---
title: Reading the enquiry — lines and confirmation
description: How shared requirements reach lines, what is kept or merged, how quantities, tags and projects are read, and when a line is confirmed.
sidebar:
  label: Reading — lines and confirmation
  order: 4
---

7 rules, in register order, from R70 to R75; numbers do not run in sequence. [Back to the index](/business/business-rules).

## R70 — What the enquiry states once for several lines is filled into each of them, as stated

What a shared requirement states under a catalogue field is filled into every line it applies to, where the line states nothing of its own for that field. The line's own value always stands, and a shared requirement that names the line stands over one stated for every line.

A value filled this way counts as stated: nothing inferred or assumed is filled over it, and a range and a design value are taken from it.

A shared requirement kept in the customer's words fills a line as it is gathered, and the value is saved on the line as stated, quoting the requirement's passage: each value whose label is the label of exactly one catalogue field of the line's category, case, punctuation and spacing aside.

One stated for every item reaches the lines of its own document, one naming lines reaches those lines, and one naming categories reaches only lines of them.

One naming lines whose own passage names other lines entirely, by an item code or tag number only one line carries, such as a data sheet column headed by two lines’ codes, reaches the lines its passage names instead; each line it was moved onto or off carries a **Placed by code** note, which holds it (R71).

A label naming no field or several, two requirements of one reach that state a field differently, an empty cell and a request to specify fill nothing and stay beneath the lines. A conditional shared requirement fills nothing.

## R71 — A line is confirmed without a person only once its product suggestion shows nothing holds it

A line is saved awaiting review as it is gathered; none is confirmed then. A line confirmed without a person says so and names no confirmer. It returns to review when a value of it is edited, and it does not stop the enquiry being gathered again.

A line is confirmed without a person once its product suggestion is read by someone who holds inbox approval, when the suggestion gives a product that fits, a deviation included, with a size, its order code has every position chosen and its fluid is settled (R75), and nothing is open that holds it: no deviation resting on a value the customer did not give, input, fluid, IBR type, steam temperature below saturation (R125), open menu or unplaced value (R81, R72), and no pick that misses the accuracy the enquiry asks for (R123); one the enquiry left blank does not count, and neither does the fluid's state or nature with nowhere to go, which the review's header shows as a process detail; a mixed state, which it cannot show, still does.

A stated value the product filled with its closest option, its default or a rule, or carries as Custom, does not hold it, and the line still shows it as differing from the enquiry (R76, R78, R35); one the product has no option for does.

A line a person has edited, whose fluid a person chose, or whose family a reviewer picked (R96), is left for a person, and so is one whose fluid the library does not hold, since its materials have not been checked against it, one whose product suggests a material the fluid attacks, with nothing lining it, and one whose tag number, or part number, another line of the enquiry also carries: a tag names one instrument, so the two lines are the same one listed twice.

A line holding an entry where its sources conflict is left for a person too: a value, fluid, quantity or spares count two documents give differently, a spares row folded into it, a total that does not add up (R73), a "Duplicate tag" mark (R95), or a "Placed by code" note (R70).

A part number left unplaced holds a line in the same way. A deviation confirmed this way still shows why it is one.

## R72 — Nothing the enquiry states for a line is dropped

### Where each value ends up

Every value the reading finds on a line's row ends in a catalogue field, in a shared requirement, or in the line's unresolved requirements. A line that placed fewer than half of at least four stated values is read once more, and a second reading that answers for only some of its lines keeps those and asks once more for the rest.

A category of more than ten lines is read ten lines to a call, and each column is held to the field most calls put it in, a value joining it with another column's cell counting for that field; a call that left the column out takes its own row's cell into that field where it is empty and the other calls hold the column as a value, not only as free text.

A value still placed nowhere goes into the one field its column names, the field with a label that is the column's name or ends in its words (a "Line Size" column fills the field labelled MAIN LINE SIZE), where that field is empty; a column naming the item or its type, or naming no field or several, is left.

A value still placed nowhere is then added to the line's unresolved requirements under the customer's own label and in the customer's words, marked not placed.

A value longer than 150 characters, such as an item described in a paragraph, is added only in the parts the line holds nowhere else: what a field holds in the customer's words, and what an unresolved requirement with no matching field quotes, is left out as whole words and figures, with an ellipsis where a part was taken.

### When a value holds the line

Such a value holds the line for a person when it describes the process: a flow, pressure, temperature, density, specific gravity, viscosity, vacuum, medium, liquid, service, phase or duty, or a figure in one of their units; or when its label names a quantity, spares or a total.

A single fluid state, or the fluid's nature, holds it only as the line is gathered: once its product suggestion is read, the review's header shows it, and it no longer holds the line (R71).

Sources the reading found in conflict hold the line too, unless the review's **Check these values** leaves them out: sides that read the same once case and a trailing -ed or -d are set aside, or a value that restates a figure a field holds, in the same unit where it names one and with no condition it was measured at, or a fluid name on a line with a fluid.

A value left out there no longer holds the line (R71).

### What is not a value to place

An empty cell, a request to specify a value such as VTP (vendor to provide) or VTS, the row's quantity, its spares and its stated total, and a column that only numbers the row, counts its unit or marks its revision are not values, and a request to specify is never saved in a field.

