How to Invite Vendors to an RFP
Selecting vendors, sending their links, and what happens on their side once you do.
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Inviting vendors is the first real step of an RFP, and it is worth a moment's thought, because the shortlist you send is the shortlist you will be asked to justify.
Step 1: open the Request for Proposal tab
Open the service ticket for the work and choose the Request for Proposal tab.
Step 2: add vendors
Use the option to add vendors and pick from your vendor list. Vendors come from the vendor records you already maintain, so a vendor you have never set up will not appear here. Add them under Vendors first, with a working email address, since that is how the invitation reaches them.
You can add more than one vendor at a time, and you can add more later while the RFP is still open.
Step 3: send the RFP
Each vendor is issued a private link and an email invitation. The link is unique to that vendor, which is what keeps proposals separate. Vendors cannot see who else was invited, what anyone else quoted, or that a comparison is happening at all.
If you need the link itself, for example to paste it into a message you are sending a vendor another way, you can view an individual vendor's RFP link from their card.
How many to invite
Three is the usual convention for work of any size, and many boards and declarations require a minimum number of quotes for spending above a threshold. Check your own rules before shortening the list. Inviting one vendor and calling it an RFP creates a record that shows exactly that.
Setting expectations
Everything the vendor knows about the job comes from the ticket, so write the ticket title and description as though a stranger will price from it, because one will. If there are drawings, specifications, or photographs, attach them to the ticket before you invite, and say in the description that they are there.
Adding a vendor later
You can invite additional vendors while the RFP is open. Once a winner has been chosen the RFP is finished and adding vendors is no longer available, which is deliberate: a quote that arrives after the award is not part of the comparison that produced it.