To capture an informal product request from your potential new customers in Xentral, you can use the inquiry as a precursor to an offer. An inquiry is not legally binding, it is an invitation to submit an offer.
An inquiry can be made verbally, in writing or as an e-mail. If you want to assign the information to an internal process, but the officially binding offer will only be made in the next few days or weeks, you can create the address data and assign an inquiry to the new contact.
You can include the following information in a written inquiry:
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Description of your wares/services
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Requested amount
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Date of receipt of the inquiry
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Digital receipt of the inquiry as a file
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Non-binding information such as delivery time, packaging, freight, payment terms and more in the form of text modules.
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Internal designation and internal notes
You can approve an inquiry, cancel it, mark it as assigned or transfer it to a next following offer document. The following actions are available in the action menu:
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Cancel inquiry → Sets the status of the request to Cancelled.
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Copy inquiry → Creates a new request in draft mode with all data (master data, positions, etc.).
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Approve inquiry → This can be used to approve the inquiry in draft mode. Approval is only available for documents in draft mode.
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Continue as offer → Creates an offer in draft mode with the same data.
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Mark as commissioned → Sets the status of the inquiry to Commissioned.
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Mark as billed → Sets status to billed.
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Open PDF → Opens the inquiry document as PDF.
Note
An informal inquiry serves as an internal document and secures your team communication and documentation towards the customer. In Xentral, the inquiry document cannot be sent via the submit dialog. Of course, you can download the document as a PDF at any time.
An inquiry can have one of the following statuses:
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Commissioned = The request was ultimately converted to an order.
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Approved = The inquiry was approved for transfer to an offer by assigning it a number in the number range.
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Wait = The offer for the inquiry was requested.
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Offer = The inquiry was continued as an offer.
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Billed = The request has been billed (marking with internal note possible, alternatively manual creation of an invoice).
Collect your potential customer's information about the request you receive to ensure good communication.
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You can save the address and contact person in the address data in Xentral. Also information about how customers became aware of you.
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In the free text and header text you can enter information such as the specific description of the goods (if you do not want to create it as a product), the inquirer's wishes (desired offer and delivery date, price list, delivery and payment terms, questions about warranty and guarantee, and also references to long-term cooperation).
You can use these fields in Xentral for your received inquiry:
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Free text and header text: Is displayed on the inquiry
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Internal note: Internal information for you and your team such as who accepted the inquiry, how the inquiry was received, other agreements.
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Master data: Based on the selected customer, Xentral automatically pulls the customer's data from the master data. These can be supplemented or replaced manually.
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Files: In this tab there is an overview of all files added for this inquiry. You can also add new files here using drag & drop.