A second vendor mails Quotation.pdf, and the browser offers to replace the file you saved from the first vendor an hour ago. People click replace, then discover they kept the higher quote and lost the lower one. The fix is a file name that cannot collide: vendor, date, and total, saved into a job folder before the next download. Do this on Windows for quotes you actually received. Do not edit a rival's price downward, and do not paste your preferred total onto their letterhead. If a number is wrong, ask that vendor for a revised PDF.
Stop the browser from using one name
Before you open the second mail, move the first quote out of Downloads and into a folder for the purchase, with a name you typed. Then download the next quote. If both mails used Quotation.pdf, Windows will still suggest that name in Downloads, but your kept file is already safe in the job folder. Repeat for a third vendor. The mistake is not having two quotes. The mistake is letting them share one path. Treat Downloads as a tray you empty, not as the record.
Open each PDF and read the vendor legal name, the date, and the grand total before you rename. A file can be titled with one company and contain another's letter if you duplicated the wrong window. Check the GSTIN or the city if two branches sound alike. Rename from those facts. If the quote is a scan of a signed page plus a spreadsheet the mail called final, keep both, but make the PDF the one you will compare. Note in the file name if tax is extra, when the total on page one is not the full payable.
- Move each quote out of Downloads immediately
- Vendor, date, and total in the file name
- Open the PDF before you trust the mail subject
- Do not let two vendors share one path
A name that makes the cheaper file obvious
Use a pattern such as 2026-10-01-Sharma-Electrical-Total-84200.pdf and 2026-10-01-Mehta-Electrical-Total-91500.pdf. Sorted by name, the dates line up, and the totals are visible without opening. If you revise the pattern later, rename both files the same day so one does not look newer only because of the name. Avoid cheap.pdf and good.pdf. Those names collapse when a third quote arrives and someone updates the labels by memory. The total in the name must match the page.
When a vendor sends a revision, do not overwrite their first file. Add Rev2 and the new total. The first quote may matter if they honour it, or if you need to show a colleague what changed. Reply on the same mail thread so the commercial terms stay attached to the right PDF. A quote without its mail is harder to defend when someone asks whether installation was included. Keep that thread.
Compare after the names are stable
Put the two PDFs side by side only after both names are correct. Check scope, not just the last line. One quote may exclude wiring, GST, or a visit charge that the other includes. Write the difference in a short note next to the files if you need to remember, but do not alter the PDFs to add that note onto their letterhead. The note is yours. The quote is theirs. If you must send both to a manager, send the original files with the clear names, not screenshots of the totals.
If a quote is sideways or the scan cut off the total, ask the vendor to resend or rotate your copy of the scan so the figure is readable, without changing the figure. If their PDF is locked, use the password in the mail. If there is no password in the mail, ask them. Do not strip a lock to edit the page. A locked quote you cannot open should not be the file you approve, because you have not read the exclusions.
Keep the loser as well as the winner
After you place the order, keep the quote you did not accept. Warranty arguments and budget reviews ask why the other price was set aside. A single surviving PDF cannot answer that. Pdf Buddy can rotate a scanned quote, merge a covering mail print only if you truly need one file, and save on the PC. You do not need a random website to rename two PDFs. The work is local.
If accounts wants one file for the purchase order pack, make a copy and leave the vendor originals named and separate. You are storing offers you received. If a vendor made an arithmetic error, ask them to issue a corrected quotation. Do not patch the total in the PDF and circulate that as their offer. A corrected quotation is their new PDF, filed beside the first with Rev2 in the name, not a total you typed over their letterhead.
Questions people actually ask
Both vendors attached Quotation.pdf. I already replaced one. Can I get it back? Check the first vendor's mail and download again into the job folder with their name in the file. Also look in Windows for a previous version only if you already use that. Going forward, move each quote before the next download so replace never touches the kept file.
Should the file name use the price before tax or after tax? Use the grand total the quote itself calls the payable figure, and add a short Extra-GST note in the name if page one is only the base price. Open the PDF so the name matches the page. Do not invent a total that is not printed.
A revised quote came in. May I replace the old file to avoid clutter? Save the revision with Rev2 and the new total. Keep the earlier file. Clutter is cheaper than losing the offer you might still rely on. Send the revision onward, and say in the mail that it replaces the previous figure.
Rename each quotation on the PC before the next vendor file lands in Downloads. Pdf Buddy, by Easy Peeze Tools, is a Windows desktop PDF editor that works on the PC. Quotes are not uploaded to a random website. The free tier is 2 files a day. Pricing starts at ₹149. Open pricing.