Quote Worksheet / Order Worksheet
To create a new quote, navigate to Sales » New Quote. Clicking New Quote will generate a new quote and auto-assign a quote ID that increments with each additional quote created. If desired, the new quote may be given a name or title in the quote header (see below).
The first step in creating a quote will be to enter the quote header information e.g. customer information, shipping details, PO number, etc. Note three things: 1. It is not required that your sales person fill out each and every one of the quote header fields. For the sake of enabling salespeople to turn around quotes to potential customers as quickly as possible, the Cetec quote worksheet lets you log whatever customer information is relevant at the moment, and come back later to enter other data as required. 2. We also let you define which header-level data is required for order entry (quote to order conversion). 3. These fields are customizable per your company processes.
There are two different methods of adding line items depending on the number of line items you are quoting. If you are quoting an order with tens or hundreds of line items, it may be useful to utilize the quote import function to import the quote from an Excel spreadsheet. If you are quoting a smaller quantity of parts or assemblies, use Add Line Item function below the quote header to manually add lines to a quote.
For each line item added to your quote, the system delivers part information on how the part ties to the rest of your operations e.g. PO history, inventory status, projected inventory, part crosses and synonyms, etc. To access this information, hover your mouse over the far right column of a particular line item and click on .
When you add a top-level assembly as a line item, the system will automatically create a Bill of Materials (BOM) worksheet and provide a link to it. From the BOM worksheet you can work to review and refine required components and component costs, labor time and cost, build path, tooling cost, excess material cost, and additional markup. To access the BOM worksheet, hover your mouse over the far right column of a particular line item and click on . For more information on how to use the quote BOM worksheet, click here.
Preparing a quote sometimes requires passing through the hands of several personnel or even departments. For instance, a quote may need to be sent to Engineering or Production Management to validate or refine labor cost estimates or tooling requirements, or sent to Purchasing to research component costs from vendors.
Cetec ERP accomodates this need with the quote workflow feature located at the top right of every quote. The default Cetec quote workflow may be used to send quotes in any direction between the Sales, Engineering, and Purchasing departments. To do so, hover your mouse over the workflow state, assign the quote to the appropriate personnel in the appropriate department, and click the Send To button. To set up personnel and department you may assign quotes to, click Edit Workflow Assignments link at the bottom. Note: When installing and configuring Cetec, we can work with you to define your company quote workflow per your particular processes.
If you are quoting an order with tens or hundreds of line items, utilize the quote import function to import quote lines from an Excel spreadsheet. To do so, follow these steps:
- Select Build Quote+ » Import Spreadsheet from the left side-bar of any quote.
- Choose the spreadsheet you wish to import (either upload from your desktop or select from previously attached documents) and click Import File. Note: you may also simply copy/paste comma-separated, plain text input if you wish.
- Use the Cetec importing tool to indicate exactly which rows and columns to import to the quote.
- For each column, click on the Identify Column select box and choose the value to indicate which data the column captures for the line item. For any column that does not capture data relevant to the quote line item, select Ignore.
- On the far left column of each row, uncheck any row that does not correspond to a single line item.
- Select the warehouse location from where the parts you are quoting will be sourced.
- Click Update to update your quote import process.
- Click Finish to finalize the import.
The line items imported should now appear as individual lines on your quote below the header information.
Some quotes may sit in your system long enough to where the prices of parts quoted no longer reflect the costs associated with them. To update the costs of parts and components in your quote to reflect their real time costs in the system, select Quoting Tools » Reprice from the left side-bar of any quote.
To create a new quote that is an exact copy of an existing quote, select Quoting Tools+ » Clone This Quote from the left side-bar of a quote to be copied.
Quote Turn-Around (Respond to Customer RFQ)
At any point that you are ready to send out the quote to your customer or potential customer, click on Send To+ » PDF/Email from the left side-bar of any quote. This will automatically create a pre-formatted PDF document including your company logo and information, the prospective customer information, all relevant shipping addresses and terms, a list of parts quoted, total cost of parts (rolled up costs are considered in the BOM worksheet), and your company quote terms. Note: the exact format, logo, and quote terms for your company quotes are set up at configuration as a part of Cetec installation.
If your quote preview is satisfactory, you may either download the PDF to your computer, or you may send it to the customer straight from the system. To do so, click Email PDF at the top of the page, fill out the From, To, CC, Subject, and Body fields, and click Send. This will send an email to your customer with a PDF of your quote attached.
Some customers request that quotes are sent to them in Excel format. To do so, select Send To+ » Excel File from the left-side bar of any quote. This will immediately download your quote to your desktop in .xls format. The exact format, logo, and quote terms that go along with your Excel formatted quote are set up at configuration as a part of Cetec installation.
