Sourcing & RFQs

From request for quotation to goods received

Ask many suppliers once, compare every answer, put an award forward for approval, issue the purchase order and record what arrived. One thread for the rooms, transport, venues and catering behind an event.

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One thread, six documents

RFQ

One request with its line items, emailed to the suppliers you choose. Each gets a link of their own.

Quotes

Suppliers answer at their link, or you key in what came by phone. Revisions are kept.

Analysis

Every bid brought to one footing, checked against your criteria, scored and ranked.

Award

Put forward for approval within each approver's limit. The person who prepared it does not decide it.

Purchase order

A numbered order by email and PDF, which the supplier acknowledges by name.

Goods received

Record what arrived, line by line: accepted, rejected or held for a decision.

The request grid, up close.

The items grid of a request for quotation for hotel rooms: single rooms, twin rooms, suites and accessible rooms, each with a quantity, a unit, check-in and check-out dates and a note. — One request, every line item
Type each room, vehicle or meal with its quantity, unit, dates and notes, or paste the cells from a spreadsheet. A draft stays editable; once you open it for quotes the items lock, so every supplier answers the same list.

How it works

Every step leaves a record

Quotes are revisions, not overwrites. An analysis is frozen when you submit it. An award rests on that frozen copy. An order is made from the award and cannot drift from it.

01Choose who gets itSuppliers one by one, a saved mailing list, whole categories, or people typed in on the spot, who are added to your directory in the same step.SEND

02Who has seen itNot seen, seen, answered, declined or asked to stop. Reminders go out 48 and 24 hours before the deadline, and a new date is sent to everyone still to answer.TRACK

03Your client stays privateA supplier never sees your client's name. Sending is refused if it is typed into the title, the brief or an item.PRIVACY

04Quotes, revision by revisionA supplier can save a draft and revise until the deadline. A change is a new revision and the old one is kept. Attach the files that came with it.QUOTES

05One footingVAT is normalised and delivery and other charges are added before bids are scored, so a price with VAT is not compared with one without.ANALYSIS

06Approval with limitsBands decide how many approvals a value needs, and each approver has a ceiling per currency. The person who prepared an award does not decide it, unless your organisation allows a sole approver and nobody else could.APPROVAL

07A paper the supplier can act onA numbered purchase order as a PDF, with the amount in words, emailed to the supplier, who acknowledges it on a page reached from the email.LPO

08What actually arrivedReceive against the order, line by line. Rejected goods become returns. For catering, transport and accommodation, the note records the nights, trips or heads actually provided.GRN

What is not built yet

Matching a supplier's invoice against the order and the receipt.
Notices to suppliers whose bids were not chosen.
Paying suppliers: nothing is paid from the app.

Until Koiva has approved a new workspace, you can set up your directory and write requests, but emailing suppliers waits for the approval.

Sourcing

Questions about requests and orders

Do suppliers need an account?

No. Each supplier gets an email with a link of their own. At that link they can answer, save a draft, revise before the deadline, decline, or ask not to be written to again.

Can I use it for services, not just goods?

Yes. A request can be for rooms, a 33-seater bus or a conference lunch. For a service, the goods received note becomes a completion note that records what was actually provided.

How are purchase orders numbered?

Each organisation has its own counter, by year, in a form like LPO-2026-0007. A number is given when an order is approved. A numbered order is never deleted: if it is cancelled it keeps its number and shows VOID.

Is there a limit on supplier emails?

Yes. Each organisation has a daily limit on emails to suppliers, reminders and notices included, so a mistake cannot turn into a flood.

Run your next buying round in one place.

Create a workspace and set up your supplier directory and your first request straight away. Suppliers are emailed once we have approved the workspace, usually within one working day.