A tag number, an item code and a material code are values. A row that names only an accessory for other lines, in a table apart from theirs, such as a cable for a remote display, is kept as a shared requirement on those lines, not read as a line of its own.

A value kept under another product's key for a row is shown on the picked product's row (R91).

## R73 — A line's quantity includes the spares its row states

The quantity is the row's stated total where it gives one, else its quantity plus its spares. A stated total that is not the quantity plus its spares is kept as the quantity, the difference is listed under the line, and the line is left for a person.

A spares row that carries its instrument's tag counts as that line's spares (R95). A count of an instrument's parts, such as its set points, switch points, contacts or floats, is never its quantity.

A line whose quantity was read from such a count, with no quantity on its row, is quantity 1, defaulted, and the count is listed under the line. A quantity the row leaves to be specified is also 1, defaulted, with the row's wording listed under the line. Either leaves the line for a person.

A row that gives each of its variants its own count, adding up to the row's quantity, such as "LENGTH:-400 MM LONG(03 NOS) & 600 MM LONG(06 NOS)" on a row of 9, is read as one line per variant in the row's place, each with its variant and its count: "LENGTH:-400 MM LONG" × 3 and "LENGTH:-600 MM LONG" × 6.

Counts that do not add up leave the row as one line.

## R95 — A tag names one instrument

The same tag, or the same set of tags, on lines of one category in two documents of an enquiry is one line. A line with no project joins the line of a named project; lines under two different projects (R74) are never one instrument.

Lines naming two different families, such as a vortex datasheet and an electromagnetic datasheet for one flow tag, are alternatives the customer offers and stay separate lines; a line naming no family joins the line of a named one.

A tag needs letters and a digit to count: "LS" alone is not a tag, except that lines read from one row (R73) that carry the same tag text are each marked "Duplicate tag", whatever the text. A line confirmed while it still holds its Duplicate tag mark prints the mark among its notes on the quotation.

What both documents say is kept once. What they say differently, a fluid and a spares count included, is listed under the line for a person, and the quantities are not added. A merged line is saved for review.

Where the documents differed it also holds out of automatic confirmation, however its suggestion is read (R71); where they agreed it follows R71 like any line.

These lines are kept as they are, each marked "Duplicate tag" for a person to settle with the customer: two rows of one document with the same tag, a line with no project whose tag is on lines of two projects, a line naming no family whose tag is on lines of two families, and lines whose tag sets overlap without being equal, such as "FT-301 / FT-302" beside "FT-301".

So is a tag written in shorthand ("LT-101/102/103", "PT-201 A/B") that shares a tag with another line; it is never merged. A spares row carrying the tag adds to the one instrument line's spares (R73), with a note naming the row.

A spares row is one whose item, description, type, schedule, category or particulars cell begins with a spares word, optionally after a word such as "mandatory"; a cell whose label itself names spares does not count.

Nothing is added, and the lines are marked instead, if any listing of the instrument states spares or a total (a spares count, a stated total, or a cell labelled "Spares", "Total", "Total Qty" or "Total Quantity"), or if the tag is on two instrument rows of one document.

## R74 — An enquiry's lines keep the project they are listed under

Where a document lists its lines under project, site or package headings, each line keeps its heading. One enquiry holds all of them; where it names two or more projects its lines are grouped by project and numbered within each.

Lines are numbered in the order the customer listed them, whatever the instrument: the email first, then each attachment in the order it was attached, each in its own order. An instrument listed in two documents takes the place of its earlier listing.

A person can move lines under another of the enquiry's projects, which counts as their work on the lines, so the enquiry is not read again over it. A quotation can be limited to one or more projects: it then takes only the lines under them, and a line moved to another project leaves it, with any rate or skip typed on it there.

A draft whose project no line is under any more says so. One quotation per project is generated only once every line not excluded is under a project.

## R75 — Confirming a line accepts what a person has seen of it

A person confirms a line from its review, which shows what is open on it, the values they changed and the values filled in for it. Confirming records every value the check still marks as checked by the confirmer. The value as first read is kept when a person first edits a stated value. Editing a checked value clears the check.

A confirmed line names who confirmed it and when, and what it was confirmed with; it cannot be confirmed again until a value is edited and it returns to review. A line can be confirmed only with a settled fluid, a product, a size and an order code with every position chosen.

The fluid is settled when it is a library fluid the reading matched or a person chose, or a name a person recorded for a fluid the library does not hold; a guess, the customer's wording the library does not hold, a line code and no fluid are not. The product may be a deviation, and its size is one it has an item code for. A position of the order code is open when the product's datasheet offers it and neither the line nor a default chooses it, such as an output or a power supply; a position the datasheet closes because of another choice is not open, unless the line states a value for it, which holds it open. The quotation needs the same positions chosen before it shows the order code, so a line is not confirmed on a code the quotation would then block.

When a stated value fills a position the datasheet closes because of another choice, such as an output stated on an analogue meter, the position is open but offers nothing to pick, and the refusal names the row that rules it out, such as "Needs OUTPUT and POWER SUPPLY chosen, which DIGITAL/ANALOGUE rules out, before it can be confirmed." The hold clears by changing that row's option so the position opens, or by clearing the stated value.

Confirming without them is refused, saying what the line still needs, such as "Needs a settled fluid and a size before it can be confirmed." or "Needs OUTPUT and POWER SUPPLY chosen before it can be confirmed."; excluding is not.