Our pricing has exceptions nobody has written down. Is that a problem?

It is the normal starting point, and getting it written down is part of the work rather than something you have to finish first. We work through real past quotes with whoever prices them and reconstruct the rules from what was charged. The exceptions usually turn out to be consistent once someone looks at forty of them side by side.

Can we keep quoting in a spreadsheet for some jobs?

You can, and some firms keep one for oddities that do not fit any rule. What causes trouble is running both paths for ordinary work, because then neither is the source of truth. We would rather cover ninety percent of your jobs properly and leave the strange ones manual than half-cover everything.

What happens to the quotes and jobs already in the spreadsheet?

We import the history so your reporting does not start from zero on day one. Old quotes come across as records you can search and refer to, even where the pricing behind them has since changed. We agree what is worth importing before we start, because some of it usually is not.

Who can change the pricing once it is in the system?

Whoever you decide, and it is a setting rather than a rebuild. Most firms give one or two people the ability to change rates and let everyone else quote using them. Every change is recorded, so a quote produced last March can be explained against the rates that applied in March.

Tillr Systems ← Back to Site

Replacing spreadsheet quoting

Replace spreadsheet quoting and job tracking with one system.

The pricing logic already works. The problem is that it lives in a file somebody copied, in a version nobody can name, and it takes an hour of somebody's day every time a lead comes in.

One system that takes a lead from enquiry to priced quote to tracked job, without a spreadsheet in the middle. It covers:

Quoting that applies your own pricing rules instead of a template someone duplicated
A quote that becomes a job without anyone retyping the line items
One view of which quotes went out, which converted, and what each job is costing

Your pricing logic stays yours. It just stops living in a file.

You'll recognise this if

Your current quote template started as a copy of an older quote, and nobody is certain which numbers were updated
Two people quote the same job differently because they opened different versions of the file
Quoting is somebody's afternoon, and leads wait while it happens
Once a quote is accepted, the line items get typed again into whatever tracks the job
Nobody can answer which quotes converted last quarter without rebuilding the list by hand
The person who understands the pricing sheet is the constraint on how many jobs you can take

How we'd approach it

1
We take your pricing apart and write it down
We sit with whoever prices work now and get the rules out of their head and the sheet: the rates, the exceptions, the judgement calls, the things that change the number. That document is the specification, and you keep it whatever happens next.
2
We build the quote path first
Enquiry in, priced quote out, using your rules. You send real quotes from it before we build anything else, because a quote is the piece that touches money soonest and proves fastest whether we got the pricing right.
3
We connect the quote to the job
An accepted quote becomes a tracked job carrying its own line items, so nothing gets retyped and the job's budget is the quote you actually sent. Then the reporting you could never build in the sheet comes free.

What changes

Pricing lives in a spreadsheet someone duplicated
Pricing lives in one place, versioned, with the rules written down
Quoting takes an afternoon and leads wait
A quote goes out the same day the enquiry arrives
Accepted quotes get retyped into a job tracker
The quote becomes the job, with its line items intact
Conversion rate is a question nobody can answer
Quotes sent, quotes won, and job margin are one screen

We've done this before

Home renovation & interior design

From 90-minute estimates to 5 minutes

A design-build firm was spending over ninety minutes of staff time on every estimate. We built a system that reads the site-visit photos and walkthrough notes, matches the scope against the firm's own pricing templates, and produces a priced estimate ready to send in under five minutes.

Read the case study

Common questions

Our pricing has exceptions nobody has written down. Is that a problem?: It is the normal starting point, and getting it written down is part of the work rather than something you have to finish first. We work through real past quotes with whoever prices them and reconstruct the rules from what was charged. The exceptions usually turn out to be consistent once someone looks at forty of them side by side.
Can we keep quoting in a spreadsheet for some jobs?: You can, and some firms keep one for oddities that do not fit any rule. What causes trouble is running both paths for ordinary work, because then neither is the source of truth. We would rather cover ninety percent of your jobs properly and leave the strange ones manual than half-cover everything.
What happens to the quotes and jobs already in the spreadsheet?: We import the history so your reporting does not start from zero on day one. Old quotes come across as records you can search and refer to, even where the pricing behind them has since changed. We agree what is worth importing before we start, because some of it usually is not.
Who can change the pricing once it is in the system?: Whoever you decide, and it is a setting rather than a rebuild. Most firms give one or two people the ability to change rates and let everyone else quote using them. Every change is recorded, so a quote produced last March can be explained against the rates that applied in March.

This is one way into the custom business software we build. Most projects start with whichever piece is costing the most and grow into the others, so it is worth seeing the whole picture before deciding where to begin.

Other places people start

Different ways into the same system. Most projects begin with whichever of these is costing the most right now.

Start with thirty minutes.

Tell us what's slowing you down and we'll tell you what we'd build. How much scoping it needs before a quote depends on the job, and we'll be straight with you about that.

Or see how pricing works →