Supplier RFQ
What it is
One request for pricing, in full: the vessel and port it is for, the items you asked about, the supplier's contact address, and — the point of the screen — the portal link the supplier uses to send prices back.
It is read-only. Nothing here can change the request; the only actions are copying the link and opening it.
Who can open it
Any signed-in staff account that is active, subject to the same two gates as the
Supplier RFQs list — an active account, and the ops.supplier-rfqs feature grant
while FEATURE_GRANULAR_RBAC is on. The owner bypasses the grant.
Anyone holding the portal link can price the RFQ without signing in. That is what the link is for — it is the supplier's way in, and it needs no password. Treat it as a credential and send it only to the supplier it belongs to.
Before you start
"Open Preview" is safe on a Pending RFQ. It opens the real supplier portal, which marks a request viewed on first open — but it can now tell you from the supplier: you arrive with a logged-in session and a supplier never has one, so a preview leaves the status alone.
Until 2026-08-23 previewing your own request flipped it to Viewed, so the record claimed the supplier had seen it when only you had, and nothing in the UI put it back.
Nothing on this screen sends the link. The supplier is not emailed when the RFQ is created and is not emailed from here. Copy Portal Link, then send it yourself.
Every control on the page
Header:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Status pill | Pending Response, Viewed by Supplier, Response Received or Expired |
| Copy Portal Link | Copies the supplier's portal address to your clipboard. Reads Copied! for two seconds |
| Open Preview | Opens that same portal page in a new tab. Your session identifies you as staff, so this does not mark a Pending RFQ as Viewed |
Under the heading: the supplier's name, the port of delivery when there is one, and Required: with the deadline when there is one.
Requested Items (N) — the items you asked about:
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
| Item Description | What was asked for |
| Qty | The quantity |
| Unit | The unit |
| Unit Cost | The supplier's price once they have submitted one, otherwise —. ⚠️ No currency is shown, because none is recorded — neither the request nor its lines has a currency field. The heading says so. It used to print a $ regardless of what was quoted |
| Remarks | Whatever the supplier noted against the line, otherwise — |
Supplier Contact — the supplier's email address. The phone number is fetched but not shown.
Triage Summary — ⚠️ decorative. The sentence "This RFQ was dispatched via the A2Z AI Procurement Engine" is fixed text printed on every RFQ; it is not a statement about this one. Under it sit two real values:
- Sent On — the date the record was created.
- Response URL — Copy Snippet, which copies the same portal link as the button above. ⚠️ It gives no visible confirmation of its own; only the button at the top changes to Copied!
The request's notes appear in a Notes panel above the items, when there are any. They were loaded but never rendered until 2026-08-23, so anything typed when the RFQ was raised was invisible.
What it writes
This screen writes nothing. It reads the request, its items, and the supplier's name, email and phone.
Open Preview writes indirectly. Loading the supplier portal moves a pending request to
viewed, in supplier_rfqs. That write is made by the portal, on your behalf, simply because you
opened the page.
Prices arriving from the supplier are written by the portal, not here — this screen only shows them once they exist.
When it goes wrong
"RFQ not found." The request does not exist, or it belongs to an entity your permissions do not cover.
The status says Viewed and the supplier says they never opened it. You — or a colleague — pressed Open Preview. See the warning above. There is no way to set it back from this screen.
Unit Cost is — on every line. The supplier has not submitted prices yet. Check the status pill:
Response Received with empty costs would be unusual and worth reporting.
A price looks wrong by a factor you cannot explain. Check the currency the supplier actually
quoted. The $ on this screen is printed regardless of currency.
The supplier says the link does not work. Confirm you sent the whole address, including the long token at the end. The link is the only way in and it carries no password.
Related screens
- Supplier RFQs — the list, and where these are deleted from.
- Suppliers — the supplier's record and email address.
- Purchase Orders — raising an order once a price is accepted.