From Requirement to Purchase Order: How RFQ Automation Moves Through Each Stage

Sending a request for quotation to five suppliers usually means writing five near-identical emails, chasing replies, and copying numbers into a spreadsheet to compare them. RFQ automation removes the repetitive parts of that process while keeping you in control of the decision. Here is how it works, stage by stage.

**Stage one: you start with a requirement.** You specify what you need — the product, the quantity, a target price, and where it needs to be delivered. This is the only input the process needs from you at the start.

**Stage two: the RFQ is generated.** From that requirement, and from the compliance result for the product, Complyra builds the actual RFQ subject and body. This means the request already includes the documents the applicable regulations require, so suppliers know upfront what certificates or test reports they need to provide alongside their price.

**Stage three: the RFQ goes out to suppliers.** This is where multi-supplier RFQ handling matters — the same request is sent to one supplier or to several verified suppliers at once, rather than you drafting and sending each one separately.

**Stage four: suppliers are notified and reminded.** Once the RFQ is sent, Complyra handles notifying suppliers and following up with reminders if they haven't responded, so you're not manually tracking who still owes you a quotation.

**Stage five: quotations are collected.** As suppliers reply, their quotations are gathered together in one place instead of arriving as separate emails you have to sort through yourself.

**Stage six: quotations are compared.** With everything collected in one place, you can compare price, delivery terms and the documents each supplier submitted against each other, side by side.

**Stage seven: the winner becomes a purchase order.** Once you choose a supplier, that quotation is turned into a purchase order, closing the loop from the original requirement to a confirmed order.

The result is a request for quotation process where you set the requirement and make the final call, while the drafting, sending, chasing and comparing in between is handled for you. If you regularly send RFQs to more than one supplier, it's worth seeing how [RFQ automation](/rfq-automation) handles the steps in between for you.