What does Quote Desk do?
Two jobs. It drafts quotes from RFQs, and it checks the POs that come back. Your estimator still reviews and sends every quote.
1. Drafts the quote from the RFQ
- Reads RFQ emails and attachments as they land in your quotes inbox.
- Pulls out each line: part, description, quantity, unit, delivery point and required date.
- Matches each line to your price book, including your cost, margin and any customer specific price.
- Drafts the quote in your template and flags lines it could not match, so a person prices those by hand.
2. Checks every PO against the quote
- When the customer's PO arrives, it is compared line by line with the quote you sent.
- Price, quantity, part and terms are checked before anything is picked or shipped.
- Differences go to a person to fix with the customer, not after the invoice is disputed.
How does a Quote Desk engagement run?
A free call, a clear scope and price, then the build. You know the price before any work starts.
- 15 minute call. Free, no obligation, no pitch. Tristan asks how you quote today and what it is costing you, and tells you straight whether Quote Desk is worth doing and roughly what it would cost.
- A look at a sample. Only if it is useful. A few recent RFQs and the quotes you sent show how well your pricing can be matched. Read-only.
- A clear scope and price. Which inboxes, price lists and templates are covered, how many days the build takes, and what it costs.
- Build inside your accounts. Your price lists, costs and past quotes become one price book, with the source of every price recorded. Quote Desk is set up on your quotes inbox in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- Run, check and support. Your estimator reviews every draft before it goes out. Support covers price book updates, fixes and new templates.
How much time does it save?
It depends on how many RFQs you handle and how long each takes. Here is a worked example with made-up figures.
| Example | By hand | With Quote Desk |
|---|---|---|
| RFQs per week | 25 | 25 |
| Minutes per quote | 45 (build from scratch) | 10 (check the draft, price any flagged lines) |
| Minutes per week | 25 × 45 = 1,125 | 25 × 10 = 250 |
| Hours per week | 18.75 | about 4.2 |
In this example the estimator gets back 875 minutes, about 14.6 hours, a week. The bigger win is often speed. A quote that goes back the same morning has a better chance than one that goes back on Friday.
What does the PO check catch?
Anything on the customer's PO that does not match your quote. Catching it before shipping is cheaper than chasing it after the invoice is short paid.
| Check | What it compares | Example flag |
|---|---|---|
| Price | PO unit price vs quoted price | PO at $86.00 each, quoted at $92.40 |
| Quantity | PO quantity vs quoted quantity and pack size | PO for 12 each, quoted as 2 packs of 6 |
| Part | Part number and description vs the quoted line | PO lists the old part number, not the superseded one you quoted |
| Terms | Delivery point, lead time, payment terms, quote validity | PO raised 10 days after the quote expired |
The same logic runs on the miner side as PO vs contract rate checking.
What does it cost?
Work is charged at a consulting day rate. The price depends on how many inboxes, price lists and templates are involved and how tidy your pricing data is, so Tristan talks to you first, then sets out what he'd build, how many days it takes and what it costs.
| Step | How it's priced | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 15 minute call | Free | What you quote, what it is costing you, and whether Quote Desk is worth doing |
| Quote Desk build | Consulting day rate, agreed after a 15 minute call | RFQ inbox reader, price book, quote drafting in your template, PO vs quote checker, approval step |
| Support | Consulting day rate, agreed after a 15 minute call | Price book updates, fixes and new templates |
| Optional | Scoped separately | Stock levels (min/max) for your own warehouse |
You get the scope and price in writing after the call, before any work starts.
Who is Quote Desk for?
WA mining services suppliers with 10 to 100 staff who quote off RFQs every week. Think parts and consumables distributors, hire companies, fabricators and service contractors whose estimators spend a large part of the day building quotes.
It fits best when most quotes come from a known range of parts or services with prices you already hold somewhere, even if that somewhere is five spreadsheets and the estimator's memory. It fits less well if every quote is a one-off engineered job with no repeat lines. On the 15 minute call, Tristan will tell you straight which camp you are in before you spend anything.
What do you need from us?
Nothing for the first call. For the build:
- A set of recent RFQs, as emails or PDFs, and the quotes you sent for each one.
- Current price lists, supplier costs and any customer specific pricing.
- Your quote template and standard terms.
- Access to a quotes inbox in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- An estimator or owner to check the first drafts against how they would have priced them.
Where does your data live?
In your own accounts. Quote Desk runs in your Microsoft 365 or Google account, with your price book in an Australian-hosted database that you own. Source Digital does not keep a copy.
- Read-only to your source data. It reads RFQs and POs. It does not change your accounting or ERP.
- A person sends every quote. Quote Desk drafts. It never sends anything to a customer on its own.
- Every price shows its source. Each quoted line links back to the price list, cost or past quote it came from.
Suppliers who want more than quoting can read about AI for mining services businesses, or see how a Perth mining parts supplier turned 13 PDFs into 35,268 searchable pages in the equipment group case study. If your team writes quotes by hand today, the guide on how to write a quote from an RFQ is a good place to start.
