Email, Excel or ChatGPT: do you need a sourcing tool for supplier quotes?

For most businesses, getting supplier prices looks like this:

1. Write the request. You type the items into an email, or attach a spreadsheet.
2. Send it to a few suppliers. Each one gets the same email, one at a time or in copy.
3. Chase the replies. Some answer the same day. Others need a reminder email or a call.
4. Line up the quotes. Each reply comes back in its own format: a PDF, a table, a line in the email body. You copy the prices into a spreadsheet.
5. Pick a supplier. You compare totals, check lead times and reply to the winner.

This works. It's free, and everyone already knows how. The cost is time, and it grows with every supplier and every line you add.

• Nothing new to learn. Your suppliers already read email, and you already know Excel.
• No cost. You pay nothing extra for a request you send twice a year.
• Full control of the layout. You can build the comparison sheet exactly the way you like it.
• Good enough for small requests. One or two lines, two or three suppliers, and a spreadsheet is quick.

• Chasing replies. You keep track of who answered, then follow up by email or phone with the rest.
• Retyping prices. Every supplier writes their quote differently, so you copy each number into your sheet by hand.
• Quotes that don't match. One supplier quotes per box, another per piece. One adds freight, another leaves it out. You only find out when you line them up.
• Copy mistakes. A mistyped price or quantity can change which supplier looks cheapest.
• No record of who replies. After a few months it's hard to remember who quoted, who won and who never answered.
• Proof for sign-off. Many companies need two or three written quotes before a purchase is approved. Collecting them from email threads takes time.

Many buyers now paste quotes into ChatGPT or another AI chat to line them up. It can save the retyping. Use it the same way you'd use a new assistant:

• Check every number against the original quote before you rely on the result.
• Check the units. Make sure a price per box isn't being compared with a price per piece.
• Check what you're sharing. Supplier names and prices are business information, so know where they go.

An AI chat helps with one step: lining up quotes you already have. It isn't built to send your request, chase suppliers or keep a record of who replied. It also isn't a shared record your team can work from.

If lining up quotes is the step you want help with, a free quote comparison tool is built for that one job. In a general AI chat, you ask for each check yourself, then check that it did them. SourcingHQ's free quote comparison tool does these on every comparison:

• Prices as the supplier wrote them. It reads each line's item, quantity, unit and price, and never recalculates or fills in a price.
• You check the matching first. You see how it paired up each supplier's lines before the comparison shows.
• No converted units or currencies. Where suppliers used different units or currencies, the row is flagged and no lowest price is marked.
• Extra charges on their own rows. Freight, tax and discounts that a quote states outside the lines are shown separately.
• Totals that say what they cover. Each total shows how many lines it includes, such as "4 of 5 lines", so you don't compare totals for different orders.
• The same layout every time. Items down the side, suppliers across the top, and the lowest price on each line marked where the units and currency match. You can show ranks too (L1, L2, L3 or 1st, 2nd, 3rd).
• A sheet you can keep. Download it as Excel or PDF with a free account. Signed in, every comparison is saved for your team.

The tool is free. You don't need an account to compare up to 6 quotes at a time, 3 times a day. Paste the text, or upload PDFs, Excel or CSV files, text files or JPG or PNG photos. It's built for quotes written in English. What the tool takes from your quotes (the text, or an image of each scanned page) goes only to AI providers that state they don't train on it.

A sourcing tool runs the whole loop in one place, from the request to the choice.

1. One request to every supplier. Every supplier prices the same lines, so the quotes come back comparable.
2. Suppliers reply through a link. They don't email a PDF back. Their prices land in one table.
3. Fewer reminders to write. The tool keeps track of who has replied, so you're not chasing by memory.
4. A side-by-side comparison. Lowest price per line, ready to export.
5. A record for next time. Who you asked, who quoted and who won stays on file.

It's worth it when:

• you ask for quotes every week or more,
• your requests have many lines,
• you ask more than three suppliers each time,
• or several people in your company buy and need the same record.

Take your last three quote requests and answer these:

1. How long did each take, from first email to choosing a supplier?
2. How many suppliers did you chase by email or phone?
3. How many prices did you retype into a spreadsheet?
4. How many times a month do you do this?

If the answers are small, email and a template are fine, and the free quote comparison tool saves the retyping. If chasing and retyping take more than an hour a week, try SourcingHQ free on your next real request. The free plan has 3 RFQs in total, one per request you send.

SourcingHQ is an AI sourcing assistant for businesses. It gets comparable prices from your own suppliers, because every supplier prices the same lines.

• Start from what you have. Forward an inquiry email or describe what you need in a chat. You get a draft with the line items filled in from what you wrote or from the text of the email. The AI doesn't invent line items or price limits, and you review everything before it goes out.
• Bring your suppliers. Import your supplier list from Excel. SourcingHQ also suggests suppliers from your own history, including the ones who never quote. A new account has no history yet, so these suggestions get better as you send requests.
• Your team works from one record. Colleagues you add to your account see the same requests, reports and supplier list.
• One request, sent in your company's name. You send the invitations, and you can see the delivery status of each one. Suppliers quote from an email link without creating an account, and they never pay.
• Reminders and alerts. Reminders go to suppliers who haven't replied. In a live auction, suppliers can also get an alert when someone beats their price.
• How suppliers quote. Each RFQ collects quotes by a deadline. Suppliers can change their quote before it closes. When you want them to compete, switch on a live auction, where suppliers bid against each other until it closes and see whether they're the lowest. You can also require each new bid to beat the current lowest. Each request runs in the currency you choose.
• Comparing and choosing. When it closes, you get a comparison report in Excel and PDF. It comes with an AI summary you can accept, edit or discard. You can give the whole order to one supplier or split it line by line.

The AI never sends, awards or contacts suppliers on its own. No other customer can see your data.

Already have the quotes? Compare them in the free quote comparison tool, with no account needed to compare.

SourcingHQ has a free plan with 3 RFQs and 1 seat. It isn't a trial and it doesn't expire, and the 3 RFQs are a total, not a monthly allowance. Paid plans are a one-time payment that covers 12 months. Suppliers never pay, and every request can have as many suppliers as you like. Each request you send counts as one RFQ, live auction or not, and if you cancel it before it starts, you get the RFQ back. See plans and pricing.

Try SourcingHQ free on your next real request.