Why pricing speed drives profitability
To make an aluminium or PVC joinery business more profitable, every step counts, and pricing comes first. A fast, accurate quote wins jobs: a customer who receives your proposal the same day spends less time shopping around. An accurate quote also protects your margin: a forgotten piece of hardware or a miscounted bar gets paid for later, on site.
Fabricators, distributors, installers, workshops and factories all benefit from automating pricing and quotes, to save time and avoid input errors. And a clean quote sent quickly remains one of your best arguments for finding more aluminium joinery customers.
That leaves the choice of tool. Many workshops still price in Excel. Is it time to move to dedicated software?
Pricing in Excel: what works, what doesn’t
Excel has real strengths: it is flexible, almost always already installed, and everyone can open it. For a first window model, a few formulas are enough.
The trouble starts with volume and variety:
- fragile cutting formulas: one overwritten cell, and every cut in a series is wrong;
- forgotten hardware: handles, gaskets, corner cleats, each omission paid for in the workshop;
- prices copied by hand: when the price of aluminium changes, every sheet has to be reworked;
- margins applied by hand: hard to know what each project really earns;
- only one person who knows how it works: when they are away, quotes wait.
Pricing with joinery software: what changes
With joinery software such as CUTTER SOFT, your profile system is set up once: profiles, hardware, gaskets, glazing, formulas and IF/THEN rules. Then, for each unit, you enter the width and height: the software calculates the cuts, hardware, glazing and price.
Prices live in price lists: price per kilo for each series, colour prices per m², derived lists with a discount. The cost price and margin of each project are visible, including the extra costs and the margin you set in the project. And the project produces 9 PDF documents, including the quote with your logo.
It is all detailed on our page on pricing and quoting software for aluminium joinery. The same project then goes through cutting optimisation, so you order and cut exactly what you need.
Excel or software: the comparison
| Criterion | Excel | Joinery software |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Quick for a first model | The profile system is set up once |
| Entering a unit | Several sheets and formulas | Width, height and options |
| Hardware and gaskets | Added by hand | Calculated by the unit’s formulas |
| Prices | Copied by hand, often out of date | Price lists, project recalculated |
| Margin | Applied by hand | Cost price and margin visible |
| Cutting | Separate, or not at all | Optimised cutting plan |
| Documents | Laid out by hand | 9 PDFs, including the quote with your logo |
| Teamwork | One file, one person | Administrator, Technician and Operator roles |
Keep Excel where it helps: take-offs and exports
Moving to software does not mean throwing Excel away. It is still useful for exchanging files with customers and partners:
- coming in, CUTTER SOFT AI reads the Excel or PDF take-off or quote attached by your customer, up to 500 lines, and builds the project for you; nothing is saved without your approval;
- going out, every project exports to Excel or CSV.
CUTTER SOFT AI is included in every licence. It runs on rechargeable credits (offer on request). See how CUTTER SOFT AI reads your Excel take-off.
From take-off to quote with CUTTER SOFT, in 4 steps
- Set up your profile systems once: profiles, hardware, gaskets, glazing, formulas.
- Enter each unit: width, height, options. Nothing more.
- Calculate: cuts, hardware and glazing calculated, bars optimised, price and margin.
- Print the quote, the production sheet and the other PDF documents.
The training video on pricing and quotes shows these steps on a real project. To compare several programs, also read about the essential features of joinery software.
Work out your gain in 5 minutes
The gain depends on your workshop: the most reliable way is to measure it with your own figures, during the trial.
- Time a typical quote the way you do it today, from take-off to the document sent.
- Price the same project in CUTTER SOFT during the trial, and time it again.
- Multiply the difference by the number of quotes you produce each month: that is the time given back to your team.
- Add the offcuts saved: compare the length of bar used before and after cutting optimisation.
The time saved lets you price more projects; the offcuts saved stay in your margin.
