Quotes
Quote analysis: every unit price confronted with history, price list and index
Quote analysis reads a quote line by line and confronts every unit price with three references: the last price paid for the same item or service, the supplier price list or rate schedule in force, and the revision clause if the price is indexed. Lines that deviate come back with the amount at stake and the evidence, before you sign.
The problem
A quote is approved on the total, paid on the line
A quote says three things: what is sold, at what price, and on what terms. The price is the part checked least, because checking it line by line takes hours, and because the reference to check it against sits in a contract annex, a price list or last year’s invoices that nobody has to hand.
Disguised overbilling
A unit price raised by a few percent on a common item, buried in an eighty-line quote. The total remains plausible; the line does not.
The forgotten negotiated rebate
The framework contract provides a tiered rebate or a net price. The quote starts again from the list price. Nobody notices if nobody opens the contract.
The off-index revision
The price is indexed on a reference index, revisable once a year. The quote applies an increase above the index, or before the due date. Without the calculation, the gap goes through.
The mechanism
Three references for every line
The quote is first read and structured: each product or service line is isolated with its reference, description, quantity, unit and unit price, then attached to a category of your taxonomy. Descriptions vary from one supplier to another, so do abbreviations; the attachment to the known item is displayed, with what motivated it, so that you can correct it.
Each unit price is then confronted with three references. History: the last price actually paid for the same or an equivalent item, with this supplier and with others, on this site and elsewhere in the group. The price list or rate schedule: the contractual price in force, rebates and tiers included. The index: if the price is revisable, the clause says on which index, at what frequency and from what date; Compare recalculates the expected price and compares it with the proposed one.
The summary shows, for each deviating line, the proposed price, the reference retained and the difference, in value and as a share of the quote. The original line and the clause or history line are one click away. No line without a reference is dropped silently: it is marked as such. You decide what follows; the agent writes to no one.
The pillar: how a contractual price grid becomes a usable reference.
What comes back
Six gaps a reading of the total lets through
Price above the last price paid
The same item, invoiced cheaper last quarter, here or in another entity of the group.
Price above the price list
The contractual rate exists and was not applied. The grid line is shown next to the quote line.
Rebate or tier not applied
The quantity ordered crosses a volume threshold the quote ignores.
Revision off schedule or off index
An increase applied before the planned date, or larger than the index justifies.
Service not covered by the contract
A priced line for a good or service the agreement does not cover, or the request did not ask for.
Inconsistency between lines
Two close references at unrelated prices, a quantity that does not match the unit, a subtotal that does not add up.
The three phases
From reading to recommendation
The analysis runs in three phases, always in the same order, always traced.
- 01
Extraction and structuring
The quote is read whatever its format (PDF, image, spreadsheet, feed) and each line is normalised and categorised.
- 02
Comparative price analysis
Each unit price is confronted with history, price list and index. Rebates are assessed per line and at quote level.
- 03
Summary and possible next steps
Deviating lines are listed with their evidence. You choose: ask for clarification, renegotiate certain lines, require a new overall quote.
What changes
Negotiating with the quote and the history on the same table
The negotiation changes its basis. Instead of a feeling that “it is expensive”, you bring the line, the last price paid and the clause. The supplier can explain the gap, or correct it; either way, the discussion is about facts, and it takes place before the order rather than after the invoice. And because every approved quote enriches the history, the next analysis has one more reference to lean on.
Control becomes exhaustive without becoming longer: every quote is analysed, not only those above a threshold, and the buyer looks only at flagged lines. A ten-line quote and a hundred-line one ask the same attention. Over time it is also a memory: what was accepted, refused, renegotiated, and why, remains available to statutory auditors as well as to the buyer’s successor, with the document behind each decision.
How every price paid becomes a reference linked to its source.
Neighbouring subjects
What this page does not cover
Putting several quotes from one tender on a common grid is the comparison of quotes. What the AI reads, categorises and converts before any analysis is AI analysis. Tracking an indexation clause on invoices, after the order, belongs to compliance with your negotiated prices. Those pages exist and go into their own detail; this one stops at the price analysis of one quote, before signature.
The use case: index, frequency, effective date, recalculated price.
Compare
Compare supplier offers, objectively.
Puts the offers on a single grid: same units, same scopes, same terms. Aligns the comparable items and isolates the ones that are not.
A comparison you can defend in committee, without spending three days on it.
What Compare detects
- Scopes that are not equivalent
- Options included on one side only
- Different units of measure
- Ancillary charges buried in the total
- Asymmetric revisions and discounts calculated on different bases
Nothing is lost. Everything can be checked, everything can be proven.
- The contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side.
- Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.
- The same case produces the same decision, today as in six months: the rules are applied deterministically.
- No discrepancy is set aside in silence. Anything that matches no rule is raised, with its reason.
- The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if an item has never been bought?
The line is flagged without historical reference. If a price list or rate schedule covers it, the confrontation is made with the contractual price. Otherwise it appears as a line to examine, with the close items already known to help you judge. Nothing is dropped silently.
How is indexation taken into account?
The revision clause is read in the contract: reference index, frequency, effective date, formula. Compare recalculates the expected price at the date of the quote and compares it with the proposed price. An increase applied before the due date, or above what the index justifies, comes back with the calculation displayed.
Does the analysis cover spreadsheet quotes or only PDFs?
All formats: native or scanned PDF, image, spreadsheet, quote received by email or feed. Multi-page tables and annexes are read in full, and every price stays linked to the place in the document where it was read, so that the reference can be checked.
Does Zylio renegotiate with the supplier?
No. The agent lists the deviating lines, quantifies the amount at stake and provides the evidence, line by line. Asking for clarification, renegotiating certain lines or requesting a new overall quote remain the buyer’s decisions. Zylio contacts no supplier and commits nothing without your approval.
Measurable impact in every environment
More than 5 million procurement documents analysed
Between 1 and 7% of margin recovered
on the scope analysed
From 15 to 45% of time given back to teams, per FTE
depending on the scope and on data maturity
Zylio fits into your existing ecosystem.
The ERP runs the process. Zylio handles the exception and recovers the value that escapes it: invoices without a purchase order, line-by-line price discrepancies, duplicates and overbilling, off-contract spend.
Your data under high security.
Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.
- Certifications
- Hosting
- Encryption
- Access
Around quote analysis
- Supplier price listsThe pillar: rate schedule and price list control, line by line.
- Comparison of quotesSeveral quotes from one tender, aligned on a common grid.
- Detect price increasesThe use case: an increase spotted on the line, before it repeats.
- The 3-week diagnosticYour quotes and contracts analysed on a scope you choose.
See what this looks like on your own data
Twenty minutes, on a spend category of your choosing. We show you what the agents detect, with the evidence behind it.
- No commitment, on your own data
- Result in 3 weeks
- 20 minutes, no sales pitch
- Your data stays hosted in France
- No change of tool or process