Saying Goodbye to Sheet Metal Quoting Templates

Quoting sheet metal parts can be a time-consuming, error-prone process, leading many searching the internet for a sheet metal quoting template to speed up their process. But if you’re quoting parts made by way of sheet metal fabrication, chances are, you’re work is too custom to fit into a cookie-cutter Excel template. Instead of searching for the best sheet metal quoting template, reframe you’re thinking:

• What is the problem you’re looking to solve? Oftentimes, it’s that quoting is taking too much mental energy and you need a way to streamline the process so you can focus on other important tasks. If could also be that you’re continuously making preventable mistakes, and you’re looking for ways to eliminate human error.
• What are the long-term benefits you’re seeking? If you’re looking for a template that you can use for months, if not years to come, it’s unlikely that you’ll find one that isn’t customized to your shop’s unique needs. It’s also unlikely that one, static template will be helpful for multiple people at your shop; is something like that really serving long-term benefits, or is it just a quick fix that will require rework down the road?

Where can I find a good sheet metal quoting template?

There are plenty of options out there for people looking for an out-of-the-box sheet metal quoting template. You could opt for something mapped out in Excel, a free quote maker using Adobe Express, or perhaps your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software offers something within their program that can be retrofitted to meet your needs.

The best sheet metal quoting template is one that’s custom made, which can be difficult to carve out time to build.

Instead of wasting hours, if not days or weeks, building something out that is not built to last, consider an alternative to faster, smarter sheet metal quoting.

The Sheet Metal Quoting Template: Reimagined

There are both immediate and long-term benefits to investing in software that’s designed to automate and streamline the estimating and quoting process for your unique fab shop. Paperless Parts’ ITAR-registered, cloud-native quoting platform empowers sheet metal fabricators to:

Rapidly quote sheet metal components & assemblies

Imagine being able to unfold sheet metal components or vectorize PDFs and generate nests to rapidly calculate raw material pricing. This puts a quoting template to shame. You can also move faster by leveraging our geometry-driven engine that automatically identifies bends, drilled holes, thickness irregularities, and other essential variables to customize formulas and pricing calculations for your business. With the ability to detect more than 62 different geometric attributes in the 3D CAD model, you’ll be able to access that information in the creation of your sheet metal pricing formulas. From there, automatically generate a bill of material and pull in purchase component pricing to streamline the estimating process for complex assemblies.

Reduce human error

Spot manufacturability issues before they cost you time and money. Would a generic quoting template be able to analyze geometric features and offer 25 configurable manufacturability checks to identify things like bend radius issues, bend relief issues, split bends, and other issues requiring secondary operations to manufacture? Being able to customize things upfront, such as manufacturability thresholds to your shop’s capabilities based on material, process, or workcenter, enables your shop to catch critical issues.

Streamline Communication

The search for the best sheet metal quoting template could be taking you just as long as searching through your inbox for the information you need. Thinking about a long-term solution to solving a slow, clunky, error-prone quoting process, streamlining communication can play a vital role in your solution. Paperless Parts secure quoting platform allows everyone at your fab shop to communicate securely in the context of the parts you are working on directly in the platform. Highlight features or measurements on 3D models or prints to clearly identify what you are referencing, and keep all of your data in one centralized and searchable location.

A Custom, Repeatable Approach

If you’re in the sheet metal fabrication world, you’re likely aware that part buyer expectations have changed over the past few years. With a customized system for quoting sheet metal parts, you’re able to work faster by only making minor adjustments before sending out a quote, enabling you to return quotes faster and with less errors. Doing so is critical in today’s world where shops are so busy that it’s hard to grow the business. But when you invest in flexible solutions, you leave room to grow to heights you’ve never reached before.