InstaQuote · Quote-to-Order

Every request answered. Even the awkward ones.

InstaQuote learns how your best people quote: the exceptions, the customer rules, the margin calls. Then it runs that on every request that lands, inside the systems you already use.

Requests a month2,400

Where it arrivesA month

Email and attachments1,080

PDF and scanned bid lists576

Spreadsheets408

Portals and EDI336

Need a judgment callAn illustrative mix. Yours is the one that matters.480

Overview

One worker, running the whole motion.

Reads the request
Any channel, any format. Handwriting and scans included.
Resolves every line
Descriptions, competitor part numbers, verified substitutes, non-stock sourcing.
Applies your pricing
Contract terms, volume tiers, branch availability, fee logic, margin floors.
Surfaces exceptions first
Before the quote is assembled, not after it is sent.
Posts and follows
Writes to the ERP, then works the quote until it converts.

The awkward twenty percent

The clean list was never the problem.

A fifth of your requests need a judgment call, and they consume most of the hours. Flip any of them and watch what happens to the quote.

Inbound RFQSeven of the exception classes we run live. Flip any of them.

The request, as it arrives

inbound-rfqEmail

maintenance@acmefab.comRFQ, need pricing, please advise

Line items4 lines

016203-2RS bearing, sealed. Qty 24
02V-belt A48. Qty 12
03Grease fitting 1/8 NPT straight. Qty 50
04Motor mount bracket, 56C frame. Qty 4

Contract pricing applied for this account. Branch availability checked. Packaging and handling fee added, because this customer is flagged for it. Extended warranty added, since they are not flagged to exclude it.

Sent untouched

No human touched this quote. Posted to the ERP with a full audit trail.

Standing rules

Every account has rules nobody wrote down.

None of it is in your ERP. It is in one person's head and a record nobody reads. It is also the difference between an order that lands and an order that comes back.

Rules-based automation needs someone to have written the rule down first. Nobody did. That is why your quote history is the asset and not the obstacle: it is the only record of how your people actually resolved this.

6 standing rules recovered from Acme Fabrication's quote history, each out of a different record: Dock closed Fridays. Deliveries Monday to Thursday, 08:30 to 16:00. (rep visit note, Mar 2025) Liftgate required. No forklift at the Riverside yard. (delivery exception, Nov 2024) Reference the PO number on arrival or receiving refuses the load. (email thread, Jun 2019) No expanded polystyrene packaging. Site environmental policy. (returns case, Feb 2026) Buys on the parent account. Ships to three yards. (ERP account flag) Quotes over $25k need the plant manager copied. (call transcript, Jan 2026)

01 / 06

Dock closed Fridays. Deliveries Monday to Thursday, 08:30 to 16:00.

Mar 2025

Record type

01rep visit note

Liftgate required. No forklift at the Riverside yard.

Nov 2024

02delivery exception

Reference the PO number on arrival or receiving refuses the load.

Jun 2019

03email thread

No expanded polystyrene packaging. Site environmental policy.

Feb 2026

04returns case

Buys on the parent account. Ships to three yards.

05ERP account flag

Quotes over $25k need the plant manager copied.

Jan 2026

06call transcript

Quote history

Acme Fabrication

The rule

When

Account it binds

Where the human stays

It escalates. It does not guess.

Every quote runs against thresholds you set. Below them it drafts and posts. At them it stops and routes to a named person with what it found, what it could not resolve, and why.

How much runs untouched

That depends on your data and how many exception classes you carry, and anyone quoting you a single number has seen neither. What we will tell you is that this is the workflow we run day in, day out, at more distributors than anyone in the category. And we will show you the honest funnel from your own first month: quotes created, sent untouched, sent after review, converted.

Six gates you define: Margin below floor, New customer, Non-stock line, Order value above a threshold, Authorization it cannot verify, A required-by date it cannot meet. When a request crosses one it is held, and an approval panel shows the gate it crossed, what the worker found, what it could not resolve and why, with three actions: approve, reject, or change the rule.

Gates you define

Margin below floor
New customer
Non-stock line
Order value above a threshold
Authorization it cannot verify
A required-by date it cannot meet

Escalated

Held until you decide

margin_below_floornew_customernon_stock_lineorder_value_above_thresholdauthorization_not_verifiedrequired_by_date_not_met

Acme Fabrication · request 4471. Held at one gate, with everything it did resolve attached.

found: every line it could price, sourced and checked
could not resolve: the judgment this gate reserves for you
why: Margin below floorNew customerNon-stock lineOrder value above a thresholdAuthorization it cannot verifyA required-by date it cannot meet

ApproveRejectChange the rule

What you get back

Full audit trail on every action
Traceable reasoning on every decision
Documented logic your team can change
You own all of it

Time to live

Days to first quote. Two weeks to fully live.

This workflow is not new for us. It runs today across industrial distribution, MRO, building products, fasteners and manufacturing, on the ERPs you are most likely to run. You are not the first deployment of it, which is the entire reason it is days rather than quarters.

Ask any vendor how fast the first workflow goes live. Then ask about the fifth exception.

A two-week deployment axis carrying one bar per stage. Standard path live: Days 1 to 3. Fully live: Week 2. The long tail: Then.

Deployment windowtwo weeks

Standard path live
Days 1 to 3
Once data is connected, intake, drafting and ERP writeback are running on your requests. Not a sandbox, your inbox.
Fully live
Week 2
Your pricing logic, approval gates and the first pass of your exception classes, live with your team on them.
The long tail
Then
The fee that keys off a customer flag. The lead time that depends on QA routing. The account authorized to buy under another name. This is the work that decides whether your team uses it or routes around it.