Find print jobs: how printers receive requests for quotation on PrintOffer

What a request for quotation contains

Every RfQ a buyer publishes carries the same fields, so you know what you are quoting on:

• A job name and one product type from the PrintOffer taxonomy.
• A written specification: size, paper, colours, binding, finishing and anything else the buyer knows.
• One or more quantities, so you can quote each quantity separately.
• The currency the buyer wants prices in: US dollars, euros, pounds sterling or Turkish lira.
• A delivery country, region and city.
• A payment term chosen by the buyer: Net 30, 60 or 90 days, half in advance, cash on delivery or a letter of credit.
• A bidding deadline of one, three or five days, one or two weeks, or one month after publication.

How matching decides which RfQs reach you

You only see requests for product types you have listed in your company profile; with none listed, nothing matches. Then the buyer's chosen delivery scope decides where the printer may be. A regional RfQ reaches printers whose company is in the same country and region as the delivery address. A domestic one reaches printers whose company is in the delivery country. An international one reaches printers anywhere that list the delivery country among the countries they serve.

So three things in your profile decide your work: the product types you make, your company's country and region, and the countries you serve. A printer that leaves its own country off the countries served still receives that country's domestic and regional requests, but not its international ones.

How you answer

For each quantity in the request you give a production price, a transport price, a production time and a transport time, and you can add a note to the buyer. One company sends one offer per RfQ, whoever in the company writes it.

While bidding is open you can withdraw your offer and send a new one. New offers stop at the bidding deadline; the buyer can still accept one of the offers already received after that. If the buyer republishes a request that expired or was cancelled, the offers on it are marked as needing an update, and you revise and resubmit yours once it is open again.

Notifications

• An email to each member of your company when a matching RfQ is published.
• A copy of those emails, and of the reminders below, to your company's shared inbox — info@ or sales@, say — if the company owner has set one in the profile. People come and go; the shared inbox keeps requests reaching the company when they do.
• Reminders while you have not answered: one every two days, at most three, and a last one in the final 24 hours before the deadline.
• Each person can switch these emails off in the notification settings of their profile.

When the buyer accepts

The accepted offer becomes a purchase order with a document number and both companies' details. The buyer sends it, you accept it, and the order then moves through production, shipping — with the carrier and, if you give one, a tracking number — and delivery, so both sides see the same status.

Payment is agreed between the buyer and you on the term set in the RfQ. PrintOffer does not hold or process the payment.

Your team

A company account can have several people. The owner invites colleagues, who then see the same RfQs and can quote for the company.