Some customers request that quotes are sent to them in Excel format with all quantity breaks outlined within the quote. To do so, select Send To+ » Price Book from the left-side bar of any quote. This will immediately download your quote to your desktop in .xls format with available quantity breaks included. The exact format of your price book, logo, quote terms, etc. may be set up at configuration as a part of Cetec installation.
Order Processing (Quote To Order Conversion)
Cetec ERP reduces redundant data entry by enabling the conversion of a quote to an order with a single click of a button. The quote worksheet is template for the salesperson to gather all order-related information. Once the business has been won, simply click on Convert To Order from the left side-bar on any quote and click Place Order to process the sales order.
CONFIGURABLE ORDER ENTRY CONDITIONS
Cetec ERP experts can help you define and configure order entry conditions and prohibitions per your desired processes. Common conditions for order entry are: including a valid PO number; submitting to another department for review and approval; valid shipping information; etc.
If any of the order entry conditions you set up are not met, the system will not allow the user to place the order, and will display publish a message indicating the required fields.
STEP BY STEP: HOW TO ENTER AN ORDER
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Click at the top left and enter order header information. There are several different header-level fields you may enter, but you do not need to enter them all. At the very least, enter the customer you are selling to, and click OK.
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Enter a line item for your order. At the very least, be sure to define a quantity, part number, Dock Date (customer requested date), Ship Date (date promised for shipment by your company), Work Start date (date scheduled for release from stock to production or shipping), warehouse location, and transaction code (Charge, Build, Stock).
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If you assigned a transaction code of Stock to your line item, you may immediately convert to an order. Just select the Convert to Order tab on the left side bar and click the Place Order button. If, however, you assigned a transaction code of Build to your line item, you have the option of performing additional functions to help better cost and schedule the work order in question. Any line item identified as an assembly order will, upon clicking OK to create the line item, include link. Clicking this will bring you to the costing + tracking worksheet correspondent to the top-level assembly you assigned to the line item. In Cetec, we refer to this as the BOM Worksheet. To explore the guided demo for the BOM worksheet, add an assembly order line item and click to the right; then click PAGE HELP when you arrive at the BOM worksheet.
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After scheduling and costing your job in the BOM worksheet and transferring those adjustments back to the quote, you are ready to convert this quote to an order. Clicking Convert to Order in the left side-nav and placing the order will automatically trigger demand signals across the system. Purchasing knows what needs to be bought and when; production knows what raw material, machines, work stations, and labor resources to allocate to hit the dates your sales department promised; management is made aware of sales activity; etc.
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After order entry, check out how the order you have entered hits the production gantt chart here. Then, head over to MRP to explore how using Cetec ERPs integrated inventory control can enable your buyers to fulfill the order demand for raw material accurately and efficiently.
Order Transaction Types (Order Procedures)
Sales order transactions will be one of three different types: 1. Charge order, 2. Build order (there are two kinds of standard assembly orders), and 3. Stock order. Before converting a quote into an order, specify which type of order it is by choosing one of the three order types under a section labeled Transcode.
Charge orders are orders (e.g. repair, installation, etc.) with no inventory ramifications. By choosing Charge, you are indicating that the items and quantity associated with the order should not impact inventory quantity. You could use the Add Line feature to add the kind of service being provided or the part for which the work is done, but this will serve only referencing purposes and will have no inventory ramifications.
There are two kinds of standard assembly orders (also known as work orders). Some work orders are assembled to be shipped right away. Other work orders are assembled and put into stock to be sold or used at a later date. For help on work orders, go here. Build-for-stock work orders are different from standard work orders in that build for stock orders are charged against an inter-company customer to accurately track and reconcile inventory cost. Thus, fulfilling a build-for-stock order means that the inventory quantity of assembly components decreases, the assembled product is then ‘bought’ from yourself, baking in any labor costs associated with the build, and then added to the raw material / finished goods inventory of your company to be sold or used at a later date.
Inter-company customers are created in Sales » Customer List. Once you choose a customer, click on from the View screen. From here navigate to the Inter-Company Account pull-down menu, select Yes and click Update.
Stock orders are pulled and shipped from invetory without assembly. The items that are pulled could be raw parts which you would be distributing only, or manufactured parts (i.e. “finished goods”) that were previously assembled and stored in your inventory. Stock orders will automatically adjust the inventory quantity. For more information on stock orders, go here.
Close Quote / Reconcile Quote
Ideally all quotes opened in Cetec will either be converted into sales orders or closed and reconciled as lost business. To close out a quote, navigate to Quoting Tools+ » Close This Quote in the left-side bar of any quote. Here, you may reconcile quote lines by logging the reasons for lost the business. Logging these details will drive quote statistics page, which will in turn help in making informed business decisions.
