RFQ software helps an event or service company answer a request for quotation quickly and price it correctly: it builds the quote from a rate card, adds crew and material costs, keeps the internal margin hidden from the client, sends it for internal approval, and turns the accepted quote into a project with its own profit and loss. Without it, most service companies only find out whether a job made money weeks after it ended. This guide shows how to run the whole chain, from the first email to the final project P&L.
Who this is for
Any company that sells work priced per job rather than products off a shelf:
- Event production, staging, sound and lighting.
- Cleaning, waste management and facility services for events and venues.
- Catering and hospitality staffing.
- Security and crowd management.
- Installation and contracting teams that quote per site.
They all share the same pattern: the client sends a request, you price labour, equipment, materials and transport, the client negotiates, and the job runs for a few days or weeks with a crew you must schedule and pay.
Where money leaks between the quote and the invoice
- Quotes built from memory. Each salesperson prices differently. Two similar events get two very different prices.
- Crew costs underestimated. Overtime, night shifts, transport and meals are left out of the quote and show up in payroll.
- Margin visible in the wrong place. A spreadsheet with the cost column is forwarded to the client by mistake.
- Quotes sent without review. A junior sends a large quote at a loss, and the company is stuck with it.
- Versions lost. The client asks for a third revision, and nobody is sure which price was finally accepted.
- No project P&L. Costs go into general expenses, so nobody knows which client or event type is actually profitable.
Step 1: Capture every RFQ in one place
RFQs arrive by email, WhatsApp, phone and tender portals. The first rule is that every request becomes a record in your system the day it arrives, with the client, event dates, location, scope and deadline. A request that lives only in someone's inbox will be answered late or not at all.
Track each RFQ through clear stages, for example: received, pricing, internal review, sent, negotiating, won, lost. The lost ones matter too. Recording why you lost (price, timing, scope) tells you where your pricing is off.
Step 2: Price from a rate card, not from memory
A rate card is your internal price list for services: the cost and selling rate for each type of worker, piece of equipment and service unit. A simple structure:
| Line | Unit | Internal cost | Selling rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning crew member | Per shift | Your wage + overheads | Your rate |
| Supervisor | Per shift | Your wage + overheads | Your rate |
| Night shift premium | Per shift | Agreed premium | Your rate |
| Waste bin, large | Per day | Rental or depreciation | Your rate |
| Truck with driver | Per trip | Fuel + driver + wear | Your rate |
With a rate card, the salesperson enters quantities: 40 crew for 3 days, 6 supervisors, 20 bins, 12 truck trips. The system calculates cost, selling price and margin. Different clients or event types can have their own cards. When wages or fuel change, you update the card once and every new quote follows.
Step 3: Cost the crew properly
Labour is usually the largest cost in a service job and the easiest to get wrong. For each role, account for:
- Number of people and shifts per day.
- Shift length and overtime beyond it.
- Night, weekend or holiday premiums.
- Transport to and from the site.
- Meals and accommodation for out-of-town jobs.
- Standby time during setup and teardown, which clients rarely see but you still pay.
Take a hypothetical event in a Beirut venue over a weekend: 30 cleaners on two shifts per day for three days, plus 4 supervisors. That is 180 cleaner shifts and 24 supervisor shifts before overtime, transport and meals. A quote that only multiplies "30 people × 3 days" undercounts by half.
Once the job is won, the same numbers become a crew roster: who works which shift on which day. Comparing the roster to the quote shows immediately if the job is being staffed above what was priced.
Step 4: Keep the internal margin internal
Your team needs to see cost and margin on every line. The client must never see them. The quotation the client receives should show only the selling prices, in your branded template, generated from the same data. Never build client quotes by deleting columns from an internal spreadsheet. Sooner or later, the wrong file gets sent.
Step 5: Approve before sending
Use a maker-checker rule for quotes: the salesperson prepares, a manager approves before it goes out. Make the rule depend on size or margin, for example:
- Quotes above a set value need manager approval.
- Quotes with margin below your floor need owner approval.
- Small, standard quotes can go out directly.
Keep every version. When the client asks for revision three, you should be able to see what changed from revision two, and which version they finally accepted.
Step 6: Turn the accepted quote into a project
When the client approves, the quote should become a project automatically, carrying its lines, quantities and budget. From then on, every cost is booked against that project:
- Purchases and procurement for the job.
- Crew wages and overtime.
- Equipment rental and transport.
- Subcontractors.
Invoices to the client are also tied to the project. At the end, the project P&L shows quoted margin against real margin. Over a year, this tells you which clients, venues and event types make money, and which ones only keep the team busy.
Step 7: Close the loop after every job
A short review after each project makes the next quote better. Within a week of the job ending, check:
- Quoted crew shifts against the roster that actually worked.
- Quoted materials and equipment against what was bought or used.
- Extra work the client asked for on site, and whether it was invoiced.
- Quoted margin against final margin.
If the same line is wrong on several jobs, fix the rate card, not just the next quote. This is how a service company turns experience into pricing that holds up.
How MAPOS handles RFQs, rate cards and crew costing
MAPOS is an ERP built in Beirut. Its CRM and projects module cover the chain above:
- RFQs with a pricing engine and rate cards, so quotes are calculated from your own costs and rates.
- AI form-fill from emails: the RFQ fields are filled from the client email, for your team to review.
- Internal approval (maker-checker) before a quote goes to the client.
- Client approval links, so the client accepts the quotation online, and automatic project creation once it is accepted.
- Crew roster and costing, so labour is planned and costed per job.
- Branded quotations from the document template designer, with version history on quotations and invoices.
- WhatsApp inbox in the CRM, so client conversations sit next to the RFQ.
- Multi-currency documents and a full accounting module behind every invoice.
One Saudi events services company we work with runs every engagement on MAPOS as a project from RFQ to final P&L: RFQ intake, branded quotations, maker-checker approval, hidden internal margin, client approval links, automatic project creation, procurement, per-project P&L and a WhatsApp inbox.
If your company also rents out equipment, read our guide to rental management: agreements, pricing and returns. For CRM basics, see the CRM software buyer's guide for Lebanon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is RFQ software?
RFQ software records requests for quotation, prices them from your rate cards and costs, routes them for approval and sends a clean quotation to the client. Good RFQ software also turns the accepted quote into a project.
What is a rate card in a service business?
A rate card is your internal list of cost and selling rates for each type of worker, equipment and service unit. Quotes are built by entering quantities against it, so pricing stays consistent.
How do I hide my margin from the client?
Keep cost and margin in the system and generate the client quotation from a template that only shows selling prices. Never send edited versions of an internal spreadsheet.
Does MAPOS create a project when a quote is accepted?
Yes. In MAPOS an accepted RFQ can become a project automatically, and costs and invoices booked against it build a per-project P&L. This is how event services companies on MAPOS run their jobs.
How much does MAPOS RFQ software cost?
MAPOS is quoted per business based on modules, branches and users. Book a demo on WhatsApp at +961 71 725 270.
Want to price your next RFQ with a rate card and see its real margin at the end? Book a MAPOS demo or message us on WhatsApp.
