I Sent My Drawings and BOQ to a China Sourcing Agent — What Happens Next?

After you send drawings and a BOQ (Bill of Quantities) to a China sourcing agent, the standard next steps are: the agent reviews the BOQ line by line against factory capability, comes back with clarifying questions within one to three business days, issues a budget-level costing once quantities and specifications are confirmed, and only moves to factory quotation and sample production after you approve that costing framework. Nothing is ordered or paid for at this stage — the BOQ review is a scoping exercise, not a commitment.

What a Sourcing Agent Checks in Your BOQ First

• Quantity and unit consistency — are quantities per unit, per floor, or project-wide, and do they match the drawings
• Specification completeness — material grade, finish, certification requirements and dimensional tolerances for each line item
• Product categories that need different factories — furniture, tiles, doors and metalwork are rarely made by the same supplier, so the BOQ gets split by category before any pricing happens
• Destination and Incoterm — port of discharge, delivery timeline and whether pricing should be quoted FOB, CIF or DDP
• Gaps or ambiguities — line items with a product description but no dimension, finish or standard specified, which need a clarifying question before any factory can quote accurately

Why Do I Get Questions Back Before a Quote?

A BOQ prepared by an architect or quantity surveyor is written for building approval, not factory production — it often states “door hardware, allow $X” without specifying finish, certification or handing, or “floor tile, 600x600mm” without specifying porcelain vs ceramic or slip rating. A sourcing agent’s clarifying questions at this stage exist to prevent a costly mismatch later — a factory quoting against an ambiguous line item will quote its cheapest standard option, which is rarely what the project actually needs once installed. Answering these questions before quotation, not after production has started, is what keeps the project on budget.

From Budget Costing to Factory Quotation

Once quantities and specifications are confirmed, the agent produces a budget-level costing — a realistic cost range per category based on current factory pricing, before committing any single factory. This lets the buyer or their client confirm the project is financially viable before the more time-consuming step of getting firm factory quotations and physical samples. Only after the budget framework is approved does the sourcing agent approach specific factories for firm quotes, matched by category — for example, our guide to OEM vs ODM vs custom-made project furniture covers how that factory-matching decision gets made for furniture line items specifically.

Sample Approval and Order Confirmation

With firm factory quotes accepted, physical or digital samples are produced against the confirmed specification — fabric swatches, tile samples, hardware finishes or a full sample unit, depending on the product. Sample approval is the last checkpoint before a purchase order is placed; changes made after this point (a different finish, a revised dimension) usually mean a new sample cycle and a schedule delay, which is why getting the BOQ specification right at the review stage saves time later rather than costing it.

What If My BOQ Has Products from Multiple Categories?

Most project BOQs do — furniture, tiles, doors, sanitaryware and metalwork on the same list. The sourcing agent splits the BOQ by category internally, matches each category to a specialist factory, and then re-consolidates production scheduling so the whole order can still ship as one coordinated container rather than the buyer managing five separate supplier relationships. See our guide on where different product categories are actually manufactured in China for why this splitting happens geographically as well as by category.

Typical Timeline After BOQ Submission

As a general guide: BOQ review and clarifying questions, 1–3 business days; budget costing, 3–5 business days after specifications are confirmed; firm factory quotations and sample production, 2–4 weeks depending on product complexity; order confirmation to container loading, 30–60 days depending on quantity and product mix. Projects with simpler, single-category orders move faster; multi-category commercial fit-outs take longer at the front end but save weeks overall by consolidating into one shipment rather than several.

FBM Sourcing is run by its founder, who has been sourcing building materials and furniture in Foshan and Guangzhou for overseas commercial projects since 2019 — more about the founder behind FBM Sourcing and how the company works.

Get a China Procurement Quote for Your Project

Send your drawings, BOQ, destination port and project timeline to FBM Sourcing and we will come back with a reviewed BOQ, clarifying questions if needed, and a budget-level costing for your project — no commitment required at this stage. Start through our China building materials and FF&E procurement page.