The request
A distributor receives a spreadsheet listing 30 parts. One uses an old product code; another has no quantity.
RFQs → reviewed quotations
AI quotation automation.
Your rules. Your approval.
Less copying from emails into spreadsheets. Altersoft builds custom workflows that turn requests for quotation (RFQs) into drafts your team can check, price and approve.
rfq-to-quote.flowIllustrative example
Before: Retype the RFQ, look up every price, build the PDFWith automation: Check the flagged lines, approve the draft
- Email arrivesRFQ for 30 parts, spreadsheet attached
- AI reads itProducts, quantities and dates extracted
- Checks live pricesCatalogue and prices from your system
- Prepares the quoteYour pricing rules, your PDF template
- Waits for approvalA person checks flags, prices and terms
- Sent to the customerOnly after it is approved
From inbox to draft
Keep the judgement.
Lose the retyping.
For manufacturers, distributors and service businesses whose teams repeatedly read enquiries, look up products and rebuild quotations by hand. The scope can fit a small team or one workflow within a larger organisation.
A good starting point is a repeatable quote format and a maintained catalogue or rate card. One-off engineering estimates without reliable pricing data still need an expert; automation cannot invent that knowledge.
Read the request
Extract requested products, quantities and delivery requirements from email, PDFs or spreadsheets. Keep links to the source so your team can check each line.
Match your catalogue
Match items to approved product records. Unknown part numbers, ambiguous specifications and possible alternatives go to a person, rather than becoming guessed products.
Apply your pricing rules
Calculate prices from your approved costs, customer rates and margin rules. AI helps interpret the request; explicit rules calculate the price. Missing or expired prices block the affected lines.
Review the exceptions
Flag missing quantities, uncertain matches and unavailable stock. Draft a clarification request where needed. A failed lookup stays visible for retry or manual handling.
Approve the quotation
Prepare a draft in your template, with sources and outstanding questions attached. Your team approves prices, terms and delivery commitments before anything is sent to a customer.
Illustrative example
A request for 30 parts.
Two need a second look.
Fictional scenario, not a customer case study or a live demonstration. Outcomes depend on your documents, data and systems.
The draft
28 lines match approved catalogue records and pricing rules. The two unresolved lines remain flagged, with their original spreadsheet references.
The decision
A sales colleague confirms the old code and requests the missing quantity. The quotation stays a draft until the outstanding lines and terms are approved.
Systems & safeguards
Built around
your source of truth.
We assess access and data quality before promising a connection. These are integration options to scope, not ready-made connectors included in every project.
Email & documents
Start with an agreed mailbox or manual file handoff. Scans, handwriting and inconsistent layouts need sample testing; unreadable inputs should go to manual review.
CRM, ERP & spreadsheets
Read catalogue, stock and customer rates through available APIs or agreed exports. Define freshness checks. If a system has no suitable access, scope a file-based handoff or leave that step manual.
Approval & audit trail
Design the workflow to record source documents, rule versions, corrections and approvals. Any CRM update or customer-facing action needs an agreed approval boundary and failure handling.
Agree how your data is handled before connecting it
We scope who can access documents, which hosting and AI providers are used, retention and deletion, and what appears in logs. Use redacted samples for discovery. This page does not accept uploads or process any of your data.
Scope, delivery & pricing
Start with one
quotation workflow.
A fixed project quote follows a review of your inputs, systems and approval rules. The website's general starting price is not a price promise for this workflow.
Define a small pilot
Agree one input channel, a catalogue or rate source, one output template and a reviewer. Test against representative examples, including missing data and failed lookups, before a supervised rollout.
What affects the cost?
Document variety, data quality, integration access, rule complexity, permissions and volume. We agree delivery dates after this assessment; system access and data cleanup can extend the work.
Make running costs explicit
The proposal should separate the build from hosting, AI usage, third-party licences, maintenance and future changes, specifying what is included and who owns each ongoing task.
Estimate the opportunity using your own numbers
For illustration only: 100 quotes a month × 15 minutes less handling per quote = 25 hours of capacity. At an assumed £30 per hour, that is £750 of staff time before software costs and exception handling. It is not a measured result or guaranteed cash saving; validate the assumptions in a pilot.
See our general pricing approach · Meet the engineer who builds it
Free first chat
Where does quoting
slow your team down?
Tell us roughly how many quotes you handle, where requests arrive and which systems hold your prices. No confidential attachments needed for the first conversation.
Discuss your quotation workflowOr call +44 7441 113592