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Parts · Sourcing

Sourcing, quotes and purchase orders

Sourcing is how a parts request gets to a vendor: check your own shelves, ask vendors for quotes or order from one vendor now, compare what comes back, and send the purchase order.

#Why this exists

A buyer who calls three counters for one part spends the morning on the phone and keeps the prices on a sticky note. Sourcing sends one request to the vendors you pick, puts every answer side by side, and sends the PO from the same page. The vendor gets each step by email, or by text when their contact has a mobile number.

Who can source. People who can fulfill parts requests source them. Everyone else sees the sourcing section but cannot change it ("A dispatcher sources parts from vendors.").

#How a request moves

Status What happened
Inbound Nobody has sent it yet.
Submitted Quote requests went out. Gearflow waits for the vendors.
Quoted At least one vendor answered. You must decide.
Fulfilling A PO went out. The vendor is filling the order.
Fulfilled Every part is received or picked up.

#Open sourcing

In the request drawer, click Browse sourcing options. Sourcing opens over the request.

Your inventory first. Gearflow checks your own locations for each part. When a location has the parts, Fulfill from inventory sets them aside for pickup there ("Pick up these parts from inventory"). When no location has them, sourcing says "None of your locations has these parts on hand."

Then pick the sourcing action for the parts still to source:

#Request quotes from vendors

  1. Pick Request quotes.
  2. Pick the vendors. Your own vendors come first; See all vendors in your rolodex shows the rest. A vendor you already asked shows "Already asked for a quote".
  3. Pick each vendor's contacts. Each contact shows how they get the RFQ: by email, or by text when the contact has an SMS number. See Vendors.
  4. Add pictures with Upload pictures when a photo helps the vendor find the part. The pictures go in the RFQ email.
  5. Review the message and send.

The request moves to Submitted. Each vendor gets a link to a quote page. There, with no sign-in, the vendor types prices, availability and lead time, or uploads their own quote document, or declines. When the vendor answers, the request moves to Quoted.

When nobody answers. If no vendor answers within 4 working hours of the last quote request, Gearflow tells the request's owner and requester: on the bell, and by text and email under each person's own Parts notification settings.

#Compare quotes and send the PO

When quotes are in, the request footer shows Compare quotes.

  1. Click Compare quotes. A grid shows one row per part and one column per vendor, with each vendor's price. A line marked "Can't supply" or "Not on this quote" has no price from that vendor. A line the vendor answered with a different part shows the vendor's own words and how Gearflow matched them.
  2. Pick the plan. Lowest price takes the cheapest quote for each part. Single vendor takes everything from one vendor. Pick cells yourself and the plan shows Custom. You can also leave a part out.
  3. Click Send PO (or Send purchase orders when the plan uses more than one vendor). The send step opens:
    • Fulfillment: pick Delivery or Pickup for each vendor.
    • Deliver to: the location the parts go to. A request with no ship-to location cannot be delivered.
    • PO number: Gearflow generates the next number in your sequence, or you type your own.
    • Send to: the vendor contacts that get the PO. Pick at least one.
    • Lines on this PO: the lines you send. A line the vendor added after the quote shows "Added after quote".
  4. Send. The request moves to Fulfilling.

The vendors you did not pick. When the award covers every part, Gearflow asks "Close the other vendors?". Close them to stop their quotes. Then pick what to tell them (Price, Availability, Other, or Don't tell the vendors). A vendor reads the reason, never who won or the winning price. Its card shows it was not chosen.

Quote versions. When a vendor revises a quote, the order shows the newest version and the one in use.

An old quote. When a quote's date has passed, the order says "This quote's date has passed." Send it anyway only when the vendor confirms the price.

Over a purchasing limit. On accounts that set approvals, an order over a person's limit goes to an approver before the PO goes out. See Order approvals.

Accounts whose ERP names the approvers for each job. On these accounts the ERP issues the PO number when you send, and each line needs its codes before you send. See Cost codes, work codes and jobs.

#Order now

Use Order now when you already know the vendor and the price, for example a counter you buy from every week.

  1. Pick Order now, then pick the vendor and the contacts.
  2. Gearflow makes a draft order to that vendor. Add the prices you know, or leave them for the vendor to confirm.
  3. Send the PO from the order. Nothing goes to the vendor before you send.

Order from a quote you already have. Drop the vendor's quote document on the request. Order from this quote makes the draft order from it, priced from the document. Log as their quote records it as that vendor's answer instead, so you can ask other vendors and compare first. See Invoices, returns and credits.

#PunchOut to a supplier's storefront

Who sees it. PunchOut shows only on accounts where Gearflow has turned on PunchOut ordering, and only for suppliers your account has an account number with.

PunchOut lets you shop a supplier's own online catalogue and bring the cart back to Gearflow ("Shop a supplier's catalogue and bring the cart back as a draft order.").

  1. In Order now, pick the supplier's tab. Its storefront opens in a new tab, signed in to your company's account with that supplier.
  2. Fill the cart on the supplier's site and check out there.
  3. The cart comes back to Gearflow as a draft order on the request. The request tab reloads to show it.
  4. Review the draft and send the PO.

Your account's supplier account numbers live in Settings. A business unit can have its own number.

#Send to the Gearflow network

Who sees it. Send to the Gearflow network shows only on accounts that Gearflow has turned it on for, to people who can source parts.

Send a request to the Gearflow network when your own vendors cannot supply a part. Gearflow's sourcing team works the request with its vendor network and posts quotes on it. Each quote names the vendor that will supply the part. Compare and send the PO as with any other quote. Nothing is added to your own vendor list.

A first quote in seconds. On accounts where Gearflow has turned it on, a new request with a part number gets a first quote from TVH, built from TVH's live price and stock, beside your own vendors' quotes. It never holds or replaces the request to your own vendors. Gearflow quotes a line only when the part number matches exactly one item for your machine's brand and TVH's warehouses hold the quantity. The quote carries TVH's freight. An order that ships by freight truck goes to Gearflow's team for a freight quote first.

#Tips