What is Quoting Software for Manufacturing?
Quoting software for manufacturing is a digital solution that helps manufacturers create fast, accurate, and consistent sales quotes for complex products and engineered solutions. Unlike generic quoting tools, manufacturing quoting software is designed to handle configurable products, custom pricing rules, multi-level bills of materials (BOMs), and approval workflows, all while ensuring manufacturability and margin control.
In the manufacturing industry, quotes are rarely simple. Products may be built-to-order, engineered-to-order, or configured-to-order, involving multiple options, dependencies, and constraints. Quoting software brings structure, automation, and intelligence to this process, reducing errors and speeding up sales cycles.
What Does Quoting Software Do in Manufacturing?
At its core, quoting software automates and standardizes the sales quoting process. It replaces spreadsheets, manual calculations, and disconnected systems with a centralized platform that ensures every quote is accurate, compliant, and aligned with production capabilities.
Key functions include:
- Product configuration: Guides sales teams through valid product combinations using rules and constraints
- Pricing automation: Applies approved price lists, discount rules, and margin thresholds
- Quote generation: Produces professional, branded quotes and proposals instantly
- Approval workflows: Automates approvals for discounts, exceptions, or custom pricing
- Data consistency: Ensures quotes reflect the latest product, pricing, and cost data
Why Does Manufacturing Needs Specialized Quoting Software?
Manufacturers face challenges that generic quoting tools can’t handle. These include:
- Highly configurable or custom products
- Long and complex sales cycles
- Frequent engineering involvement in quoting
- Risk of errors between sales, engineering, and production
- Pressure to protect margins while responding quickly to customers
Quoting software built for manufacturing addresses these issues by embedding engineering and pricing logic directly into the sales process. This allows sales teams to generate accurate quotes without relying on engineering for every request, while still ensuring that what’s sold can actually be built.
Key Features of Manufacturing Quoting Software
While capabilities vary by solution, most manufacturing-focused quoting software includes:
- Rules-driven configurator: Prevents invalid or unmanufacturable configurations
- Cost-based pricing logic: Calculates prices based on materials, labor, and overhead
- Multi-level BOM support: Automatically generates structured BOMs from configurations
- Version control: Manages revisions and quote history as customer requirements change
- Integration with ERP and CRM: Syncs customer data, product data, and order details
These features help manufacturers move from quote to order with minimal rework and fewer handoffs.
Benefits of Quoting Software for Manufacturers
Implementing quoting software delivers measurable business value:
- Faster quote turnaround: Reduce quote creation time from days to minutes
- Improved accuracy: Eliminate pricing and configuration errors
- Higher win rates: Respond faster and more professionally to customer requests
- Better margin control: Enforce pricing rules and discount limits
- Sales-engineering alignment: Reduce dependency on engineering for standard quotes
Over time, manufacturers also gain better visibility into quoting performance, pricing trends, and deal profitability.
Quoting Software vs. CPQ in Manufacturing
Quoting software is often a core component of CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) systems. While basic quoting tools focus on price calculation and document generation, CPQ solutions extend this by tightly integrating configuration logic, advanced pricing rules, and downstream systems like ERP.
For manufacturers with complex or configurable products, CPQ-based quoting software is typically the most scalable and future-proof option.
People Also Asked
1. Is quoting software suitable for custom or engineered-to-order manufacturing?
Yes. Advanced quoting software supports rules-based configurations, cost-driven pricing, and approvals, making it well-suited for custom and engineered-to-order scenarios.
2. Can quoting software integrate with ERP systems?
Most manufacturing quoting solutions integrate with ERP systems to sync product data, pricing, BOMs, and order details, ensuring a smooth transition from quote to production.
3. How does quoting software improve margin control?
It enforces pricing rules, applies approved discounts, and requires approvals for exceptions—helping manufacturers protect margins while maintaining sales flexibility.
