A practical guide / Small business
Does a small business need quoting software to send quotes faster?
By Elliott Callender ·
Often not as a first step. Most quotes are slow because the enquiry arrives without the details you need, because one person holds the pricing knowledge, or because the quote waits for someone to check it. Quoting software helps with some of that, but only once you know which of those problems you have.
This guide shows how to find where your quoting time really goes, fix the cheap things first, and decide whether software, a better use of the systems you already own, or some AI help is worth it.
Find out where quote time actually goes
Take the last ten quotes you sent and, for each one, note when the enquiry arrived and when the quote went out. Then ask the people involved where the time went. It usually falls into five places: waiting for missing details, finding prices and lead times, building the document, getting it approved, and following up.
Separate hands-on time from waiting time. A quote that took six days may have needed only an hour of work. If most of the delay is waiting for the customer or for an approval, faster document software will not change much.
Fix the enquiry before anything else
Many quotes stall because the first email leaves out something essential, such as quantities, specification, delivery address or deadline. Someone then goes back and forth with the customer before any pricing starts.
Agree the handful of details you always need and ask for them up front, through a short web form, an email template or a checklist the person answering the phone follows. Make it clear which details are essential and which are nice to have. This one change often removes days from the process.
Get pricing knowledge out of one person’s head
In many small firms the owner or one experienced person is the only one who knows how to price unusual work. Every non-standard quote waits for them, and they become the bottleneck.
Ask that person to talk through three recent quotes while someone writes down the rules they used: material costs, labour assumptions, margins, minimum orders and when they make exceptions. Turn that into a simple pricing sheet. It will not cover everything, but it lets others prepare most quotes and leaves the expert to check them.
A worked example: from enquiry to sent quote
This example is fictional and illustrates a proposed process. It describes no real business or measured result. Imagine a small manufacturer that receives enquiries by email and phone and sends quotes as PDFs.
| Step | Before | Proposed after |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | Free-text email; details missing about half the time. | Short form or checklist captures quantity, specification, deadline and delivery. |
| Check | Owner reads every enquiry and asks follow-up questions. | Office team checks the form is complete and asks for gaps the same day. |
| Price | Owner prices from memory and old quotes. | Team prices from the agreed sheet; owner handles unusual items only. |
| Approve | Quote waits until the owner has time. | Owner checks quotes at two set times a day. |
| Follow up | Depends on someone remembering. | A reminder is set for each quote with a named person. |
Where AI helps and where it should not
AI is useful for the reading and writing around a quote. It can pull the key details out of a long enquiry email, list what is missing, draft the covering message and turn your pricing sheet and notes into a tidy first draft of the quote.
It should not invent prices, lead times or commitments. Those come from your pricing sheet, your stock or supplier information and a person who checks them. Treat every AI draft as a first draft that someone signs off before it goes to the customer.
When quoting software is worth it
Once the enquiry, pricing and approval steps are clear, look at software. First check what your accounting system, CRM or ERP already does; many include quote templates, price lists and follow-up reminders. Dedicated quoting software makes most sense when you send many similar quotes, need product options and price rules, or want quotes to flow straight into orders and invoices.
When you compare suppliers, give each of them the same two or three real-looking examples, including an awkward one. Ask them to show the whole journey, from enquiry to sent quote to follow-up, and how a change to a price list reaches every user.
Measure the whole journey
Track three simple numbers before and after any change: time from enquiry to quote sent, how many quotes need reworking before they go out, and how many get a reply. Keep the counts on a shared sheet for a few weeks. They will tell you more than any supplier’s claims about time saved.
Common questions
Can ChatGPT write quotes for my business?
It can draft the wording and lay out a quote from details you give it. Prices, lead times and terms should come from your own pricing sheet and be checked by a person before the quote is sent.
Do we need a CRM before we improve quoting?
Not necessarily. A clear enquiry checklist, a pricing sheet and a shared list of open quotes with owners often fix most of the delay. A CRM helps later, when you want follow-ups and history in one place.
How quickly should we send a quote?
Agree a target with your team based on what your customers expect and what is realistic for standard and unusual work. Then measure against it, so you know whether changes are helping.