In this article
- Material quote requests created from selected libraries
- How to access the material quote requests
- How to complete the material quote request spreadsheet
- Want to know more?
Material quote requests created from selected libraries
As part of your Chalkstring onboarding, you will be offered a number of material library spreadsheets which contain common materials from specific brands, such as 'British Gypsum' and 'Knauf'.
Once you have chosen which of the libraries you would like imported into your account, our services team will import these for you.
Once imported, you will be able to access the quote requests spreadsheets for these libraries from within your Chalkstring account. These quote request spreadsheets can be downloaded and used to add prices from your suppliers for any of the materials they contain. Once you (or your suppliers) have added prices to the spreadsheet, they can be uploaded into Chalkstring to create a quote which can be used as part of your assessments.
How to access the material quote requests
- From the black menu click the 'Resources' icon.
- Click 'Material quotes' in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- Click the purple 'Quote request' button at the top right corner of the screen.
- In the table, you will see a list of the quote requests from your chosen material libraries.
- To download the quote spreadsheet, locate the quote request for the library you require and click on it.
- In the table will be a list of all the materials this quote request contains. To download the spreadsheet, click 'Download' in the top right corner of the screen.
How to complete the material quote request spreadsheet
- Locate the downloaded file on your computer.
- Open the file by double clicking it.
- The quote request will contain all the materials we have available for the manufacturer, brand, or type from our library.
- It is likely that you will have multiple suppliers who provide you with the same materials. This quote request can be copied and pricing added for each of your suppliers who provide you with the materials in this quote.
- To save multiple copies, go to 'File' and 'Save as'. Save a copy of the spreadsheet to your computer and name is accordingly, such as the name of the supplier you intend to use the quote request for.
- Repeat step 5 as required for as many suppliers you intend to use this quote for.
- The spreadsheet can now be issued to your suppliers by emailing them and asking them to complete the price column, or if you already have the price details for these materials from your suppliers, you can add these to the price column yourself.
When entering prices, pay attention to the 'Unit of measure' in column H. Prices should be entered based on the unit listed.
For example, if the unit of measure is 'Meters Squared (m²)', the price entered needs to be the meter squared price for that material.
If the spreadsheet contains materials which your supplier does not stock or you do not want to add prices for, leave the price cell empty and Chalkstring will skip over this material and only import those with a valid price entered in the price column.
- Once the spreadsheets have been returned from your suppliers, or you've added the pricing, each spreadsheet can be imported into Chalkstring. For details on how to do this, see article 'How to import a material quote'
There is no limit to the amount of quote requests you can import for but they must be imported individually per supplier.