About Item Price Requests

Item price request functionality is a Vendor Portal feature designed to help you find the best available price for a selected item. Similar to requesting bids for an item or a service, you can request item pricing information from a predetermined group of vendors. When you inquire about an item, the appropriate vendors are notified of your request by email. They can log in to the Vendor Portal to view and respond to your request.

These are the general steps required for using item price requests:

Add items to item categories using the Items form, Item Categories tab.
Associate vendors with the item categories using the Item Categories form, Vendors tab or the Vendors form, Portal tab.
Enter an item price request using theItem Price Requests form, or create the request from an existing PLN or PO requisition line. The request is sent to all vendors associated with the selected item.
View vendor responses using the Item Price Requests form, Item Price Response tab. (If a vendor responds by phone or email rather than by using the Vendor Portal Item Price Requests page, you can enter their response information manually into CloudSuite Industrial.)

If you need more information about one of the vendor responses on the Item Price Requests form, you can select it and start an online discussion with the vendor using the Vendor Interactions form. This form maintains records of your interaction. If one of the responses is right on target, you can select it and automatically create a purchase order or purchase order requisition, which then follows standard processing procedures.

Note: The item price request is not intended to be used as a formal bidding process, and vendor responses are not expected to be binding. Rather, this feature is meant to facilitate pricing inquiries using the Vendor Portal. Also, item price request functionality uses only the vendor default currency, including when copying a price response to a purchase order or PO requisition.