Quoting Software

What is quoting software?

Quoting software enables professional services firms, such as accounting and marketing agencies, to create online quotes and proposals for clients and prospects. The software offers customizable templates that can be populated with relevant customer and service details to generate professional-looking quotes. It also facilitates the conversion of business quotes into invoices. Additionally, quoting software integrates well with customer relationship management (CRM), eCommerce, eSignature, and accounting software to enhance the efficiency of your sales process.

What are the main features of quoting software?

• Pricing and cost calculations: Enables businesses to calculate cost and price estimates accurately. The software typically uses predefined pricing rules and customizable variables, such as the quantities involved and applicable discounts to develop rule-based pricing for products.

• Template management: Offers templates that can be used to generate quotes, estimates, and business proposals. The system allows users to customize these templates on the basis of their requirements and save them for later use.

• Quotes and estimates generation: Generates professional-looking quotes and estimates for business products or services, which includes customer details, list of products/services, total price, and other applicable terms. The software also maintains a central repository of all quotes and estimates for record purposes. 

How much does quoting software cost?

Quoting software cost in the following price ranges*:

Price ranges*:

• $6 - $11

• $12 - $49

• $49+

Most products in the market are priced on a per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.

Why do businesses need quoting software?

• Saves time in quote generation: Quoting software improves the process of creating proposals and sales quotes for prospects and customers by offering pre-built templates for quote generation. Quotation templates typically allow users to fill in important details, such as company name, contact information, and inventory pricing details using a drag-and-drop feature. This helps save time since the users need not have to start from scratch every time they need to produce a quote.

• Ensures timely payments: Quotation software not only generates accurate quotes for business clients that can help reduce the chances of financial disputes but it also sends follow-up payment reminders to clients to ensure that the businesses get paid on time. Several quoting tools also allow professionals to set payment deadlines within their quotes which can also encourage customers to pay on time.

• Facilitates digital signing: Quoting tools offer electronic signature capabilities that allow customers to affix digital signatures on the quotes generated by the organization. The software allows users to sign proposals, quotes, and business documents from any device, anywhere. This makes the process of signing documents much more efficient and convenient for users. Additionally, it makes the quotes legally binding. 

How do you choose the right quoting software?

• Look for customizable templates: While the majority of quote solutions offer a template library that helps you create business proposals and online quotes, not all vendors offer customizable templates that can be adjusted to suit your needs. Some vendors also charge extra for modifications in existing templates. While evaluating potential solutions, make sure that the software allows you to customize templates at no extra cost.

• Evaluate technical support options: Professional support is important to solve your issues and queries instantly. Before you invest in a quoting solution, make sure that the vendor offers adequate support options, such as an online forum, knowledge base, chat, and 24/7 voice or email support to address the concerns of the buyers.

• Compare the software price: The price of quoting software usually depends on the features and functionality of the software, along with the number of users who are likely to use the software. The vendors of the software offer different pricing plans for customers, which include monthly and yearly charges. Before you finalize a solution, make sure to compare different products on the basis of their prices and the features provided by the vendor in its pricing plans. Several vendors also offer a free trial or free version of the software. Make sure to consider these if you wish to understand the software better before investing in the paid version.

How does quoting software help SMBs?

• Ensures accuracy of quotes: Quoting tool allows small business owners to generate automated quotes and proposals, thereby eliminating the scope of clerical errors. The software offers multiple features, such as proposal generation, pricing, and discount management that helps increase the accuracy of quotes.

• Improves profit margins: Quotation software makes the quoting process much more efficient so that businesses can save time and labor costs. It also provides users with insights related to pricing trends and profit margins that help small businesses make better pricing decisions and increase profitability.

• Reduces customer churn rate: The system provides users insights with respect to customer preferences and allows businesses to customize their sales quotes to match specific customer requirements.The software helps businesses generate more sales, produce quotes faster, and address customer requests for proposals in a swift manner. By streamlining the entire quoting process, SMBs can see a reduced customer churn rate and an increase in customer satisfaction. 

Sources

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from GetApp’s quoting software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Get App’s directory that offer them.

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of December 13, 2022. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list includes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as calendar management, categorization, audit trail, and email management.