To reconcile individual lines within a quote, select a reason from the far right column of any line on a quote, then click Reconcile Lines. Note - this will effectively remove that particular line item from the quote yet the quote itself will remain open. Click Reconcile Lines And Close Quote to close the quote.
To reconcile all line items in the quote with the same reason utilize the select menu at the top of the screen labeled Default Line Resolution. Click Reconcile Lines to remove the lines from the quote, or click Reconcile Lines and Close Quote to reconcile lines and close out the quote.
Quote Level BOM Management & Estimation
When you add BOM part to a line item, the system will automatically create a Bill of Materials worksheet and provide a link to it. To access the BOM worksheet, hover your mouse over the far right column of a particular line item for a top-level assembly part and click on .
BOM HEADER INFO ON BOM QUOTE WORKSHEET
Once inside the BOM worksheet, observe the eight fields of BOM header information toward the top of your screen. Here you may view information such as the part number of the BOM quoted, quantity of the top-level part quoted, customer, user assigned to the quote, user who is updating BOM worksheet, creation and update time stamps, and whether the BOM quoted already exists in inventory.
MANAGE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH BOM / JOB
Below the BOM quote header, the BOM worksheet lists all constituent BOM components and their respective costs, quantities, part numbers, lead times, excess material minimums, and other associated data. From here, you may add additional components using the + Add Component button above the component list, delete components from the BOM using the red X at the far right column of any line in the component list, research component information by pressing in the far right column of any line, or edit component costing data using icon in the far right column.
SUB-ASSEMBLIES & MULTI-LEVEL BOMs
Clicking on drops down a menu where you can edit part number, cost, quantity, and other BOM data. Take care to note Identify As BOM check box at the top of this menu. Checking this box indicates that that particular component is a subassembly of the top-level assembly on your original quote line, effectively creating a multi-level BOM quote worksheet. If you check this box and click OK, the system will create a new BOM worksheet as a template for the subassembly. The system considers this as a child to your originally quoted top-assembly. From here, you can build or add on to your subassembly using the [+Add Component], [+Copy BOM], [+Copy BOM Worksheet], or [+Import BOM] functions. When you have finished creating or editing the subassembly, click Transfer to Parent button at the lower right corner of the screen to transfer the added cost back to the top assembly BOM worksheet. Note: still need info on create BOM in header.
Inside the BOM worksheet, cost of labor to build the top-assembly may be edited to reflect the true cost derived from an engineer or production managers build plan. Editing labor cost associated to a BOM also provides the occasion to set up a detailed build path (including location and work station sequences, operations, and operation time increments) that will transfer to the work order when the BOM quote is processed as a Sales Order.
To edit BOM labor cost and set up a build path for your part, select the Edit button in the far right column of the row labeled Labor Total beneath the component list. This will open up a window labeled Edit Labor For part_number.
To simply add an overall labor cost estimate for the top-assembly, enter the total labor estimate in minutes in the field toward the top of the window and click OK.
To set up a build path and define labor cost per operation at each work station / location, follow these steps:
- Leave the Total Labor Estimate (in minutes) field blank.
- Add a location / work station to your build bath using the Add Location select box in the middle of the window. The first location you add will correspond to your first work station in the build path, and so on down the sequence of your production line. Note: Production locations and work stations are configured at Cetec installation per your production line.
- For each location / work station, select the Edit link under the column labeled # Operations. This will open up a small window with five columns labeled: Operation, Seconds Per, Times, Total Seconds, and Drop. From here, add all operations to occur at that particular work station. To do so, select an operation from the Add Operation select box in the middle of the window and click the Add button at the bottom left. Note: Operations to be included at each location / work station is set up at configuration.
- For each added operation, enter the required number of times it must be performed and click Set. Note: the Seconds Per Operation value is static and is set up at configuration. When you have finished adding operations and numbers of operations to your production location/workstation, click the Close button at the bottom of the window.
- To markup your total labor estimate by a certain percentage, enter the percentage value in the Labor Adder field beneath Add Location.
- When you have finished adding all production locations/workstations in your build path for the top-level BOM, click OK at the bottom of the window to transfer your labor cost refinements back to the BOM worksheet.
Inside the BOM worksheet, tooling costs associated with the assembly may tracked and accounted for. Select the Edit button in the far right column of the row labeled Tooling Total beneath the Labor Total row. This will open up a small window where you can enter tooling cost, comment, cost application preference, resale value, and incurred lead time.
The third field, labeled Apply Cost is important to note. The default values for this field are: Ignore Cost, Roll Up On BOM, and Add Line Item. These values refer to how the additional tooling cost will be applied to the quote and/or communicated to the customer. Ignore Cost means that you are eating the cost and excluding it from the quote and the order when it processes. Roll Up On BOM means that you are passing on the extra tooling cost to your customer, but without informing them of the extra charge on the quote or order. Add Line Item passes on the extra tooling cost to the customer and adds it as an extra line item to the customer quote and order. After entering the relevant tooling cost fields, click OK to go back to the BOM worksheet.
