Off-the-shelf quoting software is the right buy for most NZ businesses whose quotes are a list of items at a price. Applicable builds custom quoting tools when pricing depends on calculations, on rules by client or site or on a spreadsheet only one person understands, and connects them to the accounting package you already use.
Start with the spreadsheet test
Open the file you actually use to build a quote. If it is a list of products and services with a price against each, off-the-shelf quoting software will do the job and do it well. If it has more than a couple of tabs, formulas that reference other formulas and a note that says "ask Sarah before changing this", you have a custom pricing engine already. It just lives in a spreadsheet, undocumented, with no version control and no way for a second person to use it safely.
That is the honest dividing line. The product category does not matter much; what matters is whether your pricing is a list or a calculation.
What off-the-shelf quoting software does well
The subscription tools cover the standard path: pick items from a catalogue, apply a margin, add GST, send a tidy PDF, get an e-signature, convert to an invoice in the accounting package. They include templates, a customer record and reminders. They are supported by someone else and cost a monthly fee per user.
Buy one if your quotes are built from a stable catalogue, your margins are simple and your main problem is that quotes look inconsistent or take too long to type. That is the majority of NZ small businesses and there is no reason to build.
Where off-the-shelf runs out
Pricing that is a calculation. Weights, volumes, spans, coverage rates, labour by site condition, tiered rates by client, seasonal surcharges. The subscription quote builder has a price field. It does not have your formula. So the formula stays in the spreadsheet, the result gets typed into the tool, and every quote is a chance for a typo.
Rules that change who sees what. Trade pricing for one customer group, retail for another, a negotiated rate card for the big accounts. Some tools handle price lists; few handle the logic around them.
Quotes that need an engineer's judgement. Some quotes are half calculation and half expertise. A custom tool can encode the calculation and leave a clear, recorded place for the judgement.
A calculator your customers could use themselves. If prospective customers keep ringing to ask "roughly what would it cost", a public calculator on your website answers the question, captures the lead and qualifies it. That is a small custom web app, not a quoting product.
Comparison
| Off-the-shelf quoting software | Custom quoting tool (Applicable) | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Catalogue pricing, simple margins | Calculated pricing, rules by client or site |
| Upfront cost | Low; monthly per user | Fixed-scope project, quoted after scoping |
| Time to start | Days | Weeks to a few months |
| Accounting integration | Included for the major packages | Built to your package and your chart of accounts |
| Pricing logic | Price fields and lists | Your formulas, documented and tested |
| Customer-facing calculator | Rare | Standard scope item |
| Who maintains the rules | You, in the tool's settings | You, in an admin screen built for the purpose |
| Ownership | Rented | You own the code |
| What breaks | The spreadsheet beside it | Nothing you have not asked to change |
Integration with accounting is not the hard part
Business owners often assume the accounting integration is what makes a custom build expensive. It is usually the most straightforward piece. The major NZ accounting packages have well-documented interfaces, and pushing an accepted quote across as an invoice or draft is a standard scope item for Applicable.
The expensive part is getting the pricing rules out of people's heads and into something testable. That is also where the value is: once the rules are written down and the tool applies them, anyone in the office can produce a correct quote, and the owner stops being the bottleneck.
What Applicable has built
Applicable built the HPMV weights calculator for the transport sector, where a wrong number is a permit breach rather than a rounding error. The same approach, encode the rules and make the result trustworthy, applies to quoting. Our passive fire apps for Firestop and Fire Report also feed billing reports from field data, which is quoting's cousin: getting the numbers right once, in the field, and never re-keying them.
How to decide
- Do the spreadsheet test above.
- If it is a list, buy a subscription tool. Done.
- If it is a calculation, count the hours per week spent producing quotes and fixing wrong ones.
- If that number is material, book a scoping call. Applicable will give you a ballpark early and say plainly if a subscription tool plus a small calculator would do.
What it costs
Applicable quotes on a fixed scope. A standalone quoting calculator on a website sits at the lower end of a web project; a full quoting tool with rules administration and accounting integration is a custom application. The published bracket for custom applications runs up to around NZ$250,000 plus GST, and most SME quoting tools sit well below the top of it. Changes after scoping are quoted in writing before they are built.
Key takeaways
- If your quote is a list of items at a price, off-the-shelf quoting software is the right buy.
- If your quote is a calculation living in a spreadsheet, you already have a custom pricing engine; it is just undocumented.
- Accounting integration is a standard scope item, not the expensive part of a custom build.
- Applicable built the HPMV weights calculator, a rules-based tool where the number has to be right.
- A public calculator on your website can answer "roughly what would it cost" and capture the lead.
Faq
Do I need custom quoting software or a better spreadsheet?
If one person owns the spreadsheet and nobody else can safely use it, a better spreadsheet does not fix the risk. A custom tool writes the rules down, tests them and lets anyone in the office quote correctly. If the spreadsheet is simple and shared, keep it or buy a subscription tool.
Can a custom quoting tool connect to my accounting package?
Yes. Applicable builds the integration to your package so an accepted quote becomes an invoice or a draft without re-keying. It is maintained under a retainer so it keeps working through package updates.
Can customers get a price from my website?
Yes. A public calculator is a small custom web app that applies your rules, shows an indicative price and captures the enquiry. It is a common fixed-scope project.
How long does a custom quoting tool take?
Weeks for a standalone calculator; a few months for a full tool with rules administration and integration. Applicable puts a prototype in front of your own staff before the full build.
