Getting started
EveryoneYour account, your device, what your role can do and how an RFQ becomes a quotation.
How it fits together
Every piece of work starts as a request for quotation (RFQ) from a customer. Estimators cost each line, a manager approves the RFQ, and sales turn it into a quotation that is approved and issued as a PDF. When the customer answers, each line is recorded as awarded or failed.
Flow: customer, RFQ with lines and drawings, costing of each line, RFQ approval (a rejection returns it to costing), quotation, quotation approval (a rejection returns it to the quotation), issued PDF, then each line awarded or failed.
Before you start
- Ask an administrator for an account. There is no self sign-up. You receive a username, a temporary password and a role.
- Sign in, then open Account from the menu at the top right and set your own password. Passwords need at least 8 characters.
- After 5 wrong passwords in a row the account locks for 15 minutes. Ask an administrator if you are stuck.
- You are signed out after 2 hours without activity, and after 12 hours in any case. Typing and clicking count as activity, even before you save.
- Remember my username on the sign-in page keeps only your username on this device, never your password.
Your device
- Use a current desktop browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
- Phones work well for checking status, approving and recording outcomes. Costing and the 3D viewer are easier on a computer.
- The 3D model viewer needs hardware graphics (WebGL). If models do not appear, turn on hardware acceleration in your browser settings.
What your role can do
Your administrator gives you one role. It decides what you can change; everyone can view.
| Task | Admin | Manager | Estimator | Sales | Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create and edit RFQs | Assigned | ||||
| Submit RFQs for approval | |||||
| Cost RFQ lines | Assigned | ||||
| Assign lines to estimators | |||||
| Approve RFQs and quotations | |||||
| Create and edit quotations | |||||
| Record quotation outcomes | |||||
| Add and edit customers | |||||
| Edit parts | |||||
| Validate parts | |||||
| Edit master data and rates | |||||
| Manage user accounts | |||||
| View RFQs, quotations and reports |
- Assigned: estimators work only on the RFQ lines a manager assigns to them.
- Approvers cannot approve a request they created or submitted themselves.
- Viewers do not see prices, costs or totals.
What needs to be set up first
Managers and administrators set these up once, before the first RFQ. Costing and quotations use them automatically. See Master data, FX rates and users.
| Customers, with their contacts and preferred currency | Customers |
| Operation codes and their rates | Master data › Operation codes |
| Exchange rates for every currency you quote in | Master data › FX rates |
| Default markups per cost element | Master data › Cost template |
| Material grades and raw material types | Master data › Material grades, RM types |
| Surface and heat treatments | Master data › Treatments |
| Packaging materials and transport routes | Master data › Packaging & transport |
| Currencies, incoterms and payment terms | Master data › Currencies, Incoterms & payment |
| Terms and conditions printed on quotations | Master data › Terms templates |
Files you can attach
- Drawings: PDF, TIF, TIFF.
- 3D models: STEP, STP, IGES, IGS.
- Also accepted: JPG, JPEG, PNG, DXF.
- Up to 50 MB per file and 500 MB per batch upload. A batch upload matches files to lines by the part number in the file name, and unpacks a .zip.
- Paste from Excel takes rows copied straight from a sheet, with these columns in order: Part No, Rev, Description, Type, Qty, Material grade.
From RFQ to quotation
- Create the RFQ for a customer and add its lines, by hand or pasted from Excel.
- Attach drawings and 3D models, then assign each line to an estimator.
- Start costing. Estimators cost their lines: material, operations, treatments and extras.
- When every line is costed, submit the RFQ for approval.
- A manager approves the RFQ, or it is closed as no quote.
- Create the quotation from the completed RFQ, or earlier from some of its lines, and check prices, terms and validity.
- A manager approves it and the quotation is issued to the customer as a PDF.
- Record each line as awarded or failed, then close the quotation out.
New parts are marked Estimated until a manager checks them and marks them Validated. Only validated prices are used as references for future quotes.
Finding records in a list
RFQs, Quotations, Product Master, Customers and Tickets share the same buttons at the top of the list.
- Filters opens a search and the filters for that list. Press Apply filters. Each active filter shows as a chip under the heading; the × on a chip clears just that filter, and Clear all in the dialog clears them all. The button shows how many filters are on.
- Views remembers the current filters under a name. Choose Save current view…, give it a name, then pick it from the same menu any time. Remove deletes a view. Views are kept on your account.
- Export downloads the rows you are looking at as an Excel file, with your filters applied. On Customers, the menu lets you pick the customer list or their contacts.
- Click a column heading to sort by it or filter on it. Drag a heading to reorder the columns, or drag its right edge to make it wider.
- On a phone the buttons show only their icons: sliders for Filters, a bookmark for Views and a download arrow for Export.
- On a record page, the small link above the title, such as ‹ RFQs, takes you back to its list.
Getting help inside the app
- The ? button at the top of every page offers a tour of that page, the guide for that page, keyboard shortcuts, What's new and these guides.
- Small ? icons next to terms such as markup or lot total explain what they mean.
- Found a problem or need a change? Raise it under Tickets.
- AI Agent lets an assistant such as Claude answer questions about your RFQs and quotations. See Connecting the AI Agent.