Vendor Collaboration in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations: Running Request-for-Quotation from Portal Invite to Purchase Order

1. Introduction

Sourcing decisions are only as good as the quotes behind them. In many procurement teams, requests for pricing go out over email, come back in inconsistent formats, and get compared in a spreadsheet that no one can audit later. Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations addresses this with Vendor Collaboration — a supplier-facing portal — and the Request for Quotation (RFQ) process that runs on top of it.

With this in place, a buyer raises an RFQ inside D365, sends it to selected vendors, and those vendors log in to a secure portal to submit their price and delivery commitments. The buyer compares the responses in one place, accepts the best offer, and turns it into a purchase order without re-keying a single line. This article walks through how the capability was configured and operated end to end.

2. The Business Problem

Before the rollout, collecting quotes was a manual, email-driven exercise. That created several recurring problems:

1. Quotes arrived in different formats, making a fair side-by-side comparison difficult and slow.
2. There was no single record of who was asked, what they offered, and why a supplier was chosen — weak auditability.
3. Re-keying accepted prices into a purchase order introduced errors and delay.
4. Sending the same request to multiple vendors, and tracking their replies, was hard to manage.
5. Supplier onboarding and access were handled ad hoc, with no controlled activation.

3. The Solution

The solution has three parts: enabling the vendor for collaboration, provisioning the portal user, and then running the RFQ cycle itself. Each is described below with the exact navigation used.

3.1 Vendor Setup for Collaboration

The vendor record is prepared first so the supplier can be invited to the portal and confirm orders automatically.

Navigation : Accounts payable > Vendors > All vendors

1. Enter the vendor Contact name and Email
2. Enable the vendor for Vendor Collaboration
3. Set PO Confirmation = Auto

3.2 Portal User Setup

Next, the individual portal user is created and activated through the standard user request workflow, which runs automatically.

1. In All contacts, add the user: Name, Email address,
   and Vendor details (assign the legal entities)
2. Click Activate
3. Workflow runs automatically:
   System administration > Workflows > User workflows
   > User request workflow (platform)
4. Verify activation:
   Vendor collaboration > Contacts > Vendor collaboration users

3.3 The RFQ Process, Step by Step

With the vendor and user in place, the buyer runs the quotation cycle. Prices are intentionally left blank on creation — the vendor supplies them.

Navigation : Procurement and sourcing > Request for quotations > All RFQs

Step 1  Create RFQ — add Vendor(s) on the header, and Item, Quantity
        and Delivery date on the lines. Keep Price blank.
Step 2  Send — click Send (selected lines) or Send all. The vendor
        receives the RFQ in the portal.
Step 3  Vendor responds — logs into the portal, enters Price,
        Delivery date and Comments, then clicks Submit.
Step 4  Buyer reviews — open the RFQ, view replies, compare Price,
        Delivery date and Terms.
Step 5  Accept — select the winning vendor response and click Accept.
Step 6  Create purchase order — the PO is created at the vendor
        quote price.
Step 7  Submit workflow — open the PO and click Workflow > Submit.

Multiple vendors can be added on a single RFQ header, so the same request goes out to a competitive field and every reply lands back against one record.

4. Considerations & Limitations

A few configuration choices shape how the process behaves in practice.

Note: The portal experience depends on correct vendor contact and legal-entity assignment. If a user is not activated through the user request workflow, they will not see RFQs in the portal.

5. Business Impact

Moving quoting onto the collaboration portal delivered clear operational gains:

1. Faster quote turnaround, because vendors respond directly in a structured form.
2. Fair, side-by-side comparison of price, delivery date and terms in one screen.
3. A complete audit trail of who was invited, what they offered, and why a supplier was selected.
4. No re-keying — the accepted quote price flows straight into the purchase order.
5. Controlled supplier access through workflow-based user activation.

6. FAQs

7. Conclusion

Vendor Collaboration with RFQ turns sourcing from an email scramble into a controlled, auditable process. Buyers issue a structured request, suppliers respond in a secure portal, and the winning quote becomes a purchase order without manual re-entry — all inside Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. For procurement teams that rely on competitive quoting, it is a fast, low-friction way to tighten governance and speed up the buy.