A purchase quote records an offer by a supplier of goods or services at defined prices and terms. Strictly speaking, it is not an accounting transaction and has no financial or inventory impact. It does not involve actual purchase of services, movement of inventory, or payment of money. In fact, it is not really necessary at all, but can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:

• Soliciting price quotes in advance of issuing a purchase order when suppliers’ current prices are unknown
• Confirming whether previously quoted supplier prices are still valid
• Documenting suppliers’ quotes

If you accept a purchase quote from a supplier, it can be copied to a purchase order, purchase invoice, or goods receipt.

Enable the Purchase Quotes tab

Before creating a purchase quote, enable the Purchase Quotes tab. Below the left navigation pane, click Customize, check the box for Purchase Quotes, and click Update:

Manager allows purchase quotes to be created in two different ways:

• Standard method
• By cloning

Standard method

In the Purchase Quotes tab, select New Purchase Quote:

Complete the purchase quote form:

• Date will be prepopulated with today’s date. This may be edited.
• Reference is optional and may be used for internal or external sequences. If the box within the field is checked, Manager will number the transaction automatically. The program will search for the highest number among all existing sales quotes and add 1.
• A previously defined Supplier can be selected from the dropdown list.

  Note
  While purchase quotes can be prepared for suppliers already defined in the Suppliers tab, they can also be created without first defining a supplier. This is helpful when your acceptance of the purchase quote is doubtful, preventing unnecessary clutter in your supplier database.
  
  To create a purchase quote without specifying an entity in your supplier list, leave the Supplier field blank. Be aware, however, if the purchase quote is copied to another transaction, no supplier name or address will carry forward. You will have to define the supplier before other transaction forms can be completed.

• An overall Description of the quote is optional.
• Line items can be entered semi-automatically by selecting inventory or non-inventory items in the Item field. Or they can be entered manually.
• Tax Code can be selected.

Near the bottom of the screen are checkboxes for various options. Additional fields appear when some options are checked. Default fields vanish when others are checked:

• Request for quotation changes the title from Purchase Quote to Request for Quotation. All fields relating to prices and tax codes disappear.
• A box can be checked to indicate Amounts are tax inclusive.
• When the Discount box is checked, options appear for Percentage or Exact amount. The discount entry must be made line item by line item. Discounts would normally only be indicated if you have a prearranged agreement with the supplier.
• A Custom theme can be selected if any theme besides the default is active.

Click Create when finished.

By cloning

Repeat purchase quotes can be easily prepared by cloning previous ones. While viewing a similar purchase quote, click Clone. The new purchase quote need not be identical to the previous one or even to the same supplier. Anything can be edited or added:

Using purchase quotes

Two basic methods for using purchase quotes produce somewhat different results.

Unpriced request for quotation

When unit prices are not entered into a purchase quote and the option Request for quotation is checked, a form titled as a request for quotation is returned.

Priced purchase quote

Two applications for priced purchase quotes are possible:

• Validating previous prices received or quoted
• Recording a supplier’s response to an unpriced request for quotation

The only difference between an unpriced request for quotation and a priced purchase quote is that unit prices are entered for the latter.