Purchasing often begins not with an order but with a question to a vendor: what will you supply, and at what price? That question is a request for quotation. This piece is about requests for quotation in Odoo Purchase.
What a request for quotation is
A request for quotation, often shortened to RFQ, is a request sent to a vendor asking them to quote for supplying something: to say what they will supply, in what quantity, at what price, on what terms. It is the stage of purchasing before a commitment is made: the business is asking, not yet ordering. In Odoo Purchase, the request for quotation is the starting point, and a purchase order is, in a sense, an RFQ that has become a committed order.
Why purchasing begins with an RFQ
Purchasing often begins with an RFQ rather than a straight order because, before committing, a business may want to know what a vendor will offer. The RFQ is how the business asks. It lets the business find out the price and terms before committing, and, where the business sends an RFQ to more than one vendor, it lets the business compare what different vendors offer before deciding. The RFQ is the stage that informs the purchasing decision, so the eventual order is placed on the basis of what was offered rather than blindly.
How RFQs work in Odoo Purchase
In Odoo Purchase, an RFQ is created for a vendor, specifying what is being asked for. It can be sent to the vendor. And, when the business decides to go ahead, the RFQ is confirmed into a purchase order: the request becomes a committed order. So the RFQ and the purchase order are stages of the same thing, the RFQ is the request, and confirming it makes it the committed order. This gives purchasing a clear progression: a request, considered, then committed.
RFQs and choosing a vendor
Where a business sends RFQs to more than one vendor for the same need, the RFQs are how it gathers what each vendor offers, so it can choose. The business can see what different vendors quoted, and confirm an order with the vendor it chooses. This is purchasing done deliberately: the business does not simply order from a default vendor, it asks, compares, and chooses. For significant purchases in particular, beginning with RFQs to several vendors is how a business buys well.
When an RFQ stage is and is not worth it
An honest note. The RFQ stage, asking before ordering, is worth it where there is a genuine purchasing decision to inform: a significant purchase, a case where price or terms genuinely vary between vendors or over time, a new purchase. For routine, repeated purchasing from a known vendor at known terms, the full deliberation of comparing RFQs may add little, and purchasing can be more direct. A business should use the RFQ stage where it genuinely informs a decision, and keep routine purchasing efficient. The point is to ask where asking helps, not to add a stage that does not.
The takeaway
A request for quotation in Odoo Purchase is the starting point of purchasing: a request to a vendor to quote for supplying something, before a commitment is made. RFQs let a business learn price and terms before committing, and, sent to several vendors, let it compare and choose. In Odoo, an RFQ is confirmed into a purchase order when the business goes ahead. Use the RFQ stage where it genuinely informs a purchasing decision, and keep routine purchasing efficient. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.