RFQ Intake Triage Scoring Worksheet for Job Shops
Most job shops receive more RFQs than the estimating desk can price in a week, and the default order of work is whoever emailed last or shouted loudest. This worksheet gives you a repeatable way to rank the queue before anyone opens a print.
| RFQ # | Customer | Received | Part family | Est. order value | Process fit (1-5) | Customer score (1-5) | Package complete (1-5) | Margin potential (1-5) | Est. quoting hours (h) | Triage score | Score per quoting hour | Action | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
90% | 30 | ||||||||||||
72% | 9 | ||||||||||||
42% | 7 | ||||||||||||
84% | 42 | ||||||||||||
76% | 7.6 |
Triage score weights: process fit 30%, margin potential 30%, customer 20%, package completeness 20%, each rated 1-5 and scaled to a percentage. Change the weights in your exported copy to match your shop. Score per quoting hour favors quick wins, so do not let it bury a large strategic RFQ.
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How to use the triage worksheet
Add one row per inbound RFQ the moment it arrives. Rate process fit, customer quality, package completeness and margin potential from 1 to 5 using the cell hints, enter your best guess of quoting hours, and the sheet computes a triage score and a score per quoting hour. Sort by score per hour to find quick wins, then by score to protect large strategic quotes. Set the action column so the whole team can see what happens next. Export to Excel for a shared log or PDF for the Monday sales meeting.
- Rate within five minutes of receipt, not after a deep read of the print.
- Use the same person for ratings so scores stay comparable.
- Review the Request missing info rows daily so they do not stall.
The scoring method
The triage score is a simple weighted average: (fit x 30 + customer x 20 + completeness x 20 + margin x 30) divided by 5, giving a 0 to 100 percent scale where 100 means every factor is rated 5. Score per quoting hour divides that by estimated hours, floored at 0.25 hours to avoid division blow-ups. It is not a probability of winning. It is an ordering tool, similar to a weighted decision matrix used in bid screening.
Reading the results
A score above 75 percent with a low hours estimate is a quote-now job. A mid score with a large value, like the aerospace fittings row in the example, usually needs a call to the buyer to fix completeness before you spend eight hours. A score below 45 percent with a weak customer is a decline candidate. Watch queue value per quoting hour: if it falls week over week you are spending estimating time on lower value work.
Common mistakes
Do not score margin potential from the customer's target price alone, use your own rough cost. Do not rate completeness as 5 just because a PDF is attached: check for tolerances, material callout, quantity breaks and a due date. Finally, record declines too. A log of declined RFQs is the cheapest market intelligence a shop has.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many RFQs should a triage log track?
Every one, including those you decline. A complete log lets you compute true hit rate, see which customers send unquotable packages, and measure how much estimating time goes to low-value requests. Without declines in the data, your win rate looks better than reality.
Can I change the scoring weights?
Yes. Export to Excel and edit the formula. Shops with tight capacity often weight process fit higher, while shops chasing growth weight customer and margin. Keep the weights summing to 100 so the score stays on a clean percent scale.
Should estimating hours be a guess or a standard?
Start with a guess by part family, then replace it with real averages after a month of time tracking. Simple parts from repeat customers might take 30 minutes, while assemblies with outside processing can take a full day.
Is a high triage score the same as likely to win?
No. It ranks where to spend estimating effort. Win probability depends on price, lead time and relationships. Use the bid/no-bid scorecard calculator when you need an expected-value view for a specific large quote.
If your RFQs arrive as email attachments and your ERP holds the real cost history, we can help automate scoring against past quotes and capacity. This worksheet works fine without us.
Related Tools
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