Excel quote sheets vs an online quoting system

Where the spreadsheet is fine

• A handful of products with stable prices.
• One or two people quoting, both of whom built the sheet.
• Customers who are happy to wait for a reply.

Where it breaks

• Every quote needs a person. Evenings, weekends and busy weeks turn into a backlog of unanswered requests.
• Versions drift. Sales has last quarter's sheet, the new hire has a copy with a broken formula, and nobody knows which price the customer was given.
• Discounts are invisible. A rep who knocks 8% off in a cell leaves no trace and no margin check.
• Imposition is guessed. The sheet uses a fixed pieces-per-sheet, so a slightly different size gets a wrong price in either direction.
• Nothing flows on. The approved quote is re-keyed into the order system and the ERP.

What an online quoting system changes

• Customers quote themselves, any time, and order without waiting.
• One set of parameters with versions: change a paper price once and every quote uses it, while past orders keep their snapshot.
• Discounts have a cap and a margin floor, checked on the server, with a log of who changed what.
• Imposition is computed for the actual size on every sheet and press you own.
• Approved orders push to the ERP and status comes back to the customer.

What you keep from the spreadsheet

The knowledge. Paper prices, process rates, minimums and rules move from cells into parameters you still own and edit yourself. Sheetwise starts each workspace with an industry default set so the migration is editing, not building.

Frequently asked questions