WHAT DOES THIS PRODUCT OR VARIANT CONTRIBUTE?

Quotation Costing

The products and variants you quote most stay costed in the background, anything else can be costed on request, and existing contracts can be re-costed when the parameters behind them move.

What does this product or variant cost, and what does it contribute?

Sales and pricing own this — the key account manager or the pricing desk writing the quote. You can already put a price on what you sell. What you cannot see today is what it contributes, and which of the alternatives contributes more.

Cost engineering or product management owns the answer. The request usually arrives from sales, with a customer waiting on the other end of it — but the number is engineering's to give.

Three challenges

A price
without a margin

A price without a margin

The price comes back in seconds. What it costs to deliver takes three days and a favour from controlling.

The cost on file is an inventory value

Standard, periodic, at product level. It is not this configuration, at today's prices, with a margin against it.

Old contracts drift

A contract signed two years ago is priced on inputs that have moved since, and nobody knows which ones have stopped working.

How it works

Keep what you quote most costed

The products and variants that actually get quoted stay costed in the background against current prices and rates, so the answer exists before the question is asked.

Cost the rest on request

For a configurable product, PLP triggers the variant explosion in the source system, pulls the variant-specific costing structure and costs it exactly as it costs a bill of materials and routing. Where there are more variants than anyone would cost, representative variants are kept current and the rest are inferred along the continuum between them.

The estimate is the costed structure, not a figure retyped from it. The gap is calculated at every level and moves on its own when the structure or the costs move, so a design change that adds cost is visible the day it lands.

Quote with the margin visible, and keep the basis

Margin per product and per variant, the nearest alternatives beside it, and the cost basis stored with the quote so it can be reconstructed later.

Each measure is recorded against the part of the structure it acts on, with an owner, a value and a date, and moves through idea, committed and realized. Target achievement counts the realized ones only.

Five representative variants.
A thousand answered.

A structure with no cost, costed in one pass.

A configurable product has more variants than anyone would ever cost. Five representative ones are kept costed and current, and any configuration between them is placed on the continuum they define — with its margin, and with its nearest alternatives beside it.

Five costed Kept current in the background
The rest inferred Placed between the ones that are costed
Margin, not just price At the level a quote is actually written

In a plant this is a bill of materials and a routing. In a recipe house it is a recipe and its process steps.

  • The products and variants you quote most, kept current in the background.

  • Variant explosion on demand PLP triggers the explosion in the source system and costs the variant structure.

  • Representative variants Cost the few that define the range, infer the rest along the continuum.

  • Margin per product and variant Visible at the level a quote is written.

  • Contract re-costing Existing agreements re-costed against moved parameters, so renegotiation has a basis.

  • An auditable basis The cost basis stored with the quote and reconstructable later.

What it needs

The shared line, plus: volume and price conditions, and the margin thresholds the business works to.

What is quotation costing?

Quotation costing is producing the cost and margin behind a quoted price, fast enough to meet the deadline and solid enough to defend afterwards. It has to cover what you actually quote, stay current as inputs move, and be reconstructable months later.

We don't configure products. Is this still for us?

Yes. Everything here works at product level as well as variant level. The variant machinery matters if you configure; if you don't, you get the same cost and margin against the products you sell.

How does it cost a variant that has never been quoted?

A PLP triggers the variant explosion in the source system, pulls the variant-specific costing structure that comes back, and costs it exactly as it costs a bill of materials and routing.

What if we have more variants than anyone could cost?

Then you don't cost them all. Define representative variants across the range, keep those costed and current, and PLP places any configuration between them on the continuum they define.

Can we see which existing contracts have stopped working?

Yes. Apply the moved parameters once and PLP re-costs every affected agreement, showing which have gone under and by how much — which is the basis a renegotiation needs.

Is the cost basis auditable after the fact?

Yes. The structure, the costs used and the assumptions made are stored with the calculation.

What is quotation costing?

Quotation costing is producing the cost and margin behind a quoted price, fast enough to meet the deadline and solid enough to defend afterwards. It has to cover what you actually quote, stay current as inputs move, and be reconstructable months later.

We don't configure products. Is this still for us?

Yes. Everything here works at product level as well as variant level. The variant machinery matters if you configure; if you don't, you get the same cost and margin against the products you sell.

How does it cost a variant that has never been quoted?

A PLP triggers the variant explosion in the source system, pulls the variant-specific costing structure that comes back, and costs it exactly as it costs a bill of materials and routing.

What if we have more variants than anyone could cost?

Then you don't cost them all. Define representative variants across the range, keep those costed and current, and PLP places any configuration between them on the continuum they define.

Can we see which existing contracts have stopped working?

Yes. Apply the moved parameters once and PLP re-costs every affected agreement, showing which have gone under and by how much — which is the basis a renegotiation needs.

Is the cost basis auditable after the fact?

Yes. The structure, the costs used and the assumptions made are stored with the calculation.

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Services

Early Costing

Target Costing

Simulation Costing

Quotation Costing

Profitability Analysis

Solutions Overview

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Demo

Imprint

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Glossary

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Terms and Conditions

© 2026 Vianta GmbH

Langer Anger 7-9, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany

Services

Early Costing

Target Costing

Simulation Costing

Quotation Costing

Profitability Analysis

Solutions Overview

AI Assistant

Contact

Careers

Demo

Imprint

FAQ

Glossary

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

© 2026 Vianta GmbH

Langer Anger 7-9, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany

Services

Early Costing

Target Costing

Simulation Costing

Quotation Costing

Profitability Analysis

Solutions Overview

AI Assistant

Contact

Careers

Demo

Imprint

FAQ

Glossary

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

© 2026 Vianta GmbH