Guide
Foodservice equipment quoting software — and everything that comes before it
SmartTakeoffs is not quoting software. It does not hold your catalog, your discount chains, or your proposals — your quoting platform does that, and it should keep doing it. SmartTakeoffs is the takeoff and bid management that runs into it: everything before the actual quote. Here is how the two fit together.
What quoting software does well
Quoting software is a pricing and proposal engine. It carries a manufacturer catalog with current list pricing, applies your discount chains and buying-group programs, handles freight and accessories, produces a customer-facing proposal, and turns an accepted proposal into an order. For a commercial foodservice equipment dealer, that is the system of record for what a job costs and what it sells for. It is genuinely hard software to build, and dealers who have it are right to keep it.
What it does not do
Quoting software starts from an item list. It does not go get one. Nothing in it opens a 900-page project manual, finds Section 11 40 00, cross-references the equipment schedule on the kitchen drawings, catches the item an addendum quietly changed, and works out which of your rep groups quotes a Montague range versus a Rational combi.
That work is the takeoff, and on most bids it is where the day goes. An estimator can have the best quoting platform in the trade and still spend most of a week getting to the point where they can use it.
The other half is coordination. A bid is a project: a dozen rep groups owe you numbers, three of them are late, an addendum lands on Thursday that changes two items, and a second estimator is in the same file. Quoting software has no opinion about any of that. It is a pricing engine, not a project tracker — so the tracking falls back on an inbox, a spreadsheet, and somebody’s memory.
Where the hours actually go
Here is a Division 11 bid, start to finish, with who does each step in a typical dealership:
| Step | Handled by |
|---|---|
| Read the project manual, find Section 11 40 00 | A person, page by page |
| Decode the equipment schedule on the drawings | A person, sheet by sheet |
| Reconcile the schedule against the spec, item by item | A person |
| Check every addendum for what changed | A person |
| Route each manufacturer to the right rep group | A person, against a rep list in their head |
| Send quote requests with the spec and drawings attached | A person, one rep at a time |
| Track which reps have quoted and which are still owed | A person, out of their inbox |
| Chase the ones that haven't come back before bid day | A person |
| Re-issue everything when the next addendum lands | A person, from the top |
| Keep versions straight when two estimators touch the bid | A person, and a save-as naming convention |
| Type the item list into the quoting software | A person |
| Apply catalog pricing and discount chains | Quoting software |
| Generate the customer proposal | Quoting software |
| Write the order | Quoting software |
Eleven manual steps, then three automated ones. The quoting software earns its keep on the bottom three — and it earns it well. The eleven above are what a dealer is actually paying an estimator to grind through, and they are the same eleven on every single bid.
Where SmartTakeoffs fits
SmartTakeoffs handles everything above the line — both halves of it.
The takeoff.You upload the bid package — project manual, drawings, addendums — and it returns the itemized Division 11 takeoff with the spec page and drawing sheet cited on every line, the spec section and kitchen drawings pulled out as their own PDFs, a quote request drafted for each rep group, an install estimate, and custom fabrication packaged for pricing.
The project management. Each bid is a project that stays open: quote tracking shows who has quoted and who is still owed, with days remaining against your quote-due date. A new addendum re-runs against the existing takeoff and surfaces what changed instead of starting over. Every edit is versioned with who made it and when, so two estimators can work the same bid without a save-as naming convention holding the line.
The estimator still owns the bid. Every extracted item is editable, anything the extraction is unsure of gets flagged, and nothing goes to a rep until a person clears it. The point is not to remove the estimator’s judgment — it is to stop spending that judgment on retyping and chasing.
Then it hands off. The import file drops into your quoting software and your catalog, your discounts, and your proposal template take over exactly as they do today. Two tools, one handoff, no overlap.
If you don’t run quoting software at all
A lot of dealers don’t. Bids get built in Excel, pricing comes straight off rep quotes, and the proposal is a formatted spreadsheet. That works, and SmartTakeoffs works with it — the takeoff, the rep routing, the quote requests, and the deliverable set all land the same way, with an Excel file at the end instead of an import.
But be clear about what you would still be missing: live manufacturer catalog pricing and proposal generation. If you want those, you want quoting software, and SmartTakeoffs is not a substitute for it. We would rather tell you that now than have you find out three bids in.
FAQ
Is SmartTakeoffs quoting software?
No. It does not hold your catalog, your manufacturer discount chains, or your customer proposals, and it does not write orders. It is a takeoff and bid management tool: it reads the bid package, produces the itemized takeoff, routes and tracks the rep quotes, handles addendum revisions — and then hands the item list to the quoting software you already run, as an import file. Everything before the quote, not the quote itself.
Do we have to change the quoting software we already use?
No. Nothing about your quoting setup changes. Whatever you run today keeps doing what it does — SmartTakeoffs just hands it a finished item list instead of your estimator typing one in. Your catalog, your discount chains, and your proposal template pick up from there exactly as they do now.
What if we don't use any quoting software?
Plenty of dealers run bids out of Excel and nothing else. SmartTakeoffs still produces the full takeoff spreadsheet, the extracted spec section, the kitchen drawings, and the rep quote requests — so the workflow works without a quoting platform. It is not a substitute for a pricing catalog, though. If you need live manufacturer pricing and proposal generation, you still want quoting software underneath.
Which quoting software does the import file work with?
The export is in the foodservice industry's standard interchange format, so it drops into the tools dealers in this trade already use. You can also take everything as a plain Excel file.
Where does the pricing on the takeoff come from, then?
Rep quotes and your own catalog import. SmartTakeoffs routes each manufacturer to the right rep group and generates the quote requests; the numbers that come back are the numbers. Nothing on a takeoff is invented pricing.
See it on one of your own bids
Send a real bid package and we’ll run the takeoff, so you can see what lands in your quoting software at the end of it.
