Quote the project, not a pile of line items
Takeoff, price hold, value engineering, and site call-offs belong on one quote the contractor can award against.
The project quote
How a construction materials quote actually lives
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The tender lands
A contractor or merchant sends a bill of quantities for a residential block: boards, insulation, cut-to-size panels, a facade package, and a request for a project price. Your rep opens last year's similar job in Excel.
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Takeoff becomes a spreadsheet
Quantities arrive in square metres, linear metres, and openings. Your price list is packs, sheets, and made-to-measure. Someone converts, adds waste, and hopes the conversion still matches the drawing.
- Is that 1,240 m² of board 12.5 mm or 15 mm after the last revision?
- Does the facade area include openings, or do we deduct them?
- Who owns the waste factor: us, or the contractor's estimator?
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Spec changes again
Price hold, then value engineering
You issue a 60-day project price. Aluminium, timber, or steel moves. The architect substitutes a cheaper finish. The contractor asks for a merchant discount on the same lines. The quote is rebuilt.
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Award, then months of call-offs
You win. Deliveries split by floor, by week, by crane slot. Each call-off is a slice of the original quote. If that document is a spreadsheet, nobody is sure what is still open, which price still applies, or what already shipped.
This is not a one-shot quote. It is a project that keeps changing after the first document leaves. CPQ does not take off the drawings and does not run the site. It keeps the commercial quote in one place so conversions, project price, and call-offs stay on the same deal.
Where the margin goes
Three commercial problems a project quote has to survive
These are not software features. They are the reasons a won job still loses money.
Dimensions, waste, and the unit mismatch
The contractor's quantity is rarely your SKU. A panel, a sheet of insulation, a cut-to-length profile: pricing has to apply waste, drop, a minimum charge, and finish options without a second calculator sitting next to Excel.
Project price versus merchant list
The same board is a list price at the merchant counter and a project discount on a 200-unit residential job. Mix those two books on one quote and you either undercut the merchant or give the contractor a price you cannot hold.
Site extras on the quote, not after award
Split deliveries, crane days, return of unused packs, and access constraints belong on the document you sell. If freight and site extras are added after award, the margin you quoted is already gone.
Who does what
Estimating takes off the building. CPQ prices the deal. ERP ships it.
CPQ is not a takeoff tool and not a warehouse. The boundary is the reason it works.
| What owns it | What it covers | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Estimating / takeoff | Quantities from drawings, BIM, or the contractor bill of quantities. Area, length, openings, and the conversion from building measure to your product units. | Building the commercial quote, applying project versus merchant price, or producing the customer document. |
| Mercura CPQ | A valid commercial configuration from those quantities: dimensional pricing, waste and drop rules, the project price book, freight and site extras, the quote document, and later call-offs against that quote. | Measuring from drawings, controlling a BIM model, factory scheduling, or stock and invoicing. |
| ERP / warehouse | Stock, production order, delivery note, and invoice after a call-off is accepted. | Guided project quoting during tender and value engineering. |
FAQ
Questions from a building materials sales desk
Straight answers for manufacturer sales teams who quote contractors, merchants, and project buyers.
Does this replace takeoff or estimating from drawings?
No. Takeoff stays in the tool you already use for drawings and BIM, or in the contractor's bill of quantities. CPQ starts when those quantities need a price, a product rule, and a document the customer can award. If you only need to count from a PDF, you do not need CPQ for that step.
Does CPQ replace ERP?
No. ERP remains the system of record for stock, order, delivery, and invoice. In production, an accepted configuration or call-off can be handed to order handling so sales does not re-type the deal. That handoff is configured in your production setup. CPQ does not become the warehouse.
We sell through merchants and direct to contractors. Can one tool hold both price books?
Yes, if you model the books you already use: merchant list and project. The channel is selected before lines are priced. CPQ does not invent your discount policy. It applies the policy you already have, on every line, the same way.
What about commodity cost moves during a 60-day hold?
CPQ applies the cost and price rules you load. It does not subscribe to steel, timber, or aluminium indices by itself. If your commercial policy is to hold, to index, or to reopen after a threshold, that policy has to live in the rules and in the quote terms. The tool does not replace the commercial decision.
What happens for specials, non-standard finishes, or sizes outside the range?
Sales flags them for technical review. Repeatable made-to-measure (standard ranges, known finishes, known waste) stays in CPQ. True specials follow the process you already have. The gain is that every opening size inside the catalogue range stops being treated as a special.
We only sell stock packs from a merchant counter. Is this the right tool?
If there is no project price, no made-to-measure, and no call-off against an awarded quote, a catalogue plus ERP is enough. CPQ earns its place when the quote has to survive dimensions, a project discount, and a building that changes after award.
The same project
Two ways of quoting the same building
With Mercura CPQ
- Takeoff quantities enter the quote tool. Dimensional price, waste, and project versus merchant book apply on the same document.
- Value engineering is a revision of that quote, not a new spreadsheet named final_v7.
- Call-offs pull from the awarded quote: remaining quantity, remaining price, site extras still attached.
How it runs today
- Bill of quantities in one file, price list in another, waste in a calculator, freight in an email.
- The architect changes the spec; the rep rebuilds the quote from the last Excel.
- After award, each delivery is typed again. Nobody is sure what is still open.
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