Answers to the challenges fabricators bring us.
The questions we hear most often, from getting quotes out to billing on time. Each one explains what sits underneath the challenge and what it takes to solve, including the parts that are not software.
- 01Selling the work
- 02Running the work
- 03Knowing the business
Problems fabricators face that have solutions.
Fabricators commonly share many of the same problem statements. In many ways, this is why QXM Pro exists. We built it from the ground up to help fabricators fix costly failures and find a way to grow while controlling their costs.
Every request below is answered by the platform today. Deployment still asks something of your team, because a new tool only pays off when the thinking behind the process changes with it. The change in thinking is where most software purchases fail, and it is the part we take most seriously. We make it our work rather than leaving it as yours.
Our team knows this business. We start with the challenges you bring us and build a plan for success, and our people are there with you the whole way. Not a licence and a login. A partner held to the same outcome as your business.
Quote faster without cutting corners
Speed is worth having, but being first is rarely why you win. A customer is buying an outcome, and the quote that wins is the one that reads clearly against what they were expecting to pay. A page of itemised charges stacking up invites questions rather than a signature.
What it takes Draw the job or enter measurements, and the price is calculated as you work. Upcharges applied by the system, dates set by customer type, quote ready to sign.
Get the specification right on the bid
A bid sent light on detail still becomes a commitment. The price is fixed, and whatever was left undecided gets settled later by whoever is holding the job.
What it takes Scope captured area by area at the bid, with the applications, materials and conditions described rather than assumed. The detail costs seconds because the calculation runs as you draw.
Bring change orders under control
Pricing a change on its own turns a project bid into an a la carte bid. Yield across the slabs, travel, shared setup: the economies in the original price quietly disappear.
What it takes The entire bid is re-evaluated with every change, so net project profit stays visible and the schedule gets the resources the revised job requires.
Track leads and see the real pipeline
One kitchen quoted four times looks like four chances to win. And the value on an opportunity is whatever someone typed when it was created.
What it takes Opportunities created automatically, staying single however many times the work is quoted, with value updating from the bids beneath. Integrates with HubSpot and other CRMs.
Know your win rate and why you win
Prices move while quotes sit outstanding, and work gets accepted that nobody counted against capacity. Knowing you lost tells you nothing about why.
What it takes Every quote held with its version, price and status, and conversion measured by channel, segment and job type against the capacity a win consumes.
Reduce costly rework
Rework is accepted as a cost of doing business because nobody can say what caused it. A remake consumes material, machine time and a schedule slot that was already sold.
What it takes Rework captured where it happens and attributed to the process that caused it, with quality checkpoints holding work before it moves on.
Get material yield right
Yield is assumed at bid and discovered at the saw. By then the margin is committed, so the shortfall is absorbed rather than priced.
What it takes Nesting and yield calculated during the bid, and actual consumption tracked against it, including remnants created and recovered.
See performance and capacity
Without a predicted time per job there is no baseline, so performance can only be judged against last month. That says whether things feel better, not which process is losing time.
What it takes Predicted hours per process against actual captured on the floor and in the field, rolled into capacity views showing what is committed and what remains.
Move work through a defined process
When every project is handled its own way, the process lives in whoever is running it. Handoffs get missed, and knowing where a job stands means asking someone.
What it takes Workflows and stages every job follows, with notes, files and approvals attached to the job. The harder part is agreeing the process before it is configured.
Stop dry runs to the site
A crew arriving at a site that is not ready is a scheduling information problem. The signal almost always existed before the truck left.
What it takes Site conditions and readiness carried on the work order, and appointments held until the conditions ahead of them are satisfied.
Trust the data
When the office and the field disagree, people stop using the numbers and go back to instinct. The reporting is not the problem. Nothing upstream is capturing the truth as it happens.
What it takes One record per job, referenced by sales, purchasing, the schedule, the floor and the field, with your ledger as an independent second record.
Find inventory tracking that holds up
Most systems treat slabs as ordinary stock. They cannot follow a slab through cutting into the remnants it produces, so counts drift and the yard stops trusting them.
What it takes Material serialized natively, with child items created for remnants, tracked by location and bin, and purchasing and receiving as separate controlled steps.
Keep a handle on backlog
Backlog in dollars says little about whether you can deliver it. Two fabricators with identical backlog can be six weeks apart on lead time.
What it takes Backlog expressed in hours and capacity as well as dollars, because every job carries a predicted labor requirement from the moment it is sold.
Bill on time
Late billing is usually a completion data problem rather than an accounting one. The office cannot invoice what it cannot confirm is finished.
What it takes Completion captured in the field and on the floor as it happens, flowing to your ledger through the accounting integration.
Every operation carries its own version of these. Tell us where yours is costing you the most and we will walk through what it would take to fix.
The best fabricators in the country are already scaling with QXM Pro.
Precision · Automation · Capacity Control
Everything in the platform
- Estimating
- Drawing
- Quoting
- Contracts
- Change orders
- Purchasing
- Receiving
- Inventory
- Remnants
- Demand planning
- Scheduling
- Capacity
- Work orders
- Shop floor
- Field
- Templating
- Install
- Production work
- Reporting
- Integrations