Purchasing Guides / Custom Part Quote Preparation

Custom Part Quote Preparation

A purchasing guide to buying a workflow that reads each customer quote request and drawing, lists the part requirements and open questions, and fills a draft quote from your own rates for an estimator to approve.

Yearly running cost

Assuming 3,600 quote requests a year

By hand: $99K / year; 1,800 hours of work
Subscription: $10K – 12K+ / year
This workflow: $432 / year; Machine usage only; setup, hosting and review are extra.

What should the quote preparation do?

Read each quote request with its drawings, list the part requirements and open questions with where each came from, and fill a draft price build-up from your own rates.

Maximum document size: 20 pages per quote request.

Prepare quote worksheetsRequirements, questions and a draft build-up$1,296 – 3,600 setupConnect my business systemPast jobs looked up, approved drafts saved$2,016 – 5,640 setup

Your estimators set the price and approve every quote. It never sends a quote or commits to a price, delivery date or process on its own.

What is included

Read the request and drawings, list each part's material, quantities, tolerances, finishes and certificates with their source, draft questions for anything missing, match similar past quotes and fill a price build-up from your rate rules.

Start with your rate rules, the processes and materials you quote, and a set of past requests with the quotes your estimators sent. The connected option looks up past jobs and customer records in your business system and saves an approved draft quote there.

How accurate should the prepared quotes be?

A fast draft is only useful if the estimator can trust it. Choose how many requirement fields must be right, how many gaps it must catch, and whether every price line follows your rules.

StandardSourced requirements and a rule-based build-up, with unclear items raised as questions.Requirement fields correct: ≥95%Missing or unclear items caught: ≥90%IncludedStrictA second check of every requirement against the drawing and more tests on past quotes.Requirement fields correct: ≥98%Missing or unclear items caught: ≥95%Setup +$288 – 960My own targetsAgree your own acceptance requirements with the provider.Quote separately

How these standards are measured

Test on held-out past quote requests with the requirements your estimators confirmed and the quote they sent, including drawings with unclear or missing notes. Count each requirement field against the confirmed value. A price line that does not follow your rate rules, or a value without its drawing page or email source, counts as a failure.

Targets for your selected standard
What is checked	Target
Requirement fields correctRequirement fields such as material, quantity, tightest tolerance, finish and certificates that match the confirmed value, divided by all fields in the test requests.	≥95%
Missing or unclear items caughtLabelled missing or conflicting requirements raised as questions, divided by all labelled gaps.	≥90%
Price lines following your rulesDraft price lines that equal the result of your rate rules applied to the confirmed inputs, divided by all price lines.	≥100%
Values with a sourceEvery filled value must cite the drawing page, request email or rate rule it came from.	≥100%

The worksheet is a draft for an estimator, not a quote. Your estimators still check the drawing, decide machine time where there is no basis, set the price and approve what is sent.

How quickly should a draft be ready?

Choose how soon after a request arrives the worksheet is ready for an estimator. Estimator review time is separate.

Within 3 minutesIncludedWithin 90 secondsSetup +$144 – 480Within 45 secondsSetup +$288 – 960

Timing details

Time from a complete request with attachments to a ready worksheet, including reading drawings, matching past jobs, model calls, queueing and retries. Large drawing sets take longer. Confirm request size and hardware with your provider.

The target applies to at least 95% of agreed test runs, with 3 in progress at a time.

How much do you want to spend per quote request?

Choose the machine budget for reading the drawings and request and preparing the worksheet. Tighter budgets may read drawings at lower detail.

Up to $0.75IncludedUp to $0.40Setup +$72 – 360Up to $0.25Setup +$216 – 600

Cost details

Includes model calls, retries and a shared hosting allocation. Business system licences, your estimators' time and the calling agent are separate. A revised request is another run.

Reference machine cost: $0.22 – 0.42 per quote request at 300 quote requests a month. The selected cap is a target to test, not a replacement for this estimate.

Reference workload: 10 pages per quote request.

Where do you want it to run?

Run it in your cloud or on your own server. Choose whether drawings and requests may go to an approved AI service.

Run it onAI model access

Data and access details

Runs in a cloud account you control, with access controls and logs.

Only the request, its drawings and the matching rate rules go to the selected external model. Check customer confidentiality and export rules, and agree access and retention first.

Give the workflow access to incoming requests, rate rules and past quotes only. Customer drawings may be under confidentiality or export rules; check them before choosing an external service. Private model only keeps drawings on your hardware with a private model.

How do you want to use it?

Use a web page with file upload, your current AI agent or forwarded emails. You can choose more than one.

A web page and file uploadUpload the request and drawings, review the requirements side by side with the drawing and export the worksheet.IncludedMy existing AI agentLet your current assistant submit a request and read the requirements, questions and draft build-up.Setup +$72 – 240Forwarded emailsForward a customer request with its attachments to a dedicated address and get the worksheet link back.Setup +$72 – 360

Anything else your provider should know?

Optional. Your choices are included automatically.

Quote requests per monthYour setup budget (USD)

Your parts, processes or pricing rules

Common questions

Do I need this if a quoting product already works for us?

Not necessarily. If a quoting product already reads your drawings and prices your processes well enough, subscribe to it. Buy a workflow when drawings must stay in your environment, you need a private model or your processes and rate rules do not fit a packaged tool.

Will it set our prices?

No. It applies the rate rules you give it to the confirmed inputs and shows the build-up. Your estimators decide machine time where there is no basis, set the price and approve the quote.

What does it do when a drawing is unclear?

It marks the value as missing or conflicting and drafts a question for the customer instead of guessing.

Can drawings stay off external AI services?

Yes. Choose a private model and supply your own hardware. Measure drawing reading quality and machine cost during the pilot.