Anatomy of a chemical RFQ: seven checks before you price a line

To price a line in a chemical RFQ correctly, seven things must be clear: product identity (code, name or CAS number), grade, concentration and its basis, quantity and unit, pack, delivery terms, and the documents requested. If one is unclear, the right move is to ask the customer, not to guess.

This checklist is written for the person who prices enquiries every day: internal sales, sales administration, customer service. It works whatever the request arrived as, whether an email, a PDF, a spreadsheet or a WhatsApp message.

Why are chemical requests hard to read?

Two reasons. First, the same product name covers several products. “Caustic soda” can be pearls, flakes or a solution; the solution can be 32% or 50%; each comes in a technical or a higher grade, and in bags, drums or IBCs. Every combination is a different line in your catalog, with its own price.

Second, requests arrive through many channels and in many shapes: a list typed into an email, a buyer's spreadsheet with its own column names, a PDF purchase enquiry, a voice note transcribed by a colleague. The customer knows what they mean. The line in front of you only shows part of it.

The seven checks

1. Product identity: code, trade name, CAS number

Start with what the customer actually wrote: your product code, their own code, a trade name or a chemical name. A CAS Registry Number helps when names are ambiguous. It has up to 10 digits in three groups, and the last digit is a check digit. For water, 7732-18-5, multiply the digits before the check digit from right to left by 1, 2, 3 and so on: 8×1 + 1×2 + 2×3 + 3×4 + 7×5 + 7×6 = 105. The last digit of 105 is 5, which matches the check digit, so the number is at least well formed.

A CAS number identifies a substance. It does not tell you the grade or the concentration. Sodium hydroxide is 1310-73-2 whether it is sold as pearls, flakes or a 50% solution, and the safety data sheet of the solution lists that same number. So a CAS number on a request confirms the substance, and the next checks still apply.

2. Grade and purity

Technical, laboratory, pharmacopoeia, food and electronic grades of the same substance differ in specification, documentation and price. If the request does not name a grade, check what this customer bought before or ask. A purity figure such as “IPA 99%” is a clue, not an answer: it may be a minimum, or simply how the buyer always writes it.

3. Concentration and its basis

For solutions, the percentage defines the product. Hydrogen peroxide 35% and 50% are different products with different safety data sheets. The percentage also needs a basis: weight in weight (w/w), weight in volume (w/v) or volume in volume (v/v). Trade practice for acids and alkalis is usually w/w, but a percentage without its basis is incomplete. The details are in w/w, w/v, v/v: why concentration basis matters.

4. Quantity, unit and the 1.000 problem

“1.000 kg” means one thousand kilograms to a customer who uses a decimal comma, which is common in continental Europe and Turkey. To a UK buyer it reads as one. In a spreadsheet that has passed through several hands, you cannot tell which without asking. The unit needs the same care: kg, L, tonnes, or a number of packs. “4 x IBC” is a pack count, not a mass.

5. Pack and pack multiples

Typical packs are 25 kg bags, 5 L and 25 L jerricans, nominal 200 L drums and 1,000 L IBCs, plus bulk tanker loads. If the customer asks for 130 kg of a product you sell in 25 kg bags, the quote must say whether you offer 125 kg or 150 kg. If you price per kilogram and the request is in litres, you also need the density. See litres to kilograms in chemical quotes.

6. Delivery terms and dangerous goods

Agree who pays for transport and where risk passes. For international trade, the ICC's Incoterms® 2020 rules give 11 standard terms; seven of them (EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU and DDP) can be used for any mode of transport, and four (FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF) are for sea and inland waterway. For domestic UK orders, state plainly whether the price is delivered or for collection, and to which site.

Many chemicals are dangerous goods in transport. A UN number in a request, or a product such as a corrosive acid or alkali solution, is a sign that road transport under ADR rules may apply, with consequences for carrier, packaging and price. The transport classification is in Section 14 of the supplier's safety data sheet.

7. Documents: SDS, TDS, CoA

Requests often end with “SDS please”. Under REACH Article 31, in the EU and in Great Britain, the safety data sheet must be provided free of charge, on paper or electronically, no later than the first delivery. A technical data sheet (TDS) describes typical properties. A certificate of analysis (CoA) belongs to a specific batch, so it is tied to the delivery, not to the product in general. There is more in SDS requests at the quote desk.

Worked example: reading a four-line request

EXAMPLE · synthetic data. The request below and the company name are invented for illustration.

From: purchasing@example.com
Subject: Quote please

Hi, can you quote the following:

Caustic soda liquid 50%, 1 x IBC
IPA 99%, 4 drums
Sulphuric acid, 25 L
Citric acid, same as last time, 20 bags

SDS for everything please. Delivered to site as usual.

Thanks,
Sam, Example Coatings (sample customer)

EXAMPLE · synthetic data. What each line tells you, and what it leaves open:

Notice the IPA line. If your catalog holds a 99.5% product, offering it against a request for 99% is a substitution. It may be the right offer, but it should be stated on the quote and confirmed with the customer, not made silently.

What to ask the customer: short question patterns

• “Could you confirm the concentration and whether it is w/w?”
• “Which grade do you need: technical, or a pharmacopoeia or food grade?”
• “Is that 1,000 kg or 1 kg? Your sheet shows 1.000.”
• “We supply this in 25 kg bags, so 130 kg would be 125 kg or 150 kg. Which do you prefer?”
• “Delivered to which site, and is a tail-lift or forklift available on arrival?”
• “Do you need the SDS only, or also the TDS and a certificate of analysis with the delivery?”

Short, specific questions get faster answers than “please clarify”. Send them together, in one message, rather than one at a time.

What should the quote document contain?

• Product name and your code, with grade and concentration (and its basis).
• Quantity and unit, the pack and the number of packs.
• Unit price and the price unit (per kg, per litre or per pack), and the currency.
• VAT status, for example “excluding VAT”.
• Validity date of the offer.
• Payment terms and delivery terms (an Incoterms® rule or “delivered to”), and lead time.
• Documents to be supplied with the goods.
• Lines not quoted, and why.

Which of these checks does Vuntus take on?

Vuntus is software that turns chemical distributors' incoming price requests into quote drafts built from your own catalog and price list, with every line traceable and approved by your team. On the seven checks, it does this:

• Splits lines from text-based PDFs, Excel and CSV files, emails and pasted WhatsApp messages, and reads the product code, quantity, unit and concentration percentage.
• Leaves an unclear quantity such as “1.000” empty and shows both readings until a person chooses one.
• Does not mistake a UN number or a pack pattern such as “4x25kg” for a product code.
• Shows “No match” when nothing in your catalog fits, and suggests a question under “Ask the customer” when the candidates differ.
• Stops a line whose concentration differs from the catalog product; that line cannot be confirmed, not even by a person.

It does not check the concentration basis (w/w, w/v), the delivery terms or the documents requested, and a grade difference does not stop a line: those remain your team's checks. It does not read lines from scanned PDFs or photos. It does not send quotes; they are downloaded as PDF, HTML or CSV and you send them from your own email. Every line is confirmed by a person before anything is priced; the guide to reviewing request lines shows how that works on screen. For what Vuntus is and is not, see What Vuntus is (and isn't), and for the channels a request can come in through, Receiving requests. To see the flow, read how it works.