Quoting Software for CNC Machine Shops
A CNC machine shop wins work on how fast and how reliably it answers a drawing. QuoteBuddy reads the drawing of a milled or turned part, builds the operations with your machines, your hourly rates and your setup times, and gives you a priced quote you can check line by line before it goes out. You stay the estimator; the software does the measuring and the arithmetic.
Watch the one-minute demo
Where the time goes in a CNC shop's quotes
Most shops do not lose quotes because their prices are wrong. They lose them because the answer arrives late. The drawing waits in an inbox until whoever knows the rates has a free hour, often after the machines stop. Then the same steps are repeated for every part: read the dimensions, choose the stock, count the holes and threads, guess the setups, estimate the cycle, add finishing, apply the margin.
Each of those steps is routine for an experienced estimator, and each one is a chance to forget something. A missed thread, a heat treatment nobody priced, a second setup that was obvious on the shop floor but absent from the spreadsheet: the error only shows when the job is already on the machine.
How QuoteBuddy fits the way a CNC shop works
Set up the shop once
You describe the shop a single time: which machines you run (turning, 3-axis or 5-axis milling, grinding and the rest), the hourly rate of each, your overhead factor, your margin rules and the materials you buy, with their price per kilo. The stock catalog holds the round bar, plate and block sizes you actually order, so every quote starts from the same assumptions whoever prepares it.
Upload the drawing
Drawings go in as PDF, PNG or JPG. QuoteBuddy reads the part: dimensions, material, holes, threads, pockets and slots, tight tolerances and finish callouts. Every extracted value is shown to you and every field can be edited, so a misread dimension is corrected before it reaches the price.
Review the operations, then send
The estimate is a list of operations, not a single number. Turning or milling, drilling and tapping, CAM programming, fixturing and setup, deburring, inspection and packaging each appear as their own line with time and cost. You can change a time or lock an operation; a locked line keeps your value when the drawing is read again. When the estimate is right, QuoteBuddy produces the quote as a PDF.
What a CNC quote contains
- Stock. The finished envelope is rounded up to the next size in your stock catalog, plus allowances, and priced by weight.
- Setup and cycle, kept apart. Setup is a one-off cost of the batch, cycle time repeats for every piece. That is why a quantity of 5 and a quantity of 500 carry different unit prices.
- Quantity tiers. One estimate can show several quantities side by side, so the customer sees the price break and you do not prepare three quotes.
- Outside processes. If the drawing asks for an operation your shop does not have, such as a heat treatment or a coating, QuoteBuddy marks it as outsourced, applies your uplift factor and keeps it flagged until you confirm it.
- Overhead, risk and margin. Applied with the rules you set, not retyped in each file.
What stays in your hands
QuoteBuddy does not replace the judgement of an estimator who knows the machines. It removes the repetitive part of the job and shows its assumptions. If a quote looks wrong, you can see which rate, which time or which operation made it so, and fix the input once instead of correcting every future quote.
Estimates that need a person are kept apart. An incomplete reading of the drawing or a missing material cost holds the estimate for review instead of producing a price nobody checked, and an outsourced operation nobody has confirmed keeps the quote from being sent to the customer.
Test it on drawings you have already quoted
The fairest test is a drawing you priced last month. Upload five drawings you have already quoted, set your real rates, and compare QuoteBuddy's operations and totals with what you sent. Where they differ, the line-by-line breakdown tells you why.
The trial lasts 30 days, with unlimited quotes and no credit card. Drawings are stored encrypted in European data centres and are not used to train third-party AI models.