What the Vendor Quotation Comparator does
Quotations are almost never comparable as written. One is delivered and another ex-works; one wants payment on order and another offers sixty days; one is in a different currency and one quietly assumes a quantity you are not buying. This comparator puts them on a single basis: unit price after any quantity break, less discount, plus freight, duty and non-recoverable tax - the landed cost - and then, optionally, the value of the payment terms at a cost of capital you choose.
It compares cost and nothing else. Quality, capability, capacity, compliance and risk do not appear in these numbers, and a comparison that pretends otherwise is how organisations end up with the cheapest supplier they later have to replace. Score those separately with the Vendor Evaluation Scorecard and read the two together.
How to use it
- Enter the quantity you are actually buying and your cost of capital. Set the cost of capital to zero if you want to ignore payment terms entirely.
- Paste the quotations, one per line:
vendor, unit price, freight, duty %, tax %, payment days, lead days, with currency, exchange rate, discount, minimum order quantity and warranty optional after that. - Say whether tax is recoverable. If it is, it is shown but excluded from the comparison, because a registered business does not bear it.
- Choose whether to rank on landed cost or on the cash-adjusted figure that includes the value of credit.
- Read the ranking and the gap to the best, then check the findings - a missing freight line or a minimum order quantity usually matters more than the last hundred of price.
Reading the results
Landed cost is what the goods cost delivered, cleared and net of recoverable tax. It is the figure most procurement policies require a decision to be based on.
Cash-adjusted cost subtracts the value of the credit the supplier offers, at your cost of capital. It is a real cost difference, but it depends on a rate you chose - so the page always labels which basis produced the ranking.
The gap to the best is shown in both money and percent. Inside about 2% the ranking is inside the noise of freight estimates and exchange rates, and the page says so.
A quotation below its own minimum order quantity is not a valid quotation at your volume. Its price will change, so treat it as unpriced rather than cheap.
Worked example: three suppliers for 500 units
Supplier A quotes 9.50 delivered, with 300 freight, 5% duty and 30 days: goods 4,750.00, duty 5% of 5,050.00 = 252.50, landed 5,302.50. Thirty days' credit at 8% is worth 5,302.50 x 0.08 x 30/365 = 34.87, so the cash-adjusted cost is 5,267.63.
Supplier B quotes 9.80 ex-works with no freight shown, 5% duty and payment on order: goods 4,900.00, duty 245.00, landed 5,145.00 and no credit, so 5,145.00 either way. The page flags the missing freight - an ex-works price is not comparable with a delivered one, and the real figure is higher by whatever the haulage costs.
Supplier C quotes 8.95 in dollars at 0.79, with 640 freight, 12% duty and 45 days: goods 4,475.00, freight 640.00, duty 12% of 5,115.00 = 613.80, so 5,728.80 in dollars and 4,525.75 converted. Credit of 45 days at 8% is worth 44.64, giving 4,481.11.
Supplier C wins by 664 against Supplier B - but its lead time is 60 days against 10, its minimum order is 250 units, and the whole advantage rests on an exchange rate that will move before payment. That is exactly the conversation the comparison should start, rather than end.
Formulas and scoring rules
- Unit price applied
the highest quantity break whose minimum is at or below your quantityFalls back to the list price when no break applies.- Goods
goods = unit price x quantity x (1 - discount)- Duty
duty = (goods + freight) x duty rateA CIF basis: duty on the delivered value, which is the common customs convention.- Landed cost
landed = (goods + freight + duty + other costs + non-recoverable tax) x exchange rate- Credit benefit
benefit = balance x cost of capital x payment days / 365Simple interest on the amount not paid up front. A deposit paid early is charged the mirror image.- Cash-adjusted cost
cash-adjusted = landed - credit benefit + deposit cost
Why payment terms are worth money, and why that figure is yours
Sixty days' credit on 100,000 at a 10% cost of capital is worth about 1,644 - more than most negotiated discounts. Ignoring terms rewards the supplier who wants cash on order, which is rarely the outcome anyone intended.
But the value depends on a rate only you know: your borrowing cost, or your return on cash. Two buyers in the same company can legitimately rank the same quotations differently. That is why the cost of capital is an input, why the ranking says which basis it used, and why landed cost remains available as the neutral comparison.
The traps this page is built to catch
Incoterms hiding in plain sight: an ex-works price with no freight line always looks cheapest until the haulier invoices. If some quotations show freight and others do not, the comparison is not yet like-for-like, and the page says so rather than ranking them anyway.
Duty on the wrong base: customs generally assess duty on the delivered value, so a supplier with high freight pays more duty as well. Computing duty on the goods alone understates the landed cost of exactly the quotations that look attractive.
Recoverable tax inflating everything: including recoverable VAT or GST in a comparison raises every quotation by the same proportion and changes nothing except the size of the numbers - unless one supplier's tax is not recoverable, in which case it changes the answer completely.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- It compares cost, not capability. Quality, compliance, capacity, financial stability and support are not in these numbers.
- Exchange rates are the ones you enter, and currency movement between quotation and payment is a real risk this arithmetic does not cover.
- Duty rates depend on commodity code, origin and trade agreements. The rate you enter is the rate used; no tariff table is included.
- Lead time, warranty and minimum order quantity are shown but not priced. A 50-day difference in delivery may be worth more than the whole price gap, and only you can value it.
Privacy: where your data goes
Everything you paste, type or drop is processed in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, logged, stored or sent to analytics. Session recording and tag-manager scripts are switched off on this page.
Standards and sources
- ISO 20400 - Sustainable procurement guidance - checked 19 Sep 2026
- World Customs Organization - WTO Valuation Agreement (transaction value)
Frequently asked questions
What is landed cost?
The total cost of getting goods to your door: the price after discounts and quantity breaks, plus freight and insurance, plus duty, plus any tax you cannot recover, plus inspection, tooling or bank charges. It is the only figure on which quotations from different suppliers are genuinely comparable.
How do I compare quotes with different payment terms?
Price the credit. Money you keep for 60 days is worth your cost of capital for 60 days, so subtract that from the landed cost. Enter your own rate here - the page shows both the landed and the cash-adjusted ranking, and says which one produced the answer.
Should recoverable VAT be included in a comparison?
No. If you can reclaim it, you do not bear it, and including it inflates every quotation by the same proportion while changing nothing. It matters only when one supplier's tax is not recoverable - the page shows the tax separately either way.
Why is duty calculated on freight as well as goods?
Because most customs regimes assess duty on the delivered value of the consignment, not the goods alone. Ignoring it understates the landed cost of exactly the quotations with high freight, which are often the ones that look cheapest on unit price.
The top two suppliers are within a percent. Which do I pick?
Not on price. A gap that small is inside the error of freight estimates, exchange rates and duty classification, so it will not survive contact with the first invoice. Decide on lead time, quality, capacity and risk instead, and record that reasoning.
What if a supplier's quote is below its minimum order quantity?
Then it is not a quotation for your volume and its price will change. The page marks it as a problem rather than ranking it, because a number that will not hold is worse than no number.
Do supplier prices leave my browser?
No. Quotations are commercially sensitive and everything here is calculated locally - no upload, no storage, no analytics on the content. Download the CSV if you need to circulate the comparison.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
