Manufacturing CPQ software
CPQ software for manufacturers who quote from a price book.
Manufacturing CPQ (configure, price, quote) turns the rules and prices your estimators already know into a repeatable process: choose a configuration that can be built, price it from your published book, and send a quote you can explain. ReadyVariant does this for building-product manufacturers who quote from schedules: hollow metal doors and frames, commercial windows, architectural louvers, and air grilles and registers.
Updated
What is CPQ in manufacturing?
Configure means choosing a product that can actually be built: a model, a size and options that work together. Price means applying your own price book to that configuration, including size grids, rates, adders, minimums and customer discounts. Quote means recording every line, the customer and your terms in a document the customer can accept. For most manufacturers the hard part is the first two steps, because the rules live in price-book footnotes, rule sheets and the heads of senior estimators.
Who manufacturing CPQ is for
CPQ pays off when the same kinds of decisions are made on every quote. The usual signs: estimators re-key architect or engineer schedules line by line, prices come from a published book with size grids and adders, errors come from missed rules (a fire label that rules out a lite, a louver too wide for one section), and a re-quote after an addendum takes nearly as long as the first quote. If every job is engineered from scratch, a job-costing or estimating tool may fit better.
What a manufacturing CPQ has to handle
Size-based pricing (width-by-height grids, and per-square-foot, per-linear-foot and united-inch rates), adders with their units and percentages, minimum charges and order minimums, compatibility rules with a reason the estimator can read, quantities and pairs, alternates that add or deduct, customer price levels, and quotes that never change once issued. A quoting tool covers the document. CPQ also has to cover the rules and the math.
Start from the price book you publish
Upload your price books as CSV or Excel, as they are: size grids with a blank corner, stacked series, footnotes, adders per square foot or per linear foot, and rule sheets. ReadyVariant proposes how each sheet converts and what each footnote means, and you confirm every conversion before anything is used. Every price keeps the cell it came from, so any quote can be traced back to the sheet.
Prove it with quotes you already trust
Save reference quotes with the prices you expect, including rejected combinations and oversize cases. A catalog publishes only when every reference passes and every confirmed grid and footnote is covered by one. Published versions never change: a price update becomes a new version, and issued quotes keep the version they were priced with.
From schedule to quote to order
Import the schedule as CSV, Excel or a PDF with a text layer, translate its codes once, and resolve the exceptions in groups. Issue a branded quote with alternates, clarifications and exclusions, and send it as a private link with the PDF attached. The customer accepts online with a PO number and a typed signature, or declines with a reason. An accepted quote gives you an order acknowledgment and a production CSV without prices.
Built for a sales team
The owner invites estimators and viewers. Estimators quote but cannot change price books, and quotes above an approval limit or below your minimum margin wait for the owner. The owner sees each quote’s margin from standard cost; customers never see cost. Every change is recorded with who made it. Reps and distributors get price levels (list × multiplier per product line). The pipeline shows every open quote, what needs a follow-up today and your win rate, and a daily email lists the follow-ups that are due.
How it compares with enterprise CPQ
Enterprise CPQ platforms model engineered products, generate CAD files or bills of materials, or run the whole quote-to-cash process on a CRM, and are usually rolled out as implementation projects. ReadyVariant starts from the price book you already publish and focuses on pricing schedules and issuing quotes. If you need CAD output, a bill of materials, ERP orders or contract and billing management from day one, compare those platforms; the guides comparing ReadyVariant with Salesforce CPQ, Epicor CPQ, Infor CPQ, Tacton, DriveWorks and Configure One set out the differences.
What it does not do yet
ReadyVariant is in customer preview. It does not produce shop drawings or CAD, certify fire labels or performance ratings, calculate tax or freight, or connect to an ERP through a built-in connector; accepted orders go out as order exports (JSON and CSV), signed webhooks and a read-only API. Quotes are in USD or CAD, never converted. Begin with one product family and a handful of quotes you already sent before expanding.
Common questions
What does CPQ stand for in manufacturing?
Configure, price, quote: choosing a configuration that can be built, pricing it from the manufacturer’s own price book, and issuing the quote. In manufacturing it usually replaces spreadsheet lookups, re-keyed schedules and hand-checked rules.
How long does it take to implement CPQ at a manufacturer?
Scope matters far more than software. A pilot on one product family, with its price book and five to ten historical quotes, is a manageable start; the implementation checklist lists the steps. Rollouts that model a whole catalog with CAD and ERP integration take much longer.
Do we need an ERP or CRM first?
No. ReadyVariant works from your price books and schedules and keeps its own customers, quotes and pipeline. An accepted quote exports as a production CSV for the system you already use.
Can we try it without a sales call?
Yes. Price a door and frame opening, a window, a louver or a grille on this site without signing up, then create a workspace and open the sample projects, which use illustrative prices.
See it with your own data.
Start with one spreadsheet and a result you already know.