Custom quoting software: faster, error-free quotes

When do you need quoting software?

• You create several quotes every week and each one takes a lot of time.
• Your price depends on lots of factors, such as dimensions, materials, travel distance or hours.
• Several colleagues make quotes, and they don't all calculate the same way.
• You're not quite sure which quotes are still open and when to follow up.
• You retype details from an accepted quote into your schedule or accounts.
• Customers wait days for a price and choose someone else in the meantime.

Recognise two or more of these? Then better quoting software will probably save you a lot of time.

Speed really matters here. Whoever sends a clear price first often stands the best chance. A customer who asks three businesses for a quote doesn't just compare prices, but also how quickly and professionally you respond. A quote that arrives the same day and looks polished builds trust.

Off-the-shelf quoting tool or custom quoting software?

There are plenty of off-the-shelf quoting tools, often as part of an accounting package or CRM. They're fine if your quotes are made up of fixed products at fixed prices. You pick lines from a list, adjust quantities and send.

Custom becomes interesting when the calculation itself is the hard part. Think of an installer who prices based on capacity, pipe length and type of home. Or a transport company that calculates with distance, weight and loading metres. Rules like these rarely fit into a standard package. With custom estimating software you set them up once, and from then on everyone calculates the same way.

You can read more about this trade-off in custom or off-the-shelf software.

Which features belong in a quoting tool?

• A calculation using your pricing rules, surcharges and discounts.
• A product or materials list you maintain in one central place.
• Templates in your house style, with standard text and terms.
• Options and variants, so the customer can choose between, say, basic and extended.
• Digital acceptance: the customer accepts online, with their name and the date recorded.
• Status for each quote: draft, sent, viewed, accepted or declined.
• Reminders to follow up when a quote has been open too long.
• Once accepted, it flows automatically to scheduling, an order confirmation or an invoice.

That last feature often saves the most. An accepted quote already contains everything you need. If that data flows through by itself, nobody has to retype anything.

Connecting quoting software to your other systems

Quotes don't stand apart from the rest of your business. A customer comes in through your website, gets a quote, is scheduled and receives an invoice. The better those steps connect, the less work and the fewer mistakes.

• Website: a request form that sets the details up straight away for a quote.
• CRM: customer details and history in one place.
• Scheduling: an accepted job goes straight into the schedule.
• Accounting: once the job is done, the quote becomes an invoice.

You can read how such a connection works in having an API integration built. If you mainly want to automate drafting the quote itself, for example with AI that reads a request, see automating quotes.

How to go about it

• Collect ten recent quotes, both won and lost.
• Write down how you arrived at the price. Which rules, tables and exceptions do you use?
• Decide who makes quotes and what everyone is allowed to change. Can a salesperson give a discount, and up to how much?
• Design one template that looks professional and is easy to read.
• Build and test the calculation using those ten old quotes. Does the same price come out?
• Start with one type of quote and expand from there.

That test with old quotes is valuable. You often discover that colleagues calculate differently. That's immediately a chance to bring your prices into line.

Think about what happens to lost quotes, too. If you briefly record why a quote was declined, for example price, timing or a different choice, you'll see patterns after a few months. That helps you adjust your offer or your prices. Good quoting software makes recording this a single click.

What to look for in quoting software for small businesses

• You can change prices and rules yourself, without calling the developer every time.
• The quote looks good on a phone, because many customers open it there.
• You can see in one overview how much is outstanding and what your win rate is.
• Customer data is stored securely, in line with GDPR (AVG in Dutch).
• You remain the owner of your data and can export it.

A common mistake is trying to automate too much in one go. Start with the calculation and the template. Once those work well and everyone is using them, add digital acceptance, reminders and integrations.

Custom quoting software built by Violexa

At Violexa we build custom web applications, such as quoting and estimating tools that follow your pricing rules exactly. Violexa is a small studio led by founder Hisham, based in Amsterdam, working for businesses across the Netherlands. The websites we built for WitFix and Global Gate Transport, for example, include a quote form; you can see more of that in our work.

A custom web application starts from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT) per project, including design, development and onboarding for your team. Larger projects get a fixed price upfront, in writing, so you know exactly where you stand.

Want to know how much time better quoting software could save you? Book a free quickscan. In 30 minutes, online or on site, we look at how you handle quotes now. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price indication. No obligation.

Frequently asked questions