Quotations produced by companies usually consist of a list of price items, whose values are decided by their marketing/ sale quotation or purchasing department at the beginning of each year and adjusted through yearly final balances after actual costs and margins calculations information collected along the year.
Product complexity sometimes results in many price items, reflecting each function and variant of the machines.  Furthermore, costs are usually estimated through several spreadsheets. They are sometimes not directly bound to any structured engineering database of raw materials and job costs. Still, the Engineering Department is asked for them, which answers only after internal calculation processes
This activity requires time and is not error-free. Calculations become even more complex when quoting the part of the Engineering to Order (ETO) inquiry, which is always present. Estimations are usually based on historical data and similarities (often outdated), which require long searching activities in companies’ databases before continuing the cost evaluation. As a result, the quoted price is unrelated to the actual cost. Unless this decision is made on purpose for marketing strategies, this puts pressure on revenue and profit margins.