Contacts in Offertes.ai: Build Your Supplier List Before Requesting Quotes

A quote request often starts with the question: who should we send this to? If the answer depends on someone's memory, old mailboxes, or a loose spreadsheet, your procurement process is vulnerable from the start.

The Contacts module in Offertes.ai is built to make that moment sharper. You record suppliers, subcontractors, and partners before pressure rises, so you can select the right parties faster for a new request.

The fastest route: open Contacts, add your most important suppliers, give them a discipline, tag, and rating, and use that list later for requests, projects, and follow-up.

Why an address book is not enough

A name and phone number tell you who someone is. They do not tell you whether you want to invite that party again, which discipline they fit, which colleague has experience with them, or which internal attention points are known.

For quote workflows, you need more than an address book. You need selection information: which relationship is reliable, who is an alternative, who should not be included again, and which discipline fits the work?

Step 1: turn companies into real supplier profiles

Start by recording the basic details. Think company name, contact person, email, phone number, address details, Chamber of Commerce number, VAT ID, and billing details.

That may look administrative, but it speeds up the rest of the workflow. For a new request, you do not need to search again for contact details or verify which name and email address are correct.

Step 2: use tags to make decisions faster

In Contacts, you can label relationships. Use labels not as decoration, but as a decision filter.

Tag	Meaning	Use in the workflow
Partner	Preferred relationship or proven supplier	Invite first for matching requests.
Flex	Alternative, benchmark, or peak capacity	Use for extra comparison or capacity.
Stop	Do not invite again without a conscious choice	Prevents bad experiences from being forgotten.

Step 3: filter by discipline before requesting quotes

Disciplines make your contact list practical. A painter, installer, roofer, or electrician should not be selected in the same way. By recording disciplines, you can immediately filter for the right group when preparing a new request.

This prevents two mistakes: inviting too few parties because someone is forgotten, or requesting too broadly so suppliers receive irrelevant requests.

Step 4: use rating and internal notes

Not all information belongs in an email to the supplier. Some information is internal: how does this party respond, are they sharp on price, do they often miss attachments, do they deliver reliably?

Use ratings and notes to record that knowledge. Experience remains available to the team, even when the colleague who knows the relationship best is unavailable.

Step 5: search and filter before creating a quote request

When preparing a new request, do not start with a blank email. Start in Contacts:

1. Search by discipline: select the right trade group.
2. Filter by status or tag: choose partners, flex suppliers, or exclude stop relationships.
3. Check rating and notes: include previous experiences.
4. Use the selection in your request workflow: send the right parties the same project information.

Contacts becomes the front of your procurement process, not a list you update afterward.

How Contacts strengthens the rest of Offertes.ai

Contact management is not separate from the other modules. Better relationship data makes the rest of the workflow more reliable.

• Requests: you select the right suppliers faster for an RFQ.
• Projects: you keep involved parties connected to the same dossier.
• Inbox: communication becomes easier to recognize and follow up.
• Comparison: quotes get more context when you know who the supplier is.

Start with your top relationships

You do not need to perfect your entire network at once. Start with the suppliers and subcontractors you invite most often. Give them disciplines, tags, ratings, and short notes.

After that, Contacts grows naturally with your quote process. Every new request becomes easier because you no longer need to rethink who to approach.