Sending a Price Request to Subcontractors

Objective

This function is an extra step in preparing a quotation to obtain prices for a service from subcontractors (specialized labour) or for included services (labour and material).

This function can be accessed by clicking the Send Request for Quote to Subcontractors icon in the Quotations and Advanced Quotations options for Construction quotations only.

Prerequisites

Summary

Access the window for price request to subcontrators
Selection of subcontractors who will receive the price request
Sending the price request
Receipt of subcontractors' prices

Steps

The user must create a quotation with subcontractors in the Detail tab before sending a price request to subcontractors.

1. Access the window for price request to subcontractors

From the quotation screen, click the Send Request for Quote to Subcontractors icon. The Selection of the request for quote form window opens.
By default, the system displays all of the subcontractors identified in the quotation. If no subcontractors are specified, the user will have to choose recipients manually (see step 4b).

2. Selection of subcontractors who will receive the price request

From the Selection of the request for quote form window, select the subcontractors affected by the price request in the Selected column.
Check or uncheck the Each recipient will have a form identified to his name option based on your requirements.

If the Each recipient will have a form identified to his name option is not checked, the system will send the same form to all of the selected subcontractors. This is useful if a price request is sent to multiple subcontractors in the same field, for example. If this option is checked, a custom form will be created based on the list of subcontractors displayed in the section provided for this purpose.

Select the price request form in the Form field.

The Default form is selected by the system to reflect the following hierarchy:

If a form other than Default is specified in the Subcontractor Request for Quote Form field in the Projects / Quotations structure in the General Settings.

If no form is specified in the Projects / Quotations structure in the General Settings, the system uses the standard form provided by Maestro, which is the JCSOURFQSUB.STD – Subcontractors RFQ.

You can access the Form Configuration screen by clicking the icon to change the form to be used.

Click Ok.

3. Sending the price request

The Send a Message window is displayed with contacts of the subcontractors that have been selected in the preceding step if there was subcontractors specified in the quotation. Otherwise, the user must select the recipients manually.

Enter the subject for the message in the Subject field.

This step is not required if the subject has been defined by default in the Mailing Configuration option for the Subcontractors RFQ form.

This subject will be copied to the subject field when the email message is sent to inform your subcontractors of the reason for your price request.

The icon to the right of this field can be clicked to manually enter a subject based on the language of your contacts by switching from one to another. The user can write a bilingual email message, but the subject will be in English or French, according to the language of the Recipient.

Complete the information for the Recipients.

The user can add recipients to the price request at any time by clicking the Contact or Distribution Lists icon. However, the selected contacts will only affect the transmission of the price request. They do not affect the Subcontractors tab in the quotation.

The contacts will vary according to the address book selected. By default, the selected address book is Quotation. The contacts available will be company contacts.

Mode 2 - Email (Cc) sends the email message and price request to the contact if available in the Attachments tab. Otherwise, the contact in the Cc field will receive only the e-mail message, without the attachment.

If the Each recipient will have a form identified to his name option was checked in step 2, the price request form will be customized for each recipient and will be displayed in the Document column in the following window.

To view the document in the request, double-click on the name of the document in the Document column in the Recipients tab. To select the language in which you want the price request form to open, press the CTRL key and double-click on the name of the form.

The Send column identifies the contacts who will receive the price request. You can change your mind by unchecking the check box so that the form is not sent to certain contacts or you can add contacts to the distribution list.

Complete the Message tab.

This step is not required if a message has been defined by default in the Mailing Configuration option for the Subcontractors RFQform.

This text is the email message. You can also select another signature if you are sending email messages for another person.

You can define a default electronic signature in the Miscellaneous tab of the user's Preferences.

Complete the Attachments tab if necessary. This step is required to send plans and specifications, for example.

The documents added in this tab will be sent to all sub-contractors.

If the Each recipient will have a form identified to his name option is not checked when you click Ok in step 2, the price request form will be the same for all recipients and will be displayed in the Attachments tab like shown in the following figure.

To view the document in the request, double-click on the name of the document in the File column in the Attachments tab. To select the language in which you want the price request form to open, press the CTRL key and double-click on the name of the form.

You can add and attach additional documents. The documents specified in the Attachments tab will be sent to all of the selected contacts automatically. To add documents to a specific contact, you must use the Document column in the Recipients tab.

Check the Convert to PDF option if your documents are not saved in PDF format to have the system convert them. This option is useful if the documents you are sending are in an editable format.

The Context field sets the source of the documents to be attached if the user clicks the Link a file coming from Document Management icon.

Send the quotation request by clicking the Send icon.

According to the method of correspondence, the system performs the following operations:

Sends the documents to the printer if the transmission method is Paper.

Sends an email message to all of the selected recipients if the transmission method is Email, Email (Cc) or Email (Bcc).

Sends a fax to all of the recipients if the transmission method is Fax. However, a fax must be connected to the computer and configured.

A copy of the price request is saved in the contact's Transmittal Log tab in the Contact Management option accessed by the Contact icon of the quote.

A transmission confirmation message is displayed on the screen. Click Ok to return to the quotation.

4. Receipt of subcontractor' prices

Once the prices has been received from the subcontractors, the user must enter them for each of them in the quotation.

It is also possible to enter those prices directly in the Detail tab, depending on the working methods of the user.

In the quotation, access the Subcontractors tab.
Enter the prices received in the U.P. column.

All price changes made in this tab will automatically be updated in the Detail tab.

If the price received is for a quantity more than 1, adjust the value of the Quantity column.
Select the chosen subcontractor by checking the Select column.

It is also possible to enter those prices directly in the Detail tab.

When you check the subcontractor once (box identified with a check mark), it means that everything (material, resource, assemblies) is NOT included in the current level’s price. A double-click in the check box will get it greyed out and this means that everything (material, resource, assemblies) is included in the current level’s price.