Quoting rates: sell rates, cut speeds, finishes and the quote settings

Everyone with manufacturing access can read the rates; changing them needs the Edit settings permission. Nothing on this page is a cost: a work centre's cost, overhead and machine rates stay on Work centres, behind the cost permission.

Rate cards

One card per active work centre. Sell $/hour is what you charge for an hour of its time. Setup min is the setup a part gets on that centre unless the routing says otherwise. Minimum $ is the least you charge for using it on a quote line. Type the figures and press Save on the row.

Cut speeds

For each cutting centre (laser, plasma, waterjet), one row per material and thickness: the feed in millimetres a minute and the pierce time in seconds, from the machine's feed-rate chart. The costing turns a part's cut length and number of pierces into minutes with these; a thickness it doesn't have uses the nearest one for that material. Add speed adds a row; a centre can't have two rows for the same material and thickness.

Finishes

The finishes you quote: powder coating, galvanising, anodising, passivation, each priced per square metre of the part, per kilogram or each, with a minimum. Done by names the sublet product when a contractor does it, so a work order can send the step out; Days is what it adds to the lead time. Untick Offered to keep a finish without quoting it.

Your sheet and plate

The costing prices material from your own stock products. On each sheet, plate, bar, tube or section product, open Edit and fill in Material: the form, the material (the same families as the cut speeds), the grade, the thickness (a tube's wall), the stock size and, only for an unusual alloy, its density. The line under the fields shows what it read, and a sheet's weight. The Material section shows only for a business with the Manufacturing add-on, and only on stocked and bought parts.

Quote settings

• Margin % is a margin on the sell price of what you buy in at cost: the material and hardware. Work-centre time and finishes are charged at the rates on this page, which are already prices, so no margin is added to them.
• Sheet utilisation % is how much of a sheet becomes parts; the rest is priced into the material.
• Scrap % is the extra units cut to allow for rejects.
• Quantity breaks are the quantities a part is priced at (1, 10, 50). The first is always 1.
• Round prices to the cent, 5 cents, dollar, $5 or $10, always up.
• Minimum charge is the least a priced part comes to on a quote line.

Pricing a part: Part costing

On a quote, 📏 Part costing (next to the AI Assistant) prices a flat-pattern part from these rates. Pick the sheet (or enter the material, thickness and a price per kg), type the blank size, the cut length and the number of pierces, and list its steps: a Cut is timed from the cut length at the cutter's speed for that material, a Fold from its bends × seconds a bend, a Weld or other step from the minutes you type (shown as an estimate). Add a finish and any hardware. The table prices every quantity break; click one and Add writes the quote line at that quantity's price, with the whole working kept on the line. Anything it can't price (no speed for the thickness, a sheet with no cost) is listed in amber instead of being priced low.

Read a drawing (DXF) at the top fills in the blank size, net area, cut length, pierces and bends from the part's flat-pattern DXF. It is read in your browser: lines, arcs, circles, polylines, ellipses and splines on the cutting layers are measured; lines on a layer named BEND or FOLD are counted as bends; layers for dimensions, text, titles and borders are left out. The line under the button says what it read and in what units (a file without units is read as millimetres, and it says so). Splines are measured through their points, so they are close rather than exact, and blocks need exploding in CAD first. When you add the line, the drawing is kept privately on the quote, never with the files a customer can see. The cost column and the line's cost only appear for someone allowed to see costs.

The AI Assistant for made parts

On a quote, ✨ AI Assistant quotes made parts when your business is set up for fabrication, or when Settings → AI usage → Quote assistant is set to Made parts (an automotive manufacturer can choose it there). Describe what the customer wants and add their drawings: a DXF is measured exactly, as in Part costing; a PDF or photo is read by the assistant, which reports what each drawing states and how sure it is. The drawings are kept privately on the quote.

The assistant picks the sheet from your stock, works out each part's blank, cut length and pierces, and routes it through your work centres. It never sets a price: every part is priced by your Quoting rates, exactly as Part costing would. Each part comes back as a card with what it assumed, a Confident / Check it / Unsure marker, anything that needs you (no sheet, a centre without cut speeds, hardware to price), and the price at each quantity break. Change the sheet, blank, cut length or pierces and the price is worked out again; tick the parts you want and Add. The assistant's questions for the customer are listed at the top.

Its use is metered as Fabrication quote assistant and Drawing reader in Settings → AI usage, where either can be switched off.

If something's not right

• No work centres yet: add them under Manufacturing → Work centres; each then gets a rate card here.
• "Pick a sublet product … for the finish": Done by must be a product of type Sublet in Inventory → Products.
• "That centre already has a speed for this material and thickness": edit the existing row instead of adding another.