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    Quotation

    Quotation software for window manufacturing

    What a calculation has to handle when every unit has a different size — and what the grown spreadsheet keeps getting wrong.

    The short answer

    A window quotation forms its price not from an article number but from the area of the individual unit, a minimum billable area, the product tier, accessories and surcharges, and a volume tier. Five quantities that all depend on one another — which is exactly why this is where spreadsheets tip over.

    The difference is not the formula. Any spreadsheet manages the formula. The difference is that the same formula stays the same for every unit, every customer and every month, even when nobody is thinking about it.

    How the price is formed

    The five quantities

    In this order, because each one affects the next.

    Area per unit

    The basis is the size of the individual unit, not a model price. Two windows of the same type in different sizes are two different prices.

    Minimum billable area

    A minimum area applies per unit and per order. A small pane does not cost less than the work it takes — the minimum area is the guard against orders that look profitable on paper and are not.

    Product tier

    Build, construction and equipment decide the tier the calculation runs on. The tier is a parameter, not a second price list.

    Accessories and surcharges

    Hardware, special colour, rush order: everything belonging to the unit hangs on the unit, not in a side calculation.

    Volume tier

    The tier follows the customer's actual monthly quantity rather than a discount level granted once. Buy more and you move up a tier, with nobody maintaining a list.

    Where the spreadsheet fails

    Not at the formula but at its copies. A quote is duplicated, a row inserted, a reference shifts, and from then on that one file calculates differently from all the others. It surfaces months later in the margin, when nobody can say which version applied when.

    And there is the question no spreadsheet answers: which prices applied to this order at the time it was placed? When the calculation is part of the system that carries the order, the answer is a record rather than a recollection.

    What measurably changes: figures from daily operationTraceability per unit: lots, evidence, who and when

    Common questions

    Questions that keep coming up

    Does the system price per piece or per area?
    Per area of the unit, bounded by a minimum billable area per unit and per order. Piece prices are a special case, not the basis.
    How does a dealer arrive at a discount?
    Through the volume tier derived from their actual monthly quantity. That replaces the maintained discount list and the argument about when the next tier starts.
    Can we change the parameters ourselves?
    Yes. Minimum areas, tiers, surcharges and volume steps are administration parameters. Changing them is configuration, not programming.
    What happens to quotes when prices change?
    An order carries the conditions under which it came about. A later price change moves nothing retroactively — that is the difference between a calculation inside the system and a formula in a file.
    Do we need the whole ERP for this?
    No, but the calculation only pays off once the order continues in the same system. Otherwise the calculated price gets retyped — and the error source you wanted rid of is back.

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