Notes for owners · Sales management
Quoting by the drum, tanker or kilo: how to make a chemical quotation easy to compare
A chemical buyer compares quotations per kilo, delivered, before tax. Put the unit, net weight per pack, GST, freight, packing and validity in one table so it can be compared without a call back.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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When a purchase officer has three chemical quotations on the desk, they are not read so much as copied into a sheet and divided until every row says the same thing: rupees per kilo, delivered to the plant, before tax. Whoever quotes in a different unit makes the officer do the sums, and the sums may go wrong. So the useful way to write a chemical quotation is to rebuild that sheet first, then send a quotation that fills it in. Here is one case told in three stages, with the sheet at the centre.
Stage one: the quotation that lost on arithmetic
Imagine, as an invented example, a unit at Dahej, in Gujarat, that makes a liquid wetting agent for textile process houses. A process house near Surat asks three suppliers for rates.
The Dahej unit replies: "₹15,200 per drum, ex-works Dahej, GST extra." The other two quote per kilo, delivered, with the drum included. The purchase officer builds a sheet. A kilo figure is needed for the Dahej quote, so the officer divides by 200, because the drum is a 200 litre drum.
Stage two: the officer's sheet
Here is what the sheet showed, and what was true.
| Supplier | What was quoted | Officer's per-kilo figure | Actual per-kilo, delivered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dahej unit | ₹15,200 per drum, ex-works | 15,200 divided by 200 = ₹76, plus a freight estimate of ₹3 = ₹79 | The drum holds 190 kg, not 200, so ₹80 plus ₹3 freight = ₹83 |
| Supplier B | ₹81 per kg, delivered, drum included | ₹81 | ₹81 |
| Supplier C | ₹80 per kg, delivered, IBC | ₹80 | ₹80 |
On the sheet the Dahej unit was cheapest by a rupee. In fact it was the dearest. The product's density is below one, so a 200 litre drum holds fewer than 200 kilos. The officer placed a trial order, saw the invoice rate, felt misled, and did not reorder. Nobody had lied. The unit had quoted in its own unit, and the lost account was worth about ₹9 lakh a year.
A second leak sat in the same quotation. Supplier B included the drum in the rate. Dahej charged a deposit on its drums and said nothing, so the sheet never held the deposit either way.
Stage three: the quotation that fills the sheet
The unit's next quotation to a different process house carried the numbers a buyer would otherwise have to guess.
| Line | What it said |
|---|---|
| Product and grade | Name, grade, reference to the specification sheet |
| Net weight per drum | 190 kg of product |
| Rate | ₹80 per kg before GST |
| Drum | Deposit per drum, refunded on return within the stated period, or included, stated plainly |
| Freight | ₹3 per kg, delivered to the named plant |
| GST | Separate line, with the HSN code as invoiced |
| Valid until | A date |
| Order to dispatch | Days, as the unit can truly keep them |
The rate was not the lowest, and the unit said so when the officer called. The officer ordered anyway, because the line on drum return suited how the stores worked, and the invoice matched the sheet line for line. The unit still lost the first buyer.
Deciding which unit to lead with
The three units in the title are not equal, so lead with the one your buyer actually uses.
If the buyer takes drums or carboys, lead with the net weight per drum. That is where the sums go wrong.
If the buyer takes IBCs, lead with the return terms: who pays the return trip, and what happens when an IBC comes back damaged. Put the drum price beside it so the buyer can see when the move pays.
If the buyer takes tankers, lead with how weight is fixed. State that the invoice follows the weighbridge slip, name which weighbridge, and give the difference between loading and unloading weights you will accept. Agree this before the first load. A tanker line might read: "₹78 per kg before GST, delivered; invoice follows the Dahej weighbridge slip; a difference of up to half a per cent at the buyer's gate is settled at the same rate, anything above by credit note." The wording and figures are invented, so check the terms with your accountant. A plant that runs short because the tanker was late will not care that the rate was lower, so give a lead time you can keep.
If you quote per litre because the buyer asks, give the density you used to convert and still show the per-kilo figure. Weight is what the invoice records. A quotation that shows both lets a buyer check your conversion in a minute instead of writing back to ask for it, and a buyer who has to write back is a buyer comparing the other two quotations first.
When a table is more than you need
A regular buyer who orders the same product, pack and plant needs only a dated rate message. Go back to the full layout when any of those changes. A quote that is truly indicative, for a buyer still planning a product, should say that it is indicative and carry no validity date. Send the firm version when the buyer asks for one.
Rules on classifying, packing, labelling and transporting chemicals differ by product and by state and body, and they change. Check the wording of any hazard or transport line with your own adviser or the regulator, not with a template.
Test it against the invoice
Before sending, imagine the buyer orders exactly this. Will the invoice match the quotation line for line? If not, the quotation is missing a line. Our post on a quotation format for a small factory covers what stores and accounts check afterwards.
Rebuild a quotation you lost on price
Take one quotation you lost, build the buyer's sheet from it, and see where the buyer's per-kilo figure differs from yours. If yours was closer to the winner than it looked, the format cost you the order, not the rate. The chemicals hub covers the rest of the trade. If you want help with quotation formats and price lists for your range through pricing and packaging strategy, tell us what you need.
