Convert an Excel quoting workbook into a web app
If your team quotes configured products from an Excel workbook, that workbook can become a web app that keeps every rule in it. This guide covers when to convert it, the three routes, and how to check the app against the workbook’s own results.
What a quoting workbook does, and what a web app adds
Many manufacturers that sell configured products quote from one Excel workbook, often called the builder or the configurator. The sales engineer picks options from dropdown lists. Formulas apply the plant’s rules: which options force which parts, which sizes need a heavier frame and which combinations cannot be built. Lookup tables hold part costs and machine times. The output is a price, a part number and sometimes the printed quote.
An engineer usually built that workbook over years, adding a rule each time an order went wrong. It is often the only place the rules are written down. What is CPQ and CPQ for manufacturing explain why a builder like this is already a configure, price, quote tool.
A web app runs the same rules in a browser, from one copy on a server, so nobody quotes from an old version. It saves each quote with its options, its price and the name of the person who approved it.
When a workbook should become an app
These signs show that a workbook’s rules have outgrown the file:
- One person understands it. Quotes wait when the engineer who built it is away.
- It travels by email in versions. Two salespeople quote the same product from different copies, and the prices differ.
- Lookups price at zero without saying so. A part missing from a table comes back as 0 through an IFERROR or SUMIF formula, and the line is priced at nothing.
- It cannot print the quote layout. Someone retypes the numbers into a Word template, and a typo there reaches the customer.
If only one of these applies, a better-kept workbook may be enough. Lock the formula cells, keep one copy on a shared drive and flag every lookup that returns zero. If several apply, the rules belong in software.
Three ways to convert Excel to a web app
The three routes differ in what happens to the rules that the workbook already holds.
| Route | What carries over | Where the rules live afterwards | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| No-code app builder | Each sheet’s data, read as tables | In the builder’s own formulas, rewritten by your team | Lists, forms, trackers and dashboards |
| CPQ platform | The rules, rewritten in the platform’s editor | In the vendor’s rule editor, maintained by trained staff | A large product line with CAD automation and a team for the rules |
| An app built from your workbook | Every formula chain, lookup table, named list and macro, written down as rules | In a rule catalog that your engineer reviews, tested against the workbook’s results | A quoting workbook that the team already trusts |
No-code app builders
No-code app builders turn a spreadsheet into an app with screens, forms and logins, and they suit a spreadsheet that holds records. Each one reads the workbook as tables:
- Glide adds each sheet of a connected Excel workbook as a table in its Data Editor.
- AppSheet supports Excel .xlsx files, and not .xls or .xlsm files. A workbook with macros is usually saved as .xlsm.
- Softr connects to an Excel workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint as a data source, or imports the file into a Softr Database.
- Microsoft Power Apps asks for the Excel data to be formatted as a table, and it connects only to workbooks stored in the cloud.
A quoting workbook is mostly formulas rather than rows. Its rules run across sheets, named ranges and macros, and you rewrite each one in the builder’s own formulas. Test the rewritten rules against the workbook on past quotes before anyone relies on the app.
CPQ platforms where you rebuild the rules
CPQ platforms for manufacturers model the product as rules and drive the CAD system to produce models and drawings. The rules are written again in the platform’s own editor:
- DriveWorks captures engineering knowledge as rules in its Rules Builder, and those rules control the parameters of SOLIDWORKS models.
- Tacton lets you define the rules and parameters of your products in its platform, and it integrates with SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor and PTC Creo.
A plant with a large product line and people to maintain the rules can do well with one of these platforms. The work is the rebuild: every rule is modelled again, then tested again on past orders. CPQ tools groups the vendors by what they produce.
An app built from your workbook
The third route reads the workbook’s rules, writes them down and runs them in a web app shaped around how your team quotes. The workbook’s own results become the test that the app has to pass. ThriveAI builds quoting apps this way.
How the conversion works
The conversion runs in six steps. AI does the reading and much of the writing, and people check every rule.
Why the workbook’s saved results matter
Excel saves the last calculated value of every formula with the file. A copy of the workbook saved with a past quote therefore holds every number behind that price, from part costs to subtotals. The app runs the same inputs and has to reach the same value in each cell. A plant that saves a copy of the builder for each quote already has a test set.
A difference points to a rule that was read wrong, or to a step nobody wrote down, such as a macro that rounds the price. Each one is fixed or explained before the app prices a real quote. Rebuilding a quoting estate from raw tables describes the same check on a full costing estate.
What AI does, and what it does not
AI reads the formulas and macros, and it drafts each rule and much of the app’s code. It does not set a price or a dimension. The price comes from the rules and your costs, which a person can open line by line. The model comes from your own parametric template in your CAD system. Human in the loop explains how the approval step works.
What stays the same for your team
The app is built around the way your team quotes today. These parts of the job stay as they are:
- The inputs. The sales engineer picks from the same option lists, in the same order, under the names that the workbook uses.
- The rules. Every rule comes from the workbook and is checked by the person who maintains it, so the app refuses what the workbook refused.
- Your markup method. A percentage by product family, a price ladder or a floor price stays as it is. Only the costs underneath get fresher.
- Your quote layout. The quote prints in your own template, with your terms and your logo.
- Your ERP. The ERP stays the system of record, and the app takes part numbers from its item list.
The rules move to one place: a workspace that holds your data, with a version on every rule and a record of every quote. The quoting app is one module on that workspace.
What to check before you start
Five answers decide how smoothly a conversion goes. Get them before anyone scopes the work.
- Which copy is current? Find the version that the team quotes from today, and every file it links to.
- Which product family comes first? Start with one family that is quoted often, and add the others once the first one matches.
- Which past quotes can you test against? Gather ten or more recent quotes for that family, with the price that went out and the saved workbook if you kept one.
- Who owns the rules? Name the person who checks the rule catalog, usually the engineer who built the workbook, and the person who approves quotes.
- Where may the data sit? The workbook holds your costs and margins, so decide whether it may leave the building and which model may read it.
In a ThriveAI build, your data is designed to stay at rest on your own server in Canada. Inference runs on that same server with an open-weight model, or through a frontier model under a written zero-data-retention control. The contract names the model tier, because zero retention is not available for every tier.
The first step: a free map of your workbook
The first step is a free map of the workbook: its inputs, rules, lookup tables and gaps. The map is yours to keep whether or not you go further. A gap can be a lookup that prices a line at zero or a cost typed into a formula.
To start, describe the workbook in the form below, then send the file in the conversation that follows. ThriveAI can sign your confidentiality agreement before you send it. Turning your Excel builder into a CPQ app describes what follows the map, from the configurator to quotes in daily use.