Zonic Tech Solutions
Zoho Implementation · Solution Proposal · Stage 1 — Lead to Quote

A CRM and intelligent quoting engine for your laser cutting shop

Every enquiry captured, every CAD file priced by Almaquote's real nesting mathematics, and every quote margin-controlled, approval-gated and sent from one system — with zero re-keying between sales and the estimator.

Prepared for your metal laser cutting business  ·  by Zonic Tech Solutions — Aman Shukla, Zoho Creator Certified Developer  ·  August 2026
The working principle: Zoho CRM owns the commerce — customers, RFQs, margins, approvals, pipeline — while Almaquote owns the physics — cut time, pierce counts, material cost from actual nesting. A managed bridge connects the two, so a priced, branded quote leaves the system in minutes, not days.

What you asked for

Each flow restates your CRM & ERP requirements document in plain terms — lead capture, RFQ management, CAD-driven costing via Almacam, approvals and pipeline, traced back to the source sections.

What we'll deliver

A clear checklist of what we configure and build in this stage, and the products that power each flow — so you know precisely what you're getting and where it ends.

Click any step

Tap a stage in any flow to open its details — the exact behaviour at that step. Diagram cards open full process diagrams.

The lead-to-quote journey

From first enquiry to a won order, handed to production with its costing data attached.
End-to-end lead-to-quote flow
Requirements §3.1–3.3 · Capture → RFQ → Almaquote costing → Margin → Approval → Quote → Won
● View diagram
Flow 01

Lead & Customer Intake

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1
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Multi-Channel Capture
CRM
  • Leads arrive from the website enquiry form, email-in, phone and walk-in — each stamped with its source channel
  • Web enquiries create CRM leads automatically with attachments preserved
  • Nothing lives in a personal inbox or notebook — one queue, visible to sales management
→
2
+
Customer Profile
CRM
  • Company, contacts, billing and shipping addresses, GST/tax ID and agreed credit terms on one record
  • Customer type tracked — one-time, repeat, or contract/blanket-order — and used later by the pricing rules
  • Every call, email and meeting logged against the account as the communication history
→
3
+
Rep Assignment
Flow
  • Assignment rules route each lead to the right sales rep by territory, customer type or round-robin
  • A first-response task with a deadline is created the moment the lead lands
  • Reassignment keeps the full history intact
→
4
+
Follow-up Engine
Cliq / Email
  • Reminders before follow-up dates; overdue alerts to the rep, then the manager
  • Quote-status notifications to the customer (sent, expiring, revised) by email/SMS
  • Chat carries alerts and links only — the CRM record stays the official history
→
5
+
Ready for RFQ
CRM
  • A qualified lead converts to Account + Contact + Deal in one step
  • The deal enters the pipeline at "RFQ" stage, ready for drawings
  • Duplicate detection on phone/email/GSTIN keeps one customer = one record

Process diagrams

Click a card to open the full diagram.

Lead capture and qualification
Requirements §3.1 · four channels into one governed queue
● View diagram

Your scope

  • Capture leads from website, phone, email and walk-in with source tracking
  • Full customer profile — company, contacts, addresses, tax ID, credit terms
  • Customer type: one-time, repeat, contract/blanket order
  • Complete communication history per customer
  • Sales rep assignment and follow-up reminders

Our deliverables

  • CRM org configured with roles and profiles