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CharlesDulaney's avatar
CharlesDulaney
Qrew Trainee
16 hours ago

Quote Tool Design Thoughts

I have a need for a unique quote tool, and I am seeking some design methods with pros/cons. My initial design draft is something like this –

 

I have a Quote table form with some buttons to add a specific product. The issue is that adding each product, while easy enough, will place products in their own report link on the Quote Table form.

 

Yes, I could have all products and configuration items in one “Products” table so that my quote table line-items are in one report-link, but now my field count within the “Products” table will easily exceed 500+ fields and make it worse to manage.

I've attached my design thoughts (image)

Thanks so much for any feedback

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4 Replies

  • DonLarson's avatar
    DonLarson
    Qrew Elite
    14 hours ago

    What are you selling?

    There is some sort of architecture about your line items on the quote that should fall out.

    Products Table?

    Service Table?

    Maybe an Item Master with Vendors above that?

    500 fields sounds like a lot.  Do you first need a Product Configurator to build a BOM which then goes on the proposal?   Perhaps a table of Sub Assemblies that then go to the Product and then the proposal.

     

    • CharlesDulaney's avatar
      CharlesDulaney
      Qrew Trainee
      13 hours ago

      Each product is configurable, much in the same way one might buy a couch - length, fabric, patterns, color, sleeper sofa or not, on and on...... After each product configuration, I end up with a unique product ID XX-COUCH-2534 as the line item PN.

  • Denin's avatar
    Denin
    Qrew Assistant Captain
    15 hours ago

    Unless the products are wildly different from one another, I think the best approach is that you used 1 table for products. Even if you have some 500 fields, they can be organized with a naming scheme and would be displayed on forms conditionally not all 500 at once.

    But if you couldn't do that for some reason, then another option (if you have separate tables for each product) is to use the API to run reports for each product. Then using Javascript, you can output what would visually look like 1 single report. The customer wouldn't be able to tell the products are from multiple tables. This solution would be in a code page which you can embed on the EOTI form.

    • CharlesDulaney's avatar
      CharlesDulaney
      Qrew Trainee
      13 hours ago

      I thought the same thing on your first approach, I would definitely need a naming convention per product.

      Your second approach sounds intriguing enough to tackle if I have the JavaScript experience to make that code page. I have several code pages in use, but nothing I built myself.