This article explains the WebQuote price filter feature in Buymanager, designed to streamline your costing process by displaying only the most relevant prices.
What is the WebQuote Price Filter?
- The Situation: When sourcing components, WebQuote can return a large number of prices for a single part from various suppliers and quantities. This can make it difficult and time-consuming to find the most suitable price for your specific needs.
- The Feature: The WebQuote price filter is an enhancement to the existing WebQuote function. It automatically filters the prices displayed in your costing module, showing only those most relevant to your required quantity.
- The Goal: To significantly reduce clutter in the costing view (by approximately 65% of WebQuote prices), making the process more efficient, flexible, and focused on actionable data.
Why Do Users Need This?
The WebQuote price filter helps you:
- Improve Efficiency: Quickly identify the most appropriate prices without sifting through extensive lists.
- Enhance Clarity: Focus on prices that are directly relevant to your current project's quantity requirements.
- Streamline Decision-Making: Make faster, more informed purchasing decisions.
- Maintain Flexibility: While filtering, the system still allows for detailed review and selection if needed.
Prerequisites and Audience
- Audience: This feature benefits all Buymanager users involved in costing and component sourcing.
- Prerequisites: You must be using the WebQuote functionality in Buymanager.
The feature needs to be enabled by an Administrator in the Buymanager application settings. - Data: The filter operates on prices retrieved via WebQuote.
How it Works (User Experience)
1. Select Prices in WebQuote: You continue to select and confirm prices within the WebQuote interface as you normally would.
2. Prices Stored: Upon clicking "Confirm and Close," all selected prices are stored in the Buymanager database.
3. Automatic Filtering in Costing: When you view the costing for a part, Buymanager automatically applies the filter. Only prices with MOQs (Minimum Order Quantities) that are "close" to your required quantity for that specific costing will be displayed.
4. Dynamic Filtering: If you copy prices to another costing with a different required quantity, the filter dynamically adjusts, displaying prices relevant to the *new* required quantity. This means you don't need to re-search WebQuote for different quantities.
How to Enable/Configure (For Administrators)
This filter is a global setting that must be enabled by a Buymanager Administrator.
1. Log in to Buymanager as an "Administrator."
2. Navigate to "Application settings."
3. Go to "Global – Company – Settings."
4. Locate the setting: "Costing : Filter Webquote prices based on requirement quantity."
5. Set the value to: "Yes, MOQ below/equal/above"(this is usually the default option).
6. Save and close the settings.
Note: the activation will be valid for all users on this database.
Understanding the WebQuote Price Filter Logic
The filter applies specific rules to determine which prices are displayed:
- Applies only to WebQuote prices.
- Compares WebQuote MOQ to the requirement quantity for the specific part in your costing.
- Applied per SKU (Supplier Part Number) per distributor.
This allows the system to intelligently reduce the number of displayed prices while still providing options relevant to packaging or specific distributors.
The "3 Prices (Maximum)" Concept
The general rule is to display a maximum of three prices for each unique SKU from each distributor, based on their MOQ relative to your required quantity:
1. One price with an MOQ below the required quantity.
2. One price with an MOQ equal to the required quantity.
3. One price with an MOQ above the required quantity.
Note: Depending on the available WebQuote results, only one or two prices might be displayed if all three categories are not met.
FAQ
The filter's behavior can vary slightly in certain situations:
1. What if the part doesn’t have an SKU (Distributor Part Number)?
If a part lacks an SKU, Buymanager will display prices by MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) per supplier, applying the same "below, equal, above" logic.
2. Why might more than 3 prices appear for the same MPN?
This can happen if the same MPN has different SKUs (distributor part numbers), often due to varying packaging (e.g., reel vs. cut tape). Since the filter applies per SKU, each unique SKU will have its own set of up to three filtered prices.
3. Why might more than 3 prices appear for the same SKU?
This occurs when the same SKU is offered by different distributors, particularly when comparing direct distributor prices with those found via aggregators like Findchips. The filter applies per SKU and per supplier.
4. WebQuote Negotiation Prices
The WebQuote Negotiation Price feature also adheres to the same filtering logic, displaying a maximum of three prices (below, equal, above) per SKU per distributor.
5. Copying WebQuote Prices to Other Costings
All WebQuote prices are comprehensively recorded in the database. When you use the "Copy Price" function, Buymanager copies these prices to the new costing. Crucially, the WebQuote price filter automatically adapts to the new costing's required quantity, displaying only the relevant prices for that specific context. This eliminates the need to re-search WebQuote for different quantities, saving significant time.
For more information on the "Copy Price" function, please refer to this article: How to copy prices between costings