Apex quote builder
Quotes your reps assemble in minutes, not rebuild every time.
A quote is a document and a price at the same time. Apex treats it as both: blocks of terms, scope and pricing that a rep arranges from a template, with every line priced from your book and every change reflected in the total and the margin as it happens.
The blocks
A quote is made of parts you already reuse.
Your sales team writes the same cover note, scope paragraph and payment terms dozens of times a month. In Apex those become blocks, and a template is simply the order they come in.
Pricing tables
Lines drawn from the price book, with quantity, unit, discount and term. Change one and the subtotal, tax estimate and margin move with it.
Variables
Customer name, ship-to, currency, start date and contract term fill themselves from the account, so a template never carries last week's customer.
Options
Up to three priced options side by side. The customer picks one; the others are kept on the quote's history, not deleted.
Terms and scope
Payment terms, delivery terms and scope paragraphs, kept as approved wording. A rep who edits one marks the quote as non-standard.
Attachments
An MSA, SOW, data processing agreement or spec sheet attached to the quote so they travel to signature together.
Export
A PDF for the customer and an editable Word file for legal, generated from the same blocks so the two never disagree.
Before it goes out
The rep sees the margin before the customer sees the price.
Every line shows cost from the ERP beside price. If a discount pushes margin under the floor you set, the quote says so on the line and routes itself for approval when the rep sends it.
- Cost from the ERP
- Standard or last purchase cost, whichever your finance team uses, read per item.
- Floors per segment
- A different margin floor for distributors, direct accounts or a region, if that is how you sell.
Line discount above 10% on tooling, or above 5% on service, goes to the VP Sales. Above 20%, also to the CFO.
Structures it handles
Deals that do not fit on one line.
- Ramps
- Year one at a pilot volume, year two at full volume, priced as phases of one contract.
- Multi-year terms
- Annual price steps written into the quote, so the escalation is agreed, not argued at renewal.
- Trials
- A free or discounted first period that converts on a date, with the converted price shown up front.
- Bundles
- A kit priced as one line to the customer and as its components for billing and revenue.
- Multiple currencies
- The quote in the customer's currency, priced from that currency's list, not a converted guess.
A typical quote
From inquiry to a quote ready to send.
- 01
Pick a template
The rep chooses one by product line or deal type. Customer details fill in from the account.
- 02
Add lines
Items come from the price book with the customer's contracted price where one exists.
- 03
Shape the deal
Add a ramp, an option or a trial. The totals and margin update on every change.
- 04
Send or route
Inside your rules, the quote goes to the customer. Outside them, it waits for the approver your rules name.
Agents propose, people approve
The agent drafts. A person decides.
A quoting agent can draft the first version from an inbound inquiry: it picks the template, maps the customer's wording to your items and suggests an option set from what this customer bought before. The rep edits and sends it.
Every agent stops at an approval gate until it has earned its way out of one. Nothing releases cash, commits spend or touches a customer without a person saying so.
Your dataModels that read your data run inside your environment, behind your firewall. No client data reaches a frontier lab.
Start here, keep the foundation
Start with quote builder. Add the rest without starting over.
Start with the quote builder on its own. Your customers, items and price lists come down from the ERP into your Ferrata foundation, and every quote is stored against them. When you turn on contracts or billing later, the signed quote is already the starting point: no re-keying, no second catalog.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
What is a quote builder?
A quote builder is the tool a sales rep uses to put a quote together: the products and prices, the terms, the scope and the customer details, laid out as a document the customer can read and sign. In Apex, every line is priced from your price book, so the document and the number cannot disagree.
Can we keep our own quote templates and wording?
Yes. Your existing templates become Apex templates made of blocks: cover note, scope, pricing table, terms, signature. Approved wording stays approved; a rep who changes a protected block marks the quote as non-standard so it can be reviewed.
Where do prices on the quote come from?
From the items and price lists in your ERP, plus any Apex-only plans you add on top (ramps, usage commitments, bundles). Where a customer has a contracted price list, that price is used instead of list price.
Can the customer choose between options?
Yes. A quote can carry up to three priced options, such as good, better and best. Each shows its own total and margin to the rep. The option the customer signs becomes the order; the others stay in the quote's history.
Can legal edit the quote in Word?
Apex exports the quote as a PDF for the customer and as an editable Word document for legal review. Changes agreed with legal are brought back into the quote's blocks so the signed version matches the priced one.
Does the quote builder show margin?
Yes. Each line shows cost from your ERP beside price, and the quote shows total margin. If a discount takes margin under a floor you set, the line is marked and the quote routes for approval when it is sent.
Related in Apex
- CPQConfigure, price and quote from the items and price lists already in your ERP.View
- Deal desk approvalsRule-based approvals for discount, margin, term and non-standard clauses, in one queue.View
- Product configuratorOptions, rules and bills of materials, priced with lead times from the ERP.View
- Contract managementSigned contracts turned into structured terms, phases and billing schedules.View
- RFQ and tender responseImport the buyer's line list, price it from your book, and submit on time.View
From Ferrata Labs
- Quill, the quoting agentReads every inquiry, prices it against your rules, drafts the quote.
- How it worksAssess, Anchor, a first agent live in under 90 days, then your team.
- The platformThe Brain: retrieval, models and audit inside your own environment.
- Book a discovery callThirty minutes on one workflow, and an honest answer on where to start.
Start with quote builder, or talk it through first.
Thirty minutes with Ferrata Labs on one workflow. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.
Your pricing, approval and billing rules are your advantage, and they stay yours. Apex is configured to the way you sell and bill. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.