RFQ automation for manufacturers: from emailed PDF to approved quote in minutes
How an agent reads incoming RFQs in any format, applies your price logic, drafts the quote and routes it for approval — without touching your ERP until you say so.
A request for quotation arrives as a PDF, an Excel sheet, a scanned drawing or three lines in an email. Someone in sales retypes it, looks up prices, asks engineering a question, and replies two days later — by which time a competitor has quoted. RFQ automation is one of the cleanest agent use cases in manufacturing because the inputs are messy, the rules are yours, and the decision stays with a person.
Intake from any format
Email, portal download, PDF, spreadsheet or image: the agent extracts part numbers, specifications, quantities, delivery dates and commercial terms into a structured RFQ record, with each field linked to where it came from.
Matching to your catalogue
Line items are matched to SKUs or drawing numbers using your naming, synonyms and past quotes. Unmatched lines are flagged, not guessed.
Pricing from your logic
Price lists, quantity breaks, customer-specific terms, raw-material indices and margin floors are applied as rules you own. The agent shows its working per line.
Questions before quotes
When a specification is ambiguous or a quantity looks wrong, the agent drafts the clarifying question to the buyer instead of quoting blind.
The draft and the gate
A quote document in your template, routed to the approver with the margin, the risks and the exceptions summarised. Nothing leaves without a person's approval.
After the send
Follow-ups on a schedule, win/loss recorded with the reason, and the ERP updated only after you confirm — Tally, Busy, SAP or whatever you run.
What changes in the numbers
Quote turnaround from days to hours, more RFQs answered with the same team, fewer pricing errors, and a quote history you can actually analyse.
Dealer order intake on WhatsApp uses the same pipeline with orders instead of RFQs. See the manufacturing page or send a sample RFQ to enquiry@xdqlabs.com.
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Want this built for your company?
A short brief to enquiry@xdqlabs.com gets a scope and a fixed price within two working days — or a straight answer that it isn't a fit.