Quoting and estimating

A customer sends a drawing, a marked-up PDF and three emails, and the estimator turns that into a price by phoning suppliers. Quote lines are then retyped into the proposal and the accounting system.

• Costing brief from enquiriesWe can assemble drawings, emails and site notes into a costing brief and chase what's missing. Your estimator approves every quote.
• Quoting from historyWe can find similar past jobs, apply current supplier rates and freight, and give estimators a starting price.
• Freight estimatesWe can estimate freight and delivery cost at quote stage from past shipments.
• Proposal checksWe can draft the proposal from the approved costing and check codes and tax before it goes out.
• Quote follow-upWe can track open quotes, prompt follow-up, and record why quotes are lost.

Typical benefitsFaster quotes, fewer retyped lines, and less chasing.

If you also tender for large commercial or public contracts, see Construction & Engineering.

Orders and customers

Orders arrive by email, PDF and phone in every format, and someone keys them in. Then the customer rings to ask where it is.

• Order intakeWe can read orders arriving by email and PDF, enter them in the ERP, and pass exceptions to a person.
• Pricing and rebatesWe can check incoming orders against customer-specific prices and rebates and flag the differences.
• Order status and back-ordersWe can give customers self-service status and proactive updates, so staff stop looking it up.
• Quote-to-invoice handoffOn acceptance, we can create the order, job and invoice records and update the CRM.
• Portals, configurators and new accountsWe can offer guided product builders that only allow valid configurations, and automate trade account applications and credit checks.

Typical benefitsFewer keying errors, faster turnaround, and customer service time freed up.

Purchasing and suppliers

POs are typed as free text and coded to the nearest account. Suppliers confirm by email, dates slip, and you find out when the job stops.

• POs and approvalsWe can raise POs from approved requirements, code them correctly and route them for approval.
• Supplier ETAs and trackingWe can capture confirmations and date changes, update the ERP, and flag orders that put a job at risk.
• Invoice matching and landed costWe can match invoices to orders and receipts, allocate freight, duty and currency to item cost, and send only exceptions to a person.
• Mill and test certificatesWe can file certificates against the right batch or job.
• Price books, RFQs and outsourced workWe can update price books when supplier prices change, send and track RFQs, and support the decision on which external fabricator gets which job.

Typical benefitsLess data entry, cleaner data, and earlier warning of late deliveries.

Inventory, warehouse and despatch

Stock is counted monthly and recorded by city, not by bin. The shelves hold a year of something nobody wants, while the fast mover is on back-order for twelve weeks.

• Stock planningWe can set reorder points and levels by item class, and report slow-moving and obsolete stock early.
• Demand forecastingWe can build item-level forecasts from sales history and market indicators, and show what to order and when against 12 to 16 week lead times.
• Drawdown alertsOn committed or call-off stock, we can alert the team when a customer draws down faster than planned.
• Counts, bins and pick slipsWe can use a scan app for counts, locations and picking, and take pick slips that are emailed, printed and retyped today straight into a log.
• Offcuts and freightWe can record usable offcuts as stock, and book carriers from the ERP order with tracking updates for customers.

Typical benefitsLess cash in slow stock, fewer stockouts, and an accurate stock position.

Production and shop floor

The design is released, then changed. The cutting list is in a spreadsheet, the job card is a printout that's out of date, and the real plan is on a whiteboard.

• MRP and BOMsWe can set up MRP properly and maintain BOMs with substitutions and live stock visible.
• Product changesWhen a product or design changes after release, we can flag the BOM, purchases and open jobs affected.
• Job cards and schedulingWe can replace paper job cards with digital ones linked to the ERP, and schedule against labour and machine capacity.
• Labour and job costingWe can capture labour against jobs and compare actual cost to estimate when the job closes.
• Traceability and qualityWe can record batch and lot details from receipt to despatch, and check labelling and packing before goods leave.

Typical benefitsOne plan for purchasing and production, margin visible during the job, and less rework.

Reporting and finance

Month-end means exporting from the ERP, merging with the CRM and rebuilding the same spreadsheet. By the time it reaches the leadership team the numbers are a fortnight old.

• Live dashboardsSales, margin, stock, on-time-in-full delivery and cash from one connected source, updated daily.
• Margin by job, product and customerWe can show it while there's time to act, and flag where quoted, ordered and invoiced prices drift apart.
• Month-end reportingWe can pull, reconcile and package month-end numbers without the spreadsheet rebuild.
• Supply chain performance and anomaliesWe can report lead times and supplier performance against the SCOR framework, and flag unusual stock or pricing.

Typical benefitsSame-day visibility, and one set of numbers for the leadership team.

Product knowledge and staff-built tools

A customer asks a technical question about a product you've sold for twenty years. The answer is in a manual, a drawing or a particular person.

• Product knowledge assistantWe can build an assistant over your product manuals, datasheets and catalogue, with source references for every answer.
• Part matchingWe can match a description, photo or competitor part number to the right item in your catalogue, with alternatives and stock.
• Fault finding and specification checksWe can help technicians diagnose from error codes, and catch wrong figures in specification inputs at entry.
• Staff-built toolsWe can provide training, an idea-to-production pathway, and a safe route to production for tools staff have already built. Front-end apps mean fewer people need a full ERP licence, and one managed AI assistant can replace scattered subscriptions.

Typical benefitsFaster answers, fewer interruptions for technical staff, and AI use you can see and manage.