Quote a control system the way you engineer it.
Design, programming and commissioning as engineering actions with their crews and hours; PLCs, drives, I/O and enclosures as products with cost and markup; hazardous-area and shutdown-window multipliers; travel and standing time as allowances - one price book every engineer quotes from.
Where quotes go wrong today
Engineering hours are guessed per project
Design, PLC code, SCADA screens, FAT, commissioning: every integrator knows the hours are the risk, and every quote builds them up from a different engineer's memory.
Hardware margin leaks on the biggest lines
A PLC CPU, a rack of I/O and six drives are most of the number, and they go in at the distributor's price with the markup applied by hand - or not at all.
Scope creep arrives as I/O, not as a price
The client adds points after the design is frozen, commissioning runs long because the plant was never isolated, and none of it reaches the invoice.
Your automation price book, built once
Engineering, hardware and site time in one catalogue, so a control scope is priced the same by every engineer.
- Engineering as standard actions
- Functional design, PLC programming, SCADA development, FAT and commissioning saved as actions with their crews - control engineer, programmer, commissioning technician - so the labour lines seed themselves at the hourly rate.
- PLCs, drives and I/O with markup
- Each product carries its cost, the quantity you buy it in and your markup, with manufacturer and model as options on it, so a CPU, a 16-channel card or a 7.5 kW drive is priced from the book, not from memory.
- Panel packs
- A motor-starter panel or a remote I/O station saved as a pack: enclosure, power supply, PLC, I/O and terminals drop onto a line in one click, and the wiring hours those products carry come with them.
- Hazardous-area and shutdown factors
- Difficulty levels for hazardous areas, live plant, after-hours and shutdown windows scale the labour the same way on every quote; add or remove the multipliers your company works with.
- Travel and standing time as allowances
- Commissioning trips, accommodation and standing time sit on the quote as their own lines, always in the total, never scaled by a difficulty factor.
After the FAT is signed off
A control system is priced once and delivered in stages - panel build, site installation, commissioning, handover. The job keeps every stage on the record.
Milestones: deposit, FAT, SAT, handover
The PLC and the drives on order
I/O changes as variations
FDS, drawings and test sheets with the job
How the money side works
Invoicing
Invoice off the quote you won, not off a blank page.
Retention
Retention the invoice, the ledger and the job all agree on.
Purchase orders
Purchase order software for industrial contractors
Supplier quotes
Supplier quote comparison for industrial contractors
Or see the whole money half in one place: job costing, billing and the books.
System integration estimating - common questions
Can I price engineering hours by discipline?
Yes. Control engineer, PLC programmer, SCADA developer, draughtsman and commissioning technician are labour types with their own hourly rates. A standard action such as "Program a motor control loop" carries its standard crew and hours, so adding it to a quote seeds the labour lines; you adjust the hours per line, in hours or minutes.
How do I keep the markup on PLC and drive hardware?
Every product carries cost, purchase quantity and markup, with manufacturer and model as options on it, so the selling price is calculated on every line. Ask your distributors for quotes from inside the quote, compare them item by item, and Quotier suggests who to buy each item from - you decide.
Can I bill a control system by milestone?
Yes. A deposit on order, a draw at FAT, a draw at SAT and the balance at handover, each reconciled to the quote and billed net of retention where the contract holds it. Over-billing is refused, and the release invoice comes when the retention falls due.
What happens when the client adds I/O after the design is frozen?
Price the change as a variation against the job: a new numbered document, with the original still on record. Accepting it raises what you can bill. Standing time on a plant that was never isolated goes in the site diary, and the diary's hours price the variation.
We are the integrator on a main contractor's job - do they see our rates?
Only what you choose to share. You price the control scope in your own account and share it up at the level you decide: the total alone, the line titles, or the full breakdown. The main contractor imports it as a line, and milestone invoices cascade back to you as drafts.
Where do the FDS, the drawings and the test sheets live?
In the job's document manager, foldered beside the quote that priced them. On a shared job each company keeps its own private space and the job gets a shared one, so the client and the electrical installer read the same drawings you do.
Price your next system integration job from one book.
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