RFQ Engine: scope in, vendor-ready RFQ out.
The Trueleveler RFQ engine is the tool that takes a trade scope — a description, a set of drawings, or a spec section — and drafts a complete, CSI-tagged RFQ: scope language, included/excluded clauses, qualification questions, response template, and your firm's standard terms. The package the procurement team would have written in 4 hours, ready in 60 seconds. Need the whole project broken into trade packages first? Scope Builder does that CSI-level decomposition — then run each resulting scope through here.
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RFQ Generator runs on your scope of work and needs a free account (no card). It has no sample data yet, and the no-signup demo only levels bids.
Six sections. One vendor-ready document.
An RFQ that doesn't include the right pieces gets back ambiguous, non-comparable bids — which means hours of leveling work later. The RFQ engine ships every package with all six pieces by default, so vendors quote against the same brief.
Project context
Project name, address, owner, GC contact, schedule milestones the trade touches, site logistics summary, contract type (lump-sum / GMP / cost-plus). Auto-filled from the project record. Gives the vendor enough context to price intelligently.
Scope of work
CSI-mapped scope language for the trade package being bid. Pulls from spec sections (when uploaded), drawings, and the confirmed scope handed off from Scope Builder. Written in vendor-facing language — not internal jargon.
Inclusions / exclusions
Explicit list of what the vendor is and isn't responsible for. Closes the "by others" ambiguity that drives so many post-award disputes. Drafted from the scope and spec context for this trade; the PM edits before it goes out.
Submittal requirements & evaluation criteria
What the vendor must provide with their bid — COI, bonding capacity documentation, similar-project references — plus how the bid will actually be scored (price, schedule, bonding strength, references). Every vendor sees the same bar before they price.
Response template
A structured response form so every vendor's bid comes back in the same shape: line-item pricing, schedule, payment terms, retainage, exclusions. Eliminates the "each vendor uses different categories" problem at leveling time.
Standard terms
Your firm's standard subcontract terms attached as the assumed contract base. Vendors who can't accept the terms call out exceptions in their qualifications — you see this BEFORE you award, not after.
One project scope. N trade packages.
The hardest part of writing RFQs is the breakdown — turning "build a 200-unit mid-rise residential building" into the right number of trade packages. That decomposition is Scope Builder's job: it reads the spec or drawing set and proposes a CSI-level breakdown into one scope per trade, with a PM review-and-adjust step (merge two trades into one, split one apart). Once the breakdown is confirmed, send each scope to RFQ Generator — one run per trade — and it drafts the complete vendor-ready package for that trade.
Scope Builder PROPOSES the breakdown; the PM confirms or adjusts before anything reaches RFQ Generator. Merge two scopes into one. Split a scope the other direction. Each confirmed scope carries its inclusions, exclusions, and CSI division straight into its RFQ — no re-entry.
One PDF. Fill it in, send it back.
The vendor gets one document, built to be filled in and returned as-is — no separate response form or spreadsheet to reconcile against it:
- Bid scope summary — project context, trade, bid-due date and site-visit info up front.
- Line items — CSI-tagged scope with blank unit-price and extended-price columns built right into the table. The vendor fills them in on the same page they're reading the scope from.
- Inclusions, exclusions & alternates, then terms (payment, retainage, schedule, insurance, LDs) — standardized so every vendor is pricing the same scope under the same conditions.
- Submission — bid-due date and who to send it to, right on the last page.
Every vendor gets the identical structure, so every bid that comes back is already in the same shape — the leveling pain that comes from vendors bidding in whatever format they feel like never gets a chance to start.
It works alone. It's better in a chain.
RFQ Generator is the first link in the procurement chain. Its output sets the quality of every downstream engine.
- Bid Leveling — vendors bid against the structured response template, so leveling is dramatically faster on the back end.
- Bid Templates — free downloadable leveling sheets and scope checklists, a manual starting point if you're not ready to run the AI engine yet.
- Contract Review — the standard terms attached to the RFQ are the same terms the contract review measures against.
- Vendor profiles — bid recipients are pulled from the vendor directory (with confidence scores carried forward from previous projects).
Things everyone asks first.
Does the RFQ engine break a whole project into trade packages for me?
That decomposition step lives in Scope Builder — feed it a spec section or drawing set and it proposes the CSI-level breakdown into N trade scopes, one per trade discipline. RFQ Generator takes it from there: give it any one scope — from Scope Builder, or written by the PM — and it drafts the complete vendor-ready package for that trade. Run it once per scope for a multi-trade project.
Can it handle a partial scope (e.g. owner-direct buys carved out)?
Yes. You mark the items the owner is buying direct, and the engine excludes them from the RFQ scope and adjusts the GC's scope language accordingly. Useful on hospitality, lab, and healthcare projects where equipment is often owner-furnished.
Does it work without uploaded specs/drawings?
Yes — with reduced precision. With just a project description, the engine produces a generic-but-credible RFQ structure. With drawings + specs, the scope language references specific spec sections and detail callouts. Specs make the RFQ ~30% sharper on average.
What about non-AIA contracts?
Works with any contract base. The "standard terms" section attaches whatever document the firm specifies as its base subcontract — AIA A401/A441, ConsensusDocs 750, EJCDC C-700, or a bespoke owner-modified document. The engine reads against your terms, not generic ones.
How is the response template enforced?
There's no separate template to enforce — every vendor gets the identical PDF, with the pricing table and terms built right into it, so a vendor who fills it in and sends it back is automatically in the same format as everyone else. A vendor who instead responds by email or their own spreadsheet isn't automatically caught or normalized — that's still on the PM to flag at leveling time.
What is an RFQ in construction?
An RFQ (Request for Quotation) is a document a general contractor or owner issues to subcontractors and suppliers asking for a price on a defined scope of work. Unlike an RFP, it assumes the "what" is already decided and asks for the "how much." A good construction RFQ spells out the scope, inclusions and exclusions, clarifications, qualification questions, and a response template so every vendor quotes on the same basis — which is exactly what makes the bids easy to level later.
What's the difference between an RFQ and an RFP?
An RFP (Request for Proposal) asks vendors how they'd solve a problem and what it would cost — used when the approach isn't fixed (design-build, complex scopes). An RFQ asks how much for a scope that's already defined — used for most trade buyout. Rule of thumb: if you know exactly what you want and need a price, issue an RFQ; if you want vendors to propose an approach, issue an RFP. (See the table below.)
How do you write a construction RFQ that produces comparable bids?
The single biggest lever is forcing structure: define the scope in CSI-mapped sections, state inclusions and exclusions explicitly, list clarifications, and require vendors to respond on a fixed template. When every vendor answers the same questions in the same format, leveling is fast and scope gaps surface immediately. When the RFQ is loose, you get bids that can't be compared and a leveling headache. Trueleveler's RFQ engine enforces that structure automatically from your scope.
RFQ vs RFP
| RFQ (Request for Quotation) | RFP (Request for Proposal) | |
|---|---|---|
| Asks for | A price on a defined scope | An approach + a price |
| Use when | The "what" is fixed | The "how" is open |
| Typical construction use | Trade buyout, supplier pricing | Design-build, complex/novel scopes |
| Vendor response | A number on your template | A proposal document |
| Leads to | Bid leveling | Proposal evaluation + scoring |
Drop a scope. Get the RFQs in 60 seconds.
Bring a real project scope (or upload the specs/drawings) to a 15-minute call. We'll run the trade breakdown in Scope Builder and generate the RFQ documents live on screen. You keep the output and the firm-library setup.
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