To track RFQ status across a team, run every request through one shared channel so that status is set by the system as supplier replies arrive, rather than updated by a buyer from memory. Each request should carry a state, an age, and an outcome that any manager or teammate can read without asking the person who sent it. Spreadsheets and status meetings record what people remember; a shared channel records what happened.
Why This Matters
When RFQs are sent from individual inboxes, every fact about them exists exactly once, in one mailbox. A manager asking "how many are we waiting on right now?" gets an estimate assembled from five people's recollection. The median sourcing event runs 60 days from need to contract (APQC, n=3,080), and the only teams that know their own number are those whose requests run through something that timestamps them.
The cost shows up when someone is out or leaves. A request that was "almost done" in one buyer's head goes silent, suppliers who replied are never answered, and the new person inherits nothing.
How It Works
- One channel for outbound and inbound. Requests go out through a shared system and replies come back into it, so no thread lives only in a personal inbox.
- States the system sets. Drafting, sent, collecting, comparing, awarded, closed. A quote arriving moves the request forward without anyone updating a tracker.
- Age on every request. How long since it was sent, and how long since the last supplier activity, so stalls are visible before someone notices.
- Completeness on incoming quotes. Price, lead time and minimum order quantity present or missing, flagged automatically rather than discovered at comparison.
- A reason at close. When a request ends without an award, record why: no bids, lost to another source, requirement cancelled. Otherwise the same supplier gets invited to the same kind of request next month.
- Role-based views. The manager sees load and stalls across buyers; each buyer sees their own queue and supplier threads.
What to Avoid
A tracking spreadsheet updated by hand is the most common approach and the least reliable, because it depends on the busiest person remembering to update it. Weekly status meetings have the same flaw at a different cadence. Both record recollection rather than events. For the wider view of why inbox-run sourcing is invisible by construction, see the guide to procurement visibility.
How Buyer24 Helps
Buyer24 routes RFQs and supplier responses through a unified inbox, so each request carries a state and an age that update as replies arrive. Incoming quotes are validated for completeness, requests can be closed with a recorded reason, and managers see the team's active requests on a single dashboard. Get started →
FAQ
Can I track RFQ status in a spreadsheet?
You can, and most small teams start there, but the spreadsheet records what someone remembered to type, not what happened. It goes stale the week the busiest buyer is out, and it cannot tell you a supplier replied two days ago if nobody moved the row. It is a memory aid, not a record.
What RFQ states should I track?
Six are enough: drafting, sent, collecting responses, comparing, awarded, and closed without award. The last one needs a reason attached. Add an age to every state so that "collecting responses for 19 days" is visible as a stall rather than as a neutral status.
How do I see which RFQs are stuck?
Sort open requests by time since last supplier activity, not by creation date. A request sent yesterday with no replies is normal; a request with no activity for a week is stuck. If the channel records supplier events automatically, this view exists without anyone maintaining it.
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