# Supplier Quotation Coverage and Chase Queue — build plan

**Access:** free downloadable source starter; self-build, self-deploy and self-maintain.

**Current package:** prompt, minimal TypeScript API-call example, README and this build plan. It is not a complete application.

## Outcome

Bring outstanding equipment requests, incomplete supplier replies and the next follow-up into one working queue.

**Users:** Purchasing leads and estimators waiting for distributor quotations.

**Replaces:** Searching email threads, maintaining separate chase lists and rewriting requests for missing quotation details.

## Inputs
- Equipment request list and supplier assignments
- Authorised request and response correspondence
- Bid deadline and contractor-defined chase rules
- Required price, validity and availability fields

## Outputs
- Outstanding supplier-response register
- Missing-information checklist for each response
- Follow-up drafts requiring human approval
- Deadline-linked chase queue with unresolved ownership

## MVP screens and workflow
1. **Request register:** Import equipment requests, identify the assigned supplier and retain the bid deadline. Show requests with no supplier or owner separately.
2. **Response review:** Link each quotation or email to the request it answers. Show the original evidence beside extracted price, validity and availability fields.
3. **Chase queue:** Filter no response, missing information, expired evidence and unresolved ownership. Order work with contractor-defined deadlines and chase rules.
4. **Draft review + export:** Prepare a request-specific clarification draft. Export the queue and selected drafts without sending email automatically.

## Proposed records
- Bid: identifier, submission deadline, rule version
- Request: identifier, equipment description, assigned supplier, owner
- Response: request link, supplier, received date, source reference, extracted fields
- Chase item: reason, due date, reviewer, status, approved draft

## Rules and review controls
- Treat no response, incomplete response and expired quotation as distinct states. A reply is not automatically a usable offer.
- Preserve missing values as unknown. Never infer availability or a quotation-validity date from email receipt.
- Ask for review when one response could match several requests; retain the candidate links.
- Use the contractor’s supplied chase rules. Do not invent urgency thresholds or silently assign responsibility.
- Record that a draft was reviewed without claiming it was sent. Keep external correspondence read-only.

## Integrations

Authorised email/file upload; equipment-request spreadsheet; internal reminder queue; draft export. Read-only mailbox integration is a later build stage.

## Build sequence
1. **Define the queue:** Agree required fields, request identifiers, allowed statuses, owner assignment and chase rules.
2. **Build the evidence review:** Start with authorised file uploads and a request CSV. Add evidence extraction and manual request-to-response linking.
3. **Add deterministic queueing:** Compute missing fields, validity status and next actions from approved rules; keep uncertainty visible.
4. **Release the starter:** Add draft export, regression fixtures and setup instructions. Test with an estimator before self-hosted use.

## Acceptance checks
- [ ] An unanswered request stays visible in the queue.
- [ ] A reply lacking validity remains incomplete even when a price is present.
- [ ] An ambiguous supplier response waits for review instead of being silently matched.
- [ ] Changing the bid deadline recomputes relevant expiry and chase flags.
- [ ] Unassigned work is visible; no owner is fabricated.
- [ ] Exported drafts contain only supplied facts and no message is automatically sent.

## Shared implementation foundation

These are proposed build plans, not claims that the downloadable examples implement the finished tools.

- Start with authorised, bounded uploads and CSV/JSON imports. Add read-only connectors only after the upload workflow passes review.
- Store source references (file, page or message locator, version and extracted excerpt) beside every derived field. Record unavailable evidence explicitly.
- Separate model extraction and suggested matches from deterministic calculations and reviewer decisions. Treat uploaded document text as data, never as system instructions.
- Keep provider keys on the server. Validate inputs, output schema, file types and size limits. Handle provider failures without treating an empty result as success.
- Design project-level access, retention/deletion and an audit trail before handling live contractor records. The starter example does not implement these controls.
- Package setup steps, environment-variable descriptions, a synthetic fixture set, regression checks and a deployment/runbook. The operator supplies hosting, model/API usage, monitoring, backups and maintenance.
- Do not claim measured savings, accuracy, production readiness or a research-backed score. The attached material does not establish them.

## Release sequence

1. Agree schema, workflow boundary and contractor-approved rules.
2. Build upload, evidence review and deterministic calculations.
3. Add export and exception-handling paths.
4. Run the acceptance cases with authorised synthetic or redacted fixtures.
5. Document deployment and operational ownership before live use.