For many installers, wholesalers and service firms, the quote is the start of every job. Yet it often takes more time than it should. Looking up prices, copying text from an old quote, fixing the layout and then checking everything once more. The good news: you can automate much of that work, without making your quotes impersonal.
Where does the time go?
First, take an honest look at how a quote comes together today. The same steps usually come back:
- Copying customer details from an email or a phone note.
- Looking up prices and items in a price list or with the supplier.
- Copying an old quote and changing the text.
- Calculating materials, hours and margin.
- Laying out the quote, saving it as a PDF and sending it.
- Keeping track of whether the customer replied.
For one week, write down how much time each step takes. You will quickly see where the biggest gain is. Want to know what that costs each year? Use our savings calculator.
Step 1: make your prices and parts reusable
The basis of a fast quote is a fixed library of parts. Think of items with a current price, standard tasks with a fixed time, and fixed text for terms and warranty. When a quote is built from these blocks, you no longer search and copy. You pick the parts and the software calculates the rest.
Keep your prices in one place. Do your purchase prices come from a supplier system? Then you can often update them automatically through an integration.
Step 2: let the software do the maths
Materials, hours, margin, VAT and discounts: these are rules you set once. After that, the system calculates every quote the same way. That saves time, and it prevents mistakes that you only see when the job is already running.
Step 3: from approval to job in one click
A lot of time is lost after the customer approves. The quote is then entered again as a job, in the planning and later in the invoice. When these steps are connected, an approved quote becomes a job straight away. The data moves on to the planning, the work order and finally the invoice in your accounting software.
Step 4: follow up without thinking about it
A quote without a follow-up is often a missed job. Let the system send a reminder after a set number of days, or give yourself an alert to call. That way nothing slips.
Where do you start?
Do not start with everything at once. Pick the step that takes the most time and automate that first. Often that is building the quote itself, or retyping it after approval. A small first step quickly saves time, and you learn what your team really needs.
Two pitfalls are common:
- Choosing a standard package that almost fits. If you must change the way you work to suit the software, you lose the time you wanted to win.
- Separate tools without integration. A nice quoting tool helps little if you then enter everything again in the planning and the accounting.
Off-the-shelf or custom?
For a simple quote with little variation, a standard quoting tool is often enough. Do you work with many variants, your own pricing rules or integrations with suppliers and accounting? Then custom software often pays for itself faster. Also read our article on off-the-shelf or custom software.
Want to know what this means for your business? Book a free consultation and we will look at your current process together.