How to respond to a BOM or PCB quote request so the buyer comes back

A buyer with a new board sends the same zip file, Gerbers, a BOM and perhaps a centroid file, to four or five houses on the same afternoon. Many will reply in a few days with a single price. Reply the same day instead, before you price anything, with a short note that flags what is missing or unclear in their files. Then send a quotation they can lay beside the others: quantity breaks, one-time costs on their own lines, and every assumption written down. The engineer remembers the house that read their files. That house gets the next revision.

Every house gets the same zip file

The buyer is not looking for your capability list. They already guessed you can build the board, or they would not have written. What they cannot tell from your website is whether you will catch the problem in their files before it becomes a problem on their bench.

Their files often have one. A part on the BOM that is not on the board. A polarity mark missing from the assembly drawing. A connector listed as "2-pin header, 2.54" with no part number. Two engineers who quote without asking will each guess differently. The buyer then compares two prices that are not for the same board, and trusts neither.

Open the files before the price list

Spend a few minutes on each file and write down what is missing or does not match. This is the list that goes into your first reply.

• Gerbers and fabrication notes. Layer count, board thickness, copper weight, surface finish, solder mask colour, and how boards are panelised. If the notes are silent, your fabrication price is a guess.
• The BOM. Does every line carry a manufacturer part number, not only a value and a package? Do the reference designators match the board? Which parts are marked do-not-fit? Is any part obsolete, or hard to get at the quantity asked for?
• Centroid or pick-and-place file. Present, and in the units your line uses? Without it, someone on your side will build one by hand.
• Assembly drawing. Polarity and pin 1 marked for diodes, electrolytics, ICs and connectors. Any part fitted by hand, any coating, any label.
• The commercial lines. Quantity, turnkey or consigned, test or programming needed, and the date they want boards in hand.

Do not list everything you can think of. Flag what would change the price or the build. A buyer who gets five sharp questions answers them. A buyer who gets twenty-five forwards them to an intern.

The file-check reply

Send it by email to whoever sent the files, within the working day. Keep it short enough to answer from a phone.

Subject: Your controller board, rev A: five points before we quote

Thank you for the files. We have checked the Gerbers, BOM and centroid file, and can build this board. Before we quote, could you confirm five points?

1. BOM lines 14 and 22 (C7, R31) are not on the board. Are they do-not-fit?
2. Line 9, the 3.3 V regulator, is marked end-of-life by its maker. We suggest (alternate part, datasheet attached). Is that acceptable?
3. J2 is listed as "2-pin header" with no part number. Do you have a preferred make?
4. Fabrication notes do not give a surface finish. Shall we quote ENIG, or do you need another?
5. Do you want us to buy all parts (turnkey), or will you supply some?

We will send the quotation once we hear back, at 50, 250 and 1,000 boards unless you prefer other quantities. (Name), (role), (phone)

Change the board, the lines and the quantities. Keep the shape: you can build it, here is what you found, here is what you need, and here is what happens next.

Then the quotation, built to be compared

When the answers come, quote the board the buyer meant. Put the fabrication, the assembly and the parts on separate lines, at each quantity. List the stencil, programming and test jig as one-time costs, so the price per board compares fairly against houses that bury them. Write your assumptions at the bottom: the answers they gave, the alternate they approved, the date the parts prices hold until. For the parts side, line by line, our post on how distributors answer a BOM enquiry sets out the columns a purchaser reads.

Quote against a revision. "Controller board rev A, BOM rev 2" goes at the top. When rev B arrives, you re-quote from your notes instead of starting again.

Imagine: a Mohali assembly house and a Ludhiana controller maker

Imagine an SMT assembly house in Mohali. A maker of controllers for knitting machines in Ludhiana sends Gerbers and a forty-line BOM for a new board, 250 pieces, turnkey. The details are illustrative.

The house took three days to quote. It assumed every BOM line was fitted, priced an end-of-life regulator as if it were in stock, and sent one total. Meanwhile, another house had replied the same afternoon. It asked about the two do-not-fit lines and proposed an alternate for the regulator. The Ludhiana engineer gave that house the order and did not reply to the late quote at all.

On the next enquiry, from a battery charger maker, the Mohali house sent a file-check note within hours. It flagged four points, offered an alternate with its datasheet, and asked turnkey or consigned. The engineer answered that evening. The quotation went out with quantity breaks, one-time costs on their own lines and the answers written in as assumptions. It did not win on price. It won the build, and when rev B came, the engineer sent it to this house first.

When a file-check reply is the wrong move

Skip it when the pack is complete. If the BOM is clean and the notes say everything, quote straight away; questions for their own sake look like delay. Skip it for a repeat board from a buyer you have built for. Check the revision, and quote.

For a five-piece prototype from a buyer who has sent the files to ten houses, give a standard prototype price with your assumptions listed and leave it there. A long exchange on a price check costs you more than the job is worth.

Before the next zip file arrives

Write your own file-check list from the mistakes your last five zip files had, and keep the reply as a template your estimator fills in. Who sends that first reply, and who chases the quote after it, is lead response and follow-up in your shop. The electronics and embedded systems page shows what else an engineer weighs before sending files. If you want the list written around your own line, tell us what you need.