How Quote Flow Simplifies Inquiry, Vendor Pricing and Quotation Management

A customer emails an inquiry for 40 items. Someone forwards it to purchase. Purchase emails six vendors. Three reply with PDFs, one sends an Excel sheet, one answers in the email body and one never replies. Two days later the customer asks, "Any update on our quote?" Nobody is sure which vendor price is the latest.

If that sounds familiar, the problem isn't your team. It's the process. For most trading, manufacturing and project businesses, the inquiry to quotation process still runs on inboxes, spreadsheets and memory. Quote Flow, part of the Fidus360 suite, replaces that with one pipeline you can see and control. This guide explains how QuoteFlow handles each stage, from the first inquiry to the final quotation, and why that matters for your win rate.

Why the Inquiry to Quotation Process Breaks Down

Before looking at the fix, it helps to name the problem. Most teams struggle in the same places:

• Inquiries get lost in email. RFQs arrive in shared inboxes, personal inboxes and forwarded threads. Some get missed completely.

• Vendor prices come in every format. PDFs, Excel files, email text and WhatsApp messages all end up copied by hand into a spreadsheet.

• Nobody knows the status. Has the RFQ gone to vendors? Did anyone reply? Has the quote gone to the customer? The only way to find out is to ask around.

• Comparing quotes is slow and error-prone. Putting six vendor offers side by side by hand takes hours, and one wrong cell can wipe out your margin.

• Follow-ups depend on memory. Vendors who don't reply only get chased when someone remembers. Each gap costs time. Together they cost deals, because the business that quotes first and most accurately usually wins.

How QuoteFlow Simplifies Every Stage

QuoteFlow covers three linked jobs: capturing inquiries, collecting vendor pricing, and managing quotations. Here's how each one works.

1. Inquiry Capture: Every RFQ in One Queue

QuoteFlow connects to a dedicated business inbox and pulls inquiry emails into one tracked queue. Every RFQ becomes a record with its line items, quantities, customer details and a clear owner. It never reads personal mailboxes, only the inbox you connect. What changes for your team:

• No more digging through email threads to find an inquiry

• Every RFQ is assigned, so ownership is clear

• The whole procurement team can see and work the same RFQ If you want to manage RFQs from email without adding another inbox to watch, this step alone saves hours every week.

2. Vendor Sourcing: The Right Suppliers for Each Inquiry

Once an inquiry is logged, QuoteFlow helps you find and shortlist vendors for it. Instead of emailing the same three suppliers from memory, your team builds a proper shortlist for each inquiry and sends RFQs from one place. Each vendor's response is tracked against the inquiry, so you can see at a glance:

• Which vendors received the RFQ

• Who has replied and who hasn't

• Which prices are current and which have been revised

3. Vendor Price Comparison: Side by Side, Not Spreadsheet by Spreadsheet

This is where QuoteFlow saves the most time. Vendor offers are compared side by side, item by item, so the best price, delivery terms and full coverage are easy to spot. When you can compare vendor quotations in one view:

• You stop re-keying numbers from PDFs into Excel

• Pricing mistakes drop sharply

• You can defend every buying decision with a clear record

• Your margin on the customer quote rests on reliable costs

4. Quotation Tracking: Every Quote Sent, Received and Revised

With costs in hand, your team prepares the customer quotation. QuoteFlow keeps a full history of every quote that's sent, received and revised, so version confusion goes away. When a customer asks, "Is this the updated price?", the answer is one click away.

5. Status Pipeline: Know Where Every RFQ Stands

Every inquiry moves through a clear status pipeline, from new, to sent to vendors, to prices received, to quoted, to won or lost. Managers see the whole picture without chasing updates. Salespeople know what to act on next. This is what RFQ tracking software should do: turn a scattered, email-driven process into a visible workflow.

Connected to the Rest of Your Business

QuoteFlow isn't a standalone tool. Because it's part of Fidus360, it connects with:

• Accounting, so won quotations can move into invoicing

• Documents, which keeps RFQs, vendor files and quotations organised in one place

• Reports & Analytics, for tracking response times, win rates and vendor performance Your inquiry data stays connected from first contact to final invoice.

Who Is Quote Flow For?

QuoteFlow suits any business that buys to quote, including:

• Traders and distributors who source from many suppliers

• Manufacturers who price custom orders against raw material quotes

• EPC and project companies that handle multi-item RFQs

• Growing businesses that need quotation tracking without buying a heavy ERP If your team sends more than a handful of RFQs a week, the manual process is already costing you time and deals.

The Business Impact: Faster Quotes, Fewer Errors, More Wins Here's what changes when the inquiry to quotation process runs in one place:

Before QuoteFlow

Inquiries scattered across inboxes

Vendor prices copied by hand

"Who's handling this?"

Version confusion on quotes

Status updates by phone call

With QuoteFlow

One tracked RFQ queue

Vendor offers compared side by side

Clear owner for every RFQ

Full quote history

Live status pipeline

The result is simple: you respond faster, price more accurately and win more often.

How to Get Started

Connect a dedicated inbox for inquiries.

Add your vendors and their categories.

Invite your team and assign roles.

Log your first RFQ and watch it move through the pipeline.

Want to see it in action? Watch the 2-minute QuoteFlow walkthrough to follow an inquiry from email to vendor quotes to the final comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is QuoteFlow?

QuoteFlow is a cloud-based app in the Fidus360 suite. It manages the full inquiry to quotation process: capturing RFQs from email, sourcing vendors, comparing vendor prices and tracking quotations in one pipeline.

2. Does QuoteFlow read my personal email?

No. You connect a dedicated business inbox, and QuoteFlow only pulls inquiry emails from that inbox. It never touches personal mailboxes.

3. How does QuoteFlow help compare vendor quotations?

Vendor offers for each inquiry are shown side by side, item by item. That makes it easy to spot the best price and terms without copying numbers into spreadsheets.

4. Can multiple team members work on the same RFQ?

Yes. RFQs are assigned to owners and visible to your whole procurement and sales team, so everyone works from the same up-to-date information.

5. Is QuoteFlow suitable for small businesses?

Yes. QuoteFlow is priced per user, so small teams can start with a few users and add more as they grow. There's no heavy ERP setup.

6. How much does QuoteFlow cost?

QuoteFlow is currently priced at ₹2,000 per user per month. Visit the QuoteFlow page for current pricing.

7. Does QuoteFlow connect with accounting and reporting?

Yes. QuoteFlow connects with the Fidus360 Accounting, Documents and Reports & Analytics apps, so your data flows from inquiry to invoice.