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# Price request: step by step from quotation to supply order

Do you want to subcontract part of a quotation to a subcontractor, or are you looking for the best price for your materials? Then follow these steps, from your quotation to the supply order with the supplier you choose. What every field and every button on a price request means is explained in [Price requests | General](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/drawing-up-a-price-request-for-a-supplier-yjcgyu/).

| Are you working with price requests for the first time? Then first create a template and a supplier email template with the link to the portal in the [settings](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/price-requests-settings-12eakak/). Without a template you cannot create a price request.

*Navigate quickly to:*
* [Step 1: create the price request from your quotation](#2-step-1-create-the-price-request-from-your-quotation)
* [Step 2: add your suppliers](#2-step-2-add-your-suppliers)
* [Step 3: send the price request to your suppliers](#2-step-3-send-the-price-request-to-your-suppliers)
* [Step 4: follow up the responses](#2-step-4-follow-up-the-responses)
* [Step 5: compare the prices and approve a supplier](#2-step-5-compare-the-prices-and-approve-a-supplier)
* [Step 6: make the supply order](#2-step-6-make-the-supply-order)

## Step 1: create the price request from your quotation

1. Open your [quotation](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/quotations-18y2inr/) and select the lines you want to subcontract. These may also be lines from the line detail of a post.
2. Right-click and choose **Create price request**. If you have several templates, choose one.
3. The price request opens. It is linked to your quotation and the project.

Does the same item with the same description appear several times in your quotation? Then Robaws puts it on the price request once, with the total quantity of the whole quotation.

Check the price request before you send it:

* In the **Items** tab, under **Documents for suppliers**, add the plans or the specification your suppliers need.
* Check the **Deadline date**. Up to and including that day, your suppliers can respond.

| You can also create a price request without a quotation, from a project, a supplier or the overview of your price requests. In that case you cannot load the prices into a quotation automatically afterwards.

## Step 2: add your suppliers

1. In the **Supplier price requests** block, click **Add line**.
2. Choose the supplier and, if you wish, the contact who should receive the e-mail.
3. Repeat this for every supplier from whom you request a price.

Do you often request prices from the same suppliers, for example all your roofers? Then create a supplier group via the **Supplier Groups** action button in the overview of your price requests. On the price request, you add the whole group in one go with the **Supplier Groups** button at the top of the block. Robaws skips suppliers that are already on it.

## Step 3: send the price request to your suppliers

Send the price request with a **supplier email template**. Every supplier gets their own e-mail with a personal link to their supplier portal.

* To all suppliers at once: at the top of the file, click the **E-mail** action button, choose your supplier email template and then **All**.
* To one supplier: on their line, click the e-mail icon **Send email**.

The status of the supplier changes to **Sent**.

| You put the link to the portal in your supplier email template with the replacement code **${portalLink}**. It only works in a supplier email template, because every supplier gets their own link. You create the templates in the [settings](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/price-requests-settings-12eakak/#2-supplier-email-templates).

## Step 4: follow up the responses

On the portal, your supplier chooses **Yes, I am going to calculate** or **No, I am not going to calculate**, fills in their prices and submits their offer. What exactly they see and can do is explained in [What does my supplier see on the supplier portal?](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/supplier-portal-ol108p/)

Robaws changes the status of the supplier itself: **Calculating**, **Submitted** or **Declined**. If a supplier submits or declines their prices, the assignee of the price request receives a [notification](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/notifications-5hn5mm/). Via **Show history** on the line of a supplier you see what they did and when. What every status means is explained in [The status of a supplier](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/drawing-up-a-price-request-for-a-supplier-yjcgyu/#3-the-status-of-a-supplier).

| Did a supplier send their prices by e-mail instead of via the portal? Then click **Show supplier prices** on their line and fill in the prices yourself. Then set their status to **Submitted**: only suppliers with the Submitted or Approved status are included in the price comparison.

## Step 5: compare the prices and approve a supplier

### Comparing prices

At the top of the **Supplier price requests** block, click **Compare prices**. In the **Price comparison** window you see, per line, the price of every supplier with the Submitted or Approved status, and their total. The cheapest price per line and the cheapest total turn green. The **Article cost price** column shows the cost price of the item in Robaws, so that you also compare the prices with your own item prices.

### Approving a supplier

Have you made your choice? Hover over the line of that supplier with your mouse and click the **Approve** tick. Robaws asks whether you want to load the prices of the supplier into the quotation. This only works if the price request is linked to a quotation and that quotation is not [locked](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/locking-documents-ysd69g/).

| Setting | Explanation |
| ---- |
| Line matching strategy | How Robaws finds the lines of the price request in the quotation. **Item**: every quotation line with the same item gets the price. **Item + Description**: the item and the description must both be the same. Choose this if the same item is in your quotation for different works. Robaws only finds lines without an item with Item + Description. |
| Custom margin, Margin | (only with a [calculated quotation](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/what-is-the-difference-between-a-simple-and-a-calculated-quotation-18fbxoh/)) Tick this to fill in a margin yourself on top of the price of the supplier. If you do not, Robaws uses the margin of the item: the difference between its sales price and cost price. If the item has no cost price, Robaws takes the [margin for subcontractors](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/setting-your-margins-on-a-quotation-1vt9lep/) of the quotation. A line without an item gets no margin. |

What Robaws changes in the quotation:

* In a **calculated quotation**, the price of the supplier becomes the cost price. If the item is already in the line detail of a post, Robaws changes that line detail line. If the post itself is the item and it is not in its line detail, Robaws adds a line of the **Subcontractor** cost type to the line detail, with quantity 1. The sales price is the cost price plus the margin.
* In a **simple quotation**, the price of the supplier becomes the price of the quotation line, without a margin. Then adjust your sales price yourself.

If Robaws cannot find a line in the quotation, you get a list of those lines. Then the quotation opens.

After approval, the supplier gets the **Approved** status. The price request gets the [status upon approval](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/price-requests-settings-12eakak/#2-statuses), the approval date, the approved supplier and their prices on the lines.

| Is your price request not linked to a quotation? Then set the status of the supplier to **Approved** yourself. The price request then also gets the approved supplier and their prices, so that you can make a supply order from it. No prices are loaded into a quotation.

Do you want to let your supplier know they are getting the job? Then send them an e-mail via the e-mail icon on their line, with a supplier email template you create for that purpose.

## Step 6: make the supply order

Click the **Make supply order** action button (the shopping cart) at the top of the price request file. Robaws makes a [purchase supply order](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/supply-orders-purchase-supply-order-uadj1d/) for the approved supplier, with the lines and their prices. The project is put on every line, and the reference and the quotation are carried over. If you have several templates for purchase supply orders, you first choose one.

| Approve a supplier first. Without an approved supplier, the supply order has no supplier and no prices.