This guide walks through the supplier RFQ process using a twelve-month supply arrangement for machined housings. It also explains how the confirmed buying terms support a customer quotation.
Oracle’s RFQ feature covers the supplier side; your sales team creates a customer estimate to offer a selling price. In a manufacturer, you may need both processes for the same customer requirement.
Specify the housings and quantities you want suppliers to price
Suppose you need a twelve-month supply arrangement for machined housings. Before asking for prices, agree the drawing revision, forecast quantities and delivery assumptions with the requester. Have quality or engineering identify any non-negotiable requirements.
| Requirement | What the buyer should specify |
|---|---|
| Product | Item identifier, drawing revision and required specification |
| Quantity | Expected demand and the quantity breaks vendors should price |
| Delivery | Sites, anticipated releases and required lead-time basis |
| Commercial terms | Currency, freight responsibility and payment expectations |
| Exceptions | Where vendors should identify deviations or exclusions |
| Decision | Bid dates, responsible buyer and technical reviewer |
Record these requirements on the RFQ and its attachments. Attach the supporting specification. If vendors interpret different revisions, comparing their rates will not settle the purchase decision.
State the required approval and inspection work before asking for bids. For automotive supply, AIAG’s PPAP process concerns evidence that production meets the design requirements. If your buying requirement includes that work, suppliers need to price it along with the housings.
Distinguish prototype quantity, approval samples and expected production releases. Ask suppliers to separate tooling and one-time submission costs from recurring unit rates. A bid for 100 prototypes and a bid for 100 parts from an already approved production process can have the same quantity while covering very different work.
Enable the feature and create the RFQ
Oracle’s RFQ feature setup requires both Purchase Contracts and Request for Quote. An administrator can check these on the Transactions tab under Enable Features and confirm the account’s access and commercial entitlement.
Oracle documents the entry path as Transactions > Purchases > Enter Requests for Quote. Complete the item and vendor information, define the bid period and review pricing assumptions before sending. The RFQ entry reference explains fields such as pricing effectivity and the introduction sent to vendors.
Have another buyer review the first setup. A date or tier mistake can force every vendor to resubmit. If a clarification changes the requirement, communicate that change to the affected bidders and record the revised basis.
Plan how vendors will respond
The native workflow includes responses through the Vendor Center. Check that your contacts can use the process before relying on it for urgent sourcing. Assign an owner to reconcile PDF responses that suppliers send outside that process.
For emailed bids, prepare a review sheet with a source reference for every extracted rate and exclusion. Keep blank values distinct from zero. “Freight not stated” does not mean freight is free, and “lead time on confirmation” does not establish a delivery commitment.
In an AI quoting workflow, an agent can prepare that sheet, highlight omissions and draft clarification messages. The buyer then resolves the ambiguous terms before approving the commercial record.
Compare bids before awarding a contract
After the bid closes, use the comparison and award process. Oracle’s award documentation describes the Awards subtab and resulting purchase contracts. Review the full requirement, including terms beyond the unit rate.
A supplier-bid comparison should include freight and other stated charges: the lowest unit rate may not give you the lowest purchase cost. Keep technical exceptions in separate columns so price cannot conceal a different scope.
If a supplier revises its offer late, identify which version the buyer accepted. Store that decision with the supporting response. Later releases against purchase contracts or blanket orders need a clear commercial basis.
Connect purchasing to customer quoting
For a customer-specific request, identify which sales lines depend on the supplier bid. If the vendor changes the minimum quantity or delivery assumption, notify the sales owner and recalculate the affected proposal before release.
For the housing requirement, sales needs to know whether purchasing has confirmed a usable cost and whether any supplier deviation remains open. Show those answers against the affected sales lines. The rep can then see whether to prepare the offer or wait for a specific clarification.
The confirmed buying cost becomes an input to sales pricing. Your quote approval policy still governs any concession or delivery commitment; a procurement award does not grant that authority.
Connect supplier sourcing to customer quoting with Bourne
NetSuite’s purchasing RFQ is the right record for requesting supplier bids. Choose Bourne when your buyer must first translate a customer requirement into a sourcing request, chase clarifications and return the result to sales. We can build that work around your purchasing process, keeping the required specification linked to the supplier response.
Sales can then quote against the buying terms your team actually confirmed. Connect your sales and purchasing workflows with Bourne.
Frequently asked questions
Is NetSuite Request for Quote for customers or suppliers?
The native purchasing feature is for requests you send to suppliers. For a customer asking you for a price, prepare a sales estimate.
Which features must we enable for NetSuite RFQs?
Oracle specifies Purchase Contracts and Request for Quote. Ask your administrator to confirm permissions and availability in your account before changing the setup.
Does awarding an RFQ create a sales order?
No. The purchasing award process creates purchase contracts. Customer sales orders belong to the separate sales workflow.
Can we compare bids suppliers send by email?
You can prepare a comparison from those files, but someone must reconcile it with the native RFQ process. Decide where the approved values and source responses will live.
Can AI choose the winning supplier?
Use it to prepare comparable evidence and identify unanswered questions first. Keep the award with the responsible buyer until you have explicit selection rules and sufficient evidence to delegate a defined class of decisions.
Further reading
AIAG: Production Part Approval Process
Purpose of PPAP in demonstrating that production meets engineering requirements.
Buğra Gündüz
Buğra Gündüz is the co-founder and CEO of Bourne and co-founder of HockeyStack. He built HockeyStack into an eight-figure AI business. At Bourne, he works with entrepreneurs and established companies to create AI products and services.