Inside the BOM worksheet, excess material costs associated with the assembly may tracked and accounted for. To do so, select the Edit button in the far right column of the row labeled Excess Material Total. This will open up a small window where you can enter a resale percentage to account for the cost and a preference for how to apply the cost to the quote and order. Ignore Cost means that you are eat the cost and excluding it from the quote and the order when it processes. Roll Up On BOM means that you are passing on the excess material cost to your customer, but without informing them of the extra charge on the quote or order. Add Line Item passes on the cost to the customer and adds it as an extra line item to the customer quote and order. After entering the excess material cost fields, click OK to save and go back to the BOM worksheet.
Inside the BOM worksheet, any additional markup to the BOM may be applied by selecting the Edit button in the far right column of the row labeled Markup Total. This will open up a small window where you can enter a resale value and lead time for the BOM. After entering the additional markup, click OK to save and go back to the BOM worksheet.
When you have finished editing component, labor, tooling, excess material, and additional markup costs associated with the BOM, click the Transfer to Quote button at the far bottom-right of the BOM worksheet. This will transmit all modifications made on the BOM worksheet back to the original quote.
Quote Level Vendor Costing
The goal of the vendor costing worksheet is to provide an efficient way to ensure that all components across each assembly on a quote accurately reflect the cost/quantity breakdowns (e.g. 1 part for $20 each; 5 parts for $15 each; 20 parts for $10 each; etc.) assigned per the components respective vendors. Additionally, for quotes with different BOMs that share the same components, the costing worksheet provides a way to edit each component only once, instead of having to go into every associated BOM.
To access the vendor costing worksheet, select Quoting Tools + » Costing Sheet on the left side-bar of any quote.
Inside the vendor costing worksheet you will see header information for the quote at the top, and below that a list of all components across each line item of the quote. Below each component, there is a list of every BOM in the quote containing that component. To load the vendor price controls and review or edit the cost/quantity breaks for a component, select the Edit button on the far right of any component listed. This will open up a small window where you can edit minimum component order quantities, valid dates for listed quantity breaks from vendors, and actual cost/quantity breaks.
In the Vendor Price Controls window, enter the vendors specified minimum order quantity for the particular component in the Min Order Qty field. If no minimum quantity has been specified, leave this field blank.
Below the Min Order Qty field, enter the date through which the proceeding vendor cost/quantity breaks will remain valid. Click on the Prices Valid Until field and select a date from the pop-up calendar. If no valid-thru dates have been specified, leave this field blank.
QUANTITY BREAKS Vendor cost/quantity breaks are listed in the Vendor Price Controls window below the Prices Valid Until field. If the component already has cost/quantity break data tied to it, these breaks will appear listed out here. In this case, just select the Close & Apply button at the top of the window to apply the component cost/quantity breaks to each quote line that contains the component.
If no cost/quantity breaks exist yet, or if you would like to edit or add additional quantity breaks, select the Add Break button and enter your desired quantity and associated cost per unit $x.xx format. Then select Update Pricing Info to make these updates in the system vendor part catalogue. Finally, select the Close & Apply button at the top of the window to apply the component updated cost/quantity breaks to each quote line.
TRANSFER TO BOM When you are finished editing component quantity breaks for your quote, you may transfer the cost modifications back to the BOM worksheet per component by selecting Transfer to BOM for any component or for all components by selecting Transfer All at the top right of the screen.
Quote Visibility & Sales Team Reporting
All quoting information and activity, e.g. quotes converted to orders, quotes lost due to price, etc., is tracked in the system and reported in the Quote Statistics screen of sales module. To access Quote Statistics, navigate to Sales » Quote Stats in top-navigation.
At the top of the screen, you may filter quote statistics by a date range and/or sales user names. To do so, set the fields to your desired dates and/or users and click Submit.
Quote statistics provides overview statistics, e.g. number of quotes, number of quotes ordered, number of customers, number of customers who ordered, statistics on won and lost business per line item, and a pie chart of ordered quotes, open quotes, and lost business.
Cetec ERPs sales module provides a consolidated view of your company sales and quoting activity. To view all open and closed quotes, orders, and invoices in the system, navigate to Sales » Quote List, Sales » Order List, and Sales » Invoice List respectively. On each of these screens, an admin user may search and filter across a number of fields, e.g. customers, part numbers, date ranges, user assignees, status, and more, to acquire a top-level view of sales activity and dig into the necessary and relevant data for making business decisions.
Individual sales employees may navigate to Sales » My Quotes for an organized list of all open, pending, or closed quotes assigned to them.