Inquiries constitute a first step in the complete process of sales/purchase of an item. It is an inquiry that commences this process, which subsequently is converted into a quote, an order, ending with an invoice or a receipt (in the case of the process of sales).

Inquiries can contain specific items or only a general description of a sought item.

From the level of modules Sales and Purchase, are available, respectively, list of sales inquiries and list of purchase inquiries.

The list of documents has been described in article List of documents.

The document form and its tabs have been described in subcategory Document forms.

Sales inquiry

A sales inquiry is a document reflecting the interest of a customer in our items – merchandise, set or service. Either submitted verbally or sent electronically, it is subsequently registered in the system.

The functionality of sales inquiries is available from the level of Sales → Inquiries.

Generating SQ from SOI

Generating sales quotes from confirmed sales inquiries is possible from the level of:

• list of SOI (from one or many SOI documents)
• list of SOI items (for one or many checked items)
• tab Associated Documents

The fields in the form of a new SQ document assume the same values as the analogous fields in the source SOI. The description as well as a list of items, if defined in the SOI, is also transferred in the same form.

There are two ways of generating SQ from SOI:

According to the price list – it is necessary to mark selected items or documents and click on button [Generate SQ] selecting option [By Customer’s Price List].

On the basis of vendors’ quotes – it is necessary to mark a relevant SOI from the documents list or mark required items from the list of SOI items and click on the button [Generate SQ] selecting option [On the Basis of Vendor Quotes].

Generating POI from SOI

Possibility of generating a purchase inquiry from a confirmed sales inquiry is used in order to obtain information on an expected date and at what price we can receive a given item.

The operation of generation a POI is possible for one or simultaneously many customers:

• from the level of a list of SOI (from one or many SOIs simultaneously)
• from the level of a list of SOI items (from one or many checked items)

Purchase inquiry

A purchase inquiry is directed at a vendor/secondary vendor in order to obtain information whether they have an item in which we are interested and whether they are in a position to deliver it to us.

As a result of accepting the inquiry by a vendor we receive a sales quote which is entered in the system as a purchase quote associated with the inquiry placed by us.

The functionality of purchase inquiries is available from the level of Purchase -> Inquiries.

Generating PQ from POI

Generating purchase quotes from confirmed purchase inquiries is possible from the level of:

• list of POI (from one or many POI documents)
• list of POI items (for one or many checked items)

In a generated PQ document:

• the fields on the form take assume the same values as the analogous fields in the source POI.
• the other fields are filled in with the values retrieved from the form of the customer for which the quote is being issued. The description is also transferred.
• if a list of items has been defined in the POI, it is transferred to the PQ.

Prices for the items of the generated quote are retrieved from the active, current price list for received items assigned to a customer, or, if no price list has been assigned to a customer, from the price list which is default for the active center.

While generating purchase quotes from many purchase inquiries, the system generates as many quotes as the number of different customers appearing in the POI documents. In the event of a quote generated from several inquiries, the items in such a quote are not aggregated, whereas the description is transferred from the POI which has the lowest number among the marked ones.