Excel quote template for manufacturers
This free Excel quote template prices a configured product the way a plant’s own quoting workbook does. You pick the options, it looks up each cost in a price book, checks your rules and fills in a one-page quote. Replace the sample price book with yours and it quotes your product.
Download the Excel quote template
One .xlsx file, 15 KB, with six sheets and working formulas. Free to use and change, with no sign-up. Built for Excel 2010 or later; it also opens in Google Sheets and LibreOffice.
Download the templateWhat is in the template
The workbook quotes one configured product, a stainless work table, because a configured product shows what a quote template has to do in a plant: the price depends on the options, and some combinations are not allowed. Six sheets split the work the way a plant’s own quoting workbook does.
| Sheet | What it holds | Who edits it |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | The customer, the options picked, the status line, the line items and the totals. Prints on one page. | The estimator, for every quote |
| Read me | How to quote a job, how to make the file yours, and the signs it has outgrown Excel. | Nobody |
| Costing | Each component of one unit, its cost and labor hours looked up by code, then overhead, the list price at your target margin, the discount and the margin left. | Whoever owns pricing, when the product changes |
| Rules | One row per rule: what it checks, why it exists, whether it blocks the quote or asks for approval. | Engineering and sales management |
| Settings | Company details, labor rate, overhead, target margin, margin floor, largest discount, tax, validity and terms. | The owner, once |
| Options | The price book: a code, a description, a unit cost, labor hours and lead time for every part and option. | Purchasing or pricing, when costs change |
How to quote a job with it
- Fill in Settings once: your company name, shop labor rate, overhead, target margin and payment terms.
- On Quote, type the customer and pick the options in the yellow cells. Dropdowns hold the allowed values.
- Read the Status line. “Fix before sending” names the rule that blocks the quote. “Needs approval” names the limit you went past.
- Check Costing for the margin after discount before you agree to a lower price.
- Print the Quote sheet to PDF and send it. The print area fits one page wide.
How the lookups and rules work
Every number on the quote comes from one of three things: an input on Quote, a row in Options, or a setting. Named ranges keep the formulas readable, so a formula says =Len*Wid/144 instead of =Quote!$C$15*Quote!$C$16/144.
- The code is built from the options. The top’s code is
="WT-TOP-"&Mat&"-"&Gauge, so 304 stainless at 14 gauge becomes WT-TOP-304-14. A new material only needs new rows in Options. - Each cost is looked up by its code.
=INDEX(OptCost,MATCH(B6,OptCode,0))finds the row and returns its unit cost. The same lookup returns labor hours and lead time. - Each rule is one formula that is TRUE when the quote is fine. “A 16 ga top is offered up to 96 in” is
=OR(Gauge&""="14",Len<=96). The&""makes the check work whether the gauge was typed or picked from the list. - The price is set from cost. The list price is
=CEILING(UnitCost/(1-TargetMargin),5): cost divided by one minus the target margin, rounded up to the next $5. The discount comes off that, and the margin left is checked against the floor in Settings. - The status line reads the rules. It shows the first rule that blocks the quote, then the first that needs approval, and “Ready to send” only when every rule passes.
Pricing from cost with a target margin keeps the two numbers apart, which costing versus pricing explains in more detail. Cost-plus pricing covers the method itself.
Make the template quote your product
- Replace the price book. Put your parts and options in Options, one code per row. Keep the columns in the same order.
- List your components. On Costing, each row is one component of one unit: a code formula and a quantity. Copy a row to add a component.
- Write your rules. Add a row on Rules with a TRUE or FALSE formula, a level (ERROR or APPROVAL) and the message the estimator should read.
- Add product families when you need them. Give each family its own block of rows on Costing and its own codes in Options, then let the Product dropdown pick the block.
Quote template, quoting tool or CPQ
The three names get mixed up, and the difference decides what you need.
| What it does | Fits | |
|---|---|---|
| Quote template | Lays out a quote you price yourself. | Standard products and simple services |
| Quoting tool | Calculates the price from options and costs and checks rules, like this file. | One configured product line, one or two estimators |
| CPQ | Configure, price, quote: the same rules for every product, approvals, quote documents and drawings, connected to the CRM and ERP. | Many product families, several estimators and sales reps |
For the full definition, read what CPQ is. CPQ tools groups the main vendors by what they do.
When an Excel quoting tool stops scaling
Most plants that sell configured products already run a workbook like this one, grown over years. The same signs show up when it reaches its limit:
- Hundreds of lookups and business rules that only one person can explain.
- Copies of the workbook on several desktops, each with different prices.
- Quotes typed again into the ERP or CRM after they are sent.
- Rules that live in someone’s head instead of in the sheet.
- A product range that grows faster than anyone can update the sheets.
At that point the rules are still right; the file is the problem. The same rules can run as a web app with one price book, approvals and a quote log. Converting an Excel workbook into a web app covers the routes and how to check the app against the workbook’s own results.
Map your own quoting workbook first
Send Derik the workbook your team quotes from, and he sends back a free map of its rules and gaps. To see the first layer yourself, open it in the Excel builder map, which reads the file in your browser.
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