Process spare-parts RFQs from PDF to reviewed quotation

An industrial buyer may send the same RFQ to several suppliers. Preparing a complete response means extracting part numbers, checking quantities, requesting prices and confirming lead times. Much of that preparation is repeated for every enquiry.

Here is how Terramine Desk supports that workflow, from incoming documents to a quotation, with your team responsible for review and commercial decisions.

1. Read the RFQ where it lands

Terramine Desk classifies incoming emails, and every attachment on it: PDF, spreadsheet, Word, image, up to six per email. An enquiry is recognised as an enquiry, a supplier's offer as an offer, a complaint as a complaint, and an auto-reply as automated mail that makes work for nobody. Each email gets one line in English saying what it is and whether somebody owes a reply, whatever language it was written in.

2. Extract the order details

One click turns the enquiry into a draft order. A spreadsheet is read cell by cell, within the spreadsheet reader’s limits, so cell values can be reviewed without manually retyping each number. A PDF or a photo is read by a model, up to 100 lines. The brand is guessed from the number's shape: Komatsu's 3-3-2, CAT's seven characters, Liebherr's bare digits. Ask for "only the Liebherr lines" and you get one order per machine. Nothing is saved until someone presses Create.

3. Select suppliers and send requests

Terramine Desk ranks your suppliers by how many of the order's lines their price lists cover, equivalents included. Select the suppliers to contact, and each gets a request by email with an Excel sheet, in its own currency, numbered from the order: ORD-2026-0016 becomes SRQ-2026-0016-1, -2 and so on. A number is never reused, to help match replies to the correct request; uncertain matches need review.

4. Capture and compare supplier responses

Suppliers reply in every format: a screenshot, a PDF, a spreadsheet, three lines in the email. Terramine Desk reads each answer into its request, line by line, and shows each price beside the one it would replace, with the reason for the match. A long sheet is read thirty rows at a time with the extracted proposals available for review. "In stock" is recorded as in stock, the offered brand and quality are kept, and a line delivered in lots keeps its lots.

5. Calculate costs and review the quotation

The request you choose fills the order's cost, converted at that request's own exchange rate, with freight by weight, duty and VAT per line. The quotation is built as PDF and Excel on your letterhead: lead times in days, "in stock" where it is, weight per line and in total, lots and alternatives printed as such, and a long part number never split across two lines. It is numbered from the order (QUO-2026-0016-1), sent from Terramine Desk, and its status tracked.

Give your team a draft to review, with the source document alongside it.

What your team still decides

• Which suppliers to ask, and which answer to take.
• The margin, and every price on the quotation.
• When the quotation goes out, and to whom.

Where RFQ time actually goes

RFQ processing often involves re-entering part numbers, preparing similar requests for several suppliers and copying prices back into the order. Terramine Desk supports each step while keeping the source material available for review.

The systems: TERRA-202 TRIAGE, TERRA-301 RFQ, TERRA-302 SRQ, TERRA-303 OFFER and TERRA-304 QUOTE.

TERRA-301 · RFQTERRA-202 · TRIAGETERRA-302 · SRQTERRA-303 · OFFERTERRA-304 · QUOTE