How everything works, and every option

1 · What RFQ5 is, in one paragraph

RFQ5 is a quotation desk for distributors. A customer sends you a request for quotation as an email, a PDF or an Excel bill of quantities. RFQ5 reads it, matches every requested line to your own price list, prices each line only from that list, checks the margin if you gave it your cost, and prepares a draft. A person reviews the draft and clicks Approve & send. The customer receives a PDF quotation in your company name. RFQ5 never invents a product or a price, never sends a quote on its own, and never mixes one distributor's catalogue with another's.

2 · Getting in: pilot, approval, welcome

1. Apply on the RFQ5 home page: company, your name, work email, what you distribute, roughly how many RFQs you receive a week. You get an acknowledgement at once that says what to send us.
2. A person reviews the application and approves it, normally within one business day. Approval registers your email domain as a forwarding sender, creates your portal sign-in, and sends the welcome email with the forwarding address and these instructions.
3. Reply to the welcome with your price list (Excel or CSV) and two or three real RFQs, or upload the list yourself in the portal. We run your real RFQs before your first live quote so you see where RFQ5 is confident and where your team still decides.
4. Pilots are free and time-boxed, normally 30 days. Moving to a paid plan is an email and an invoice (M-Pesa or bank); nothing changes in how you work.

You can also try the desk without applying: the live desk at /desk runs in your browser with your own file and stores nothing.

3 · The three ways an RFQ reaches RFQ5

Whichever route, the same engine runs and the same rules apply. Only registered senders are ever quoted; an unknown forwarder is ignored, never guessed at.

4 · Your price list

RFQ5 reads Excel (.xlsx, .xls) and CSV. The first row must be a header. We read these columns by their names, in any order:

• Prices are read as whole currency units with decimals and stored exactly; nothing is rounded or estimated.
• A list with only a cost column is treated as a sell-price list, because one column cannot yield a margin.
• Re-uploading updates rows by SKU and adds new ones. To replace the list completely, ask the operator to clear the catalogue first, then upload.
• RFQ5 also reads key specifications out of the description (poles, voltage, kA rating, Cat6 versus Cat6A, material) so a 4-pole request can never auto-match a 3-pole item.

5 · How matching decides

Each requested line is matched against your list in three stages: an exact SKU or approved alias first; then a text match where a conflicting critical specification is disqualifying; then, only among real candidates, a language-model disambiguation. Every line ends up in one of three states:

The metric RFQ5 is built around is the false-auto-match rate: a confident wrong match. The target is zero, and the matcher is tested against that on every release.

6 · How pricing decides

• The unit price is the price in your list for the matched item. Full stop.
• A customer discount, if you enter one on the desk, is applied to every priced line.
• A line with no price in your list is quoted as "price on request" with no number, never a guess.
• Quantities come from the RFQ; the reviewer can correct one before sending.
• Money is handled in whole minor units, so totals add exactly.

7 · Review, then send

Every draft has a private approval link that expires in 14 days. On it, the reviewer can:

• Pick the right candidate on a Confirm line, seeing each option's specs and price.
• Override any line to any item in your list through the inline search.
• Edit a quantity or a unit price in place; add a manual line; leave a line out; mark a line price on request.
• Edit the commercial terms for this quote: validity, payment, delivery, notes. Your defaults are pre-filled.
• Preview the PDF before sending.
• Approve & send, which is disabled until every flagged line is decided. The quote is emailed with the PDF attached and frozen as an immutable record. Unmatched lines are excluded.

Nothing leaves the desk without that click. That is the rule the whole product is built on.

8 · The quotation PDF

The customer receives a PDF with your company name, address, phone, email, PIN and website as you set them; the quote number; the date; who it is prepared for; validity, payment and delivery terms; the priced line table; the subtotal; and your notes. Price-on-request lines carry no number. Cost and margin never appear.

Quote numbers read PREFIX-YEAR-CODE, for example ACME-2026-A1B2C3. Set the prefix in your portal or ask the operator; the default is RFQ5.

9 · The margin check

If your price list carries a cost column, every priced line shows its gross margin, (price minus cost) divided by price, and the quote shows its overall margin. Set a minimum margin percentage and any line or quote below it is flagged in plain words for the reviewer. It is a signal, not a gate: RFQ5 never blocks or changes a price. Cost is internal and never printed or emailed.

10 · Your portal

Sign in at /portal with your registered email; you receive a one-time link, no password. In the portal you see every quote with its customer-facing total and status, upload or update your price list, set the company identity printed on the PDF and your default terms, and see the forwarding address and your setup checklist. You never see cost or margin there; that is the operator's view.

11 · Every option, where it is set, and what it does

12 · Automation options

There is deliberately no "send automatically" option. A quote is a commercial commitment; a person makes it.

13 · Plans and billing

Billing is by invoice, M-Pesa or bank transfer, prices in KES ex-VAT. There is no card checkout. The pricing page carries the current figures.

14 · Security and your data

• Drafting on the live desk stores nothing; your list stays in your browser for the session. The one exception is creating an approval link, which saves that quote and the catalogue rows it drew on for 14 days so a colleague can review it.
• A paid or pilot account keeps your catalogue and quotes privately under your organisation. They are never sold, shared with another distributor, or used to train a model.
• Reading an RFQ uses an AI service for extraction only; the document is treated as untrusted data, and prices never come from it.
• Forwarded mail is read from a shared LeadAfrik mailbox; only registered senders are processed. Your own Gmail, if connected, is read under your authorisation and can be disconnected at any time.
• Every change to a quote and every setting change is written to an audit log per organisation.

15 · Support

Email info@leadafrik.com. A person answers next business day on Pilot and Desk, same business day on Desk Auto. Include the quote number or the RFQ subject line and we can usually fix it in one reply. There is no phone line yet.