This page is for a factory merchandiser, or a buyer's own order desk, who receives a purchase order and has to decide whether it can be acknowledged as it stands. This lesson mainly teaches the information flow: it treats a purchase order as a document that must be checked line by line against an earlier document, the quotation, rather than accepted on trust because it arrived from a known buyer.
A quotation and a purchase order are two separate documents produced at two separate moments, often by two different people on the buyer's own side. Delta Garments quotes Order A at FOB USD 3.20 per piece; the purchase order that later arrives from Northline Apparel can, in practice, state a different price, a different quantity, or different terms, whether by a genuine change of mind, a typing error, or an internal miscommunication on the buyer's own side. A factory that issues its acknowledgement without checking the purchase order against its own quotation first can find itself committed, in writing, to terms it never actually agreed to.
You need: lesson 2.1's three commitments a purchase order creates once it is raised.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: what raising a purchase order commits a business to (lesson 2.1), confirming an order without ambiguous terms (lesson 2.3), amending a live order (lesson 2.4), and building a complete order control checklist (lesson 2.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Quotation | A supplier's written answer to an RFQ, stating its price and the terms that price is based on. |
| Costed quotation | A quotation that shows the price broken into its cost elements, not just one total figure, so the buyer can check how it was built. |
| Purchase order | A document from a buyer confirming quantity, price and delivery date, which commits the buyer to pay for the goods it orders. |
| Acknowledgement | A factory's own written or emailed confirmation that it has received and accepted a purchase order and its attached terms. |
| Specification reference | A named or numbered tech pack or approved specification a purchase order points to, so both sides agree exactly what is being made. |
| Quotation validity | The length of time a quoted price stays fixed before the factory can require it to be requoted. |
A quotation and a purchase order should say the same thing about the same order, but nothing forces them to. The quotation is what the factory offered; the purchase order is what the buyer actually sent back. Checking one against the other, field by field, before acknowledging, is the only step that catches a difference before it becomes binding. Once a factory sends its acknowledgement, any unchecked difference between the two documents is no longer a discrepancy to catch; it is a term the factory has now agreed to.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A price mismatch on an export order | Delta Garments quotes Order A at FOB USD 3.20; the purchase order NA-2291 that arrives states FOB USD 3.15. | An unchecked USD 0.05 per piece gap across 15,000 pieces is a real cost, not a rounding difference to be assumed away. A gap this size on a single order can look trivial in isolation, but the same unchecked habit repeated across several orders a year turns into a pattern the factory never notices until year-end margins are reviewed. |
| A quantity mismatch | A quotation is costed for 15,000 pieces; a purchase order arrives for 18,000 pieces at the same unit price. | Costs such as sampling and setup do not scale in a straight line with quantity, so a quantity change can make the original quoted price no longer accurate. A larger order can also need a longer production slot than the one originally reserved, which is itself worth checking before the purchase order is accepted as it stands. |
| A specification mismatch | A quotation is costed against one tech pack version; the purchase order references a later, revised version of the same style. | A revised specification can change fabric consumption or construction time, which changes the cost the quotation was actually built on. Accepting the newer specification reference without re-costing it means the factory has agreed to make a different garment for the same money it quoted on an earlier one. |
| An expired quotation | A purchase order arrives referencing a quotation whose own validity period has already passed. | Raw material prices behind the quotation, such as Order A's own fabric price of USD 5.60 per kg, can move after the validity period ends, making the old quoted price no longer safe to honour without rechecking. A factory that honours an expired price out of habit, rather than checking the date first, can end up selling below its own real cost without ever deciding to. |
| A domestic order placed on open account | A domestic buyer's own purchase order restates a quotation's price and quantity but omits the payment terms line the quotation itself specified. | A missing field on the purchase order is as much a mismatch as a wrong figure; the factory should not assume the quotation's own terms carry over automatically once a separate document, the purchase order, has been issued. |
Delta Garments' costed quotation for Order A states FOB USD 3.20 per piece, built from fabric 1.15, trims 0.20, making 1.10, overhead 0.49 and profit 0.26. Northline Apparel's purchase order NA-2291 arrives for the same 15,000 pieces, the same tech pack, but states FOB USD 3.15 per piece. Mona, the merchandiser at Delta Garments, checks the purchase order against the quotation before drafting an acknowledgement and finds the one field that does not match.
Once Delta Garments sends an acknowledgement of NA-2291 as received, the USD 750 gap stops being a discrepancy to raise with Northline Apparel and becomes a price Delta Garments has now agreed to accept. The gap is small on a single piece, USD 0.05, but the same order that was quoted to leave USD 0.26 profit per piece would now leave only USD 0.21, a fall of just over 19% in profit per piece, before a single other cost on the order has changed.
The methodA common mistake is treating a purchase order from a long-standing buyer as automatically matching its own quotation, because the relationship is trusted and the paperwork looks routine. What this costs a factory is a silent loss: once NA-2291 is acknowledged with its USD 3.15 price unchecked, Delta Garments has agreed, in writing, to a price it never actually quoted, and raising the difference afterward is far harder than catching it before acknowledgement. Trust in a buyer is not a substitute for checking the specific document in front of the merchandiser.
A quotation is what a factory offers; a purchase order is what actually arrives back. The two documents should match, but they can differ on price, quantity, specification or how long the quoted price is still good for, whether by mistake or by a genuine change. Checking the purchase order against the quotation, field by field, before the factory sends its acknowledgement, is the only chance to catch a difference before it becomes a term the factory has actually agreed to. Once acknowledged, the purchase order's own figures are what count, whatever the quotation said.
Delta Garments' production manager asks Mona to send the acknowledgement for NA-2291 the same day it arrives, so approvals can start without delay. Mona has not yet compared the purchase order's own figures against the quotation.
Here is the message the production manager sent:
Should Mona send the acknowledgement today, before checking NA-2291 against the quotation? Decide before opening the answer.
No, Mona should not acknowledge NA-2291 before checking it against the quotation. Two facts decide this.
First, the purchase order states FOB USD 3.15 per piece, while Delta Garments' own quotation for Order A states FOB USD 3.20, a difference of USD 0.05 per piece that the production manager's message does not mention checking. Sending the acknowledgement first would make the USD 3.15 price binding before anyone at Delta Garments has confirmed whether it was an intended change or an error.
Second, acknowledgement is the step that turns any unchecked difference between the two documents into an agreed term, not a discrepancy still open to discussion. Delaying approvals by the short time needed to check four fields costs far less than accepting a price gap worth USD 750 across the order.
The corrected instruction is to check NA-2291 against the quotation first, raise the USD 0.05 gap with Northline Apparel in writing, and send the acknowledgement only once the price is confirmed either way.
Using Order A's own fixed figures:
If Delta Garments acknowledges NA-2291 at USD 3.15 without checking it against the quotation, profit per piece falls from USD 0.26 to USD 0.21, a 19.2% fall, before any other cost on the order has moved. Across the full 15,000-piece order this is the same USD 750 already shown in the worked number, lost permanently the moment the acknowledgement is sent, since the acknowledgement itself is what fixes the price NA-2291 will actually be paid at.
Open the course workbook's "Quotation Match Check" sheet. It records, for one purchase order, each field the quotation fixed, the value the purchase order actually states, and whether the two match. Enter NA-2291's own figures to see how the sheet would have flagged the USD 0.05 price gap before the acknowledgement was sent.
[Download the Buyer order control checklist](../../templates/T27-C02-buyer-order-control-checklist.xlsx)
1. Delta Garments' quotation for Order A states FOB USD 3.20. Purchase order NA-2291 arrives stating FOB USD 3.15 for the same 15,000 pieces. What should happen before Delta Garments acknowledges the order?
2. A purchase order arrives for 18,000 pieces at the same unit price as a quotation costed for 15,000 pieces. What does this lesson's rule say about accepting the price unchanged?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quotation | عرض السعر | Devis | Teklif (fiyat teklifi) | A supplier's written answer to an RFQ, stating its price and the terms that price is based on. |
| Costed quotation | عرض سعر مفصل التكلفة | Devis chiffré | Maliyetlendirilmiş teklif | A quotation that shows the price broken into its cost elements, not just one total figure, so the buyer can check how it was built. |
| Purchase order | أمر الشراء (طلبية الشراء) | Bon de commande | Satın alma siparişi | A document from a buyer confirming quantity, price and delivery date, which commits the buyer to pay for the goods it orders. |
| Acknowledgement | إقرار الاستلام | Accusé de réception | Teyit | A factory's own written or emailed confirmation that it has received and accepted a purchase order and its attached terms. |
| Specification reference | مرجع المواصفة | Référence à la fiche technique | Spesifikasyon referansı | A named or numbered tech pack or approved specification a purchase order points to, so both sides agree exactly what is being made. |
| Quotation validity | صلاحية عرض السعر | Validité du devis | Teklif geçerlilik süresi | The length of time a quoted price stays fixed before the factory can require it to be requoted. |
You now know how to check a purchase order's own figures against its quotation before acknowledging it. The next lesson looks at the terms a figure check alone does not catch: wording that leaves a term open to more than one reading. Back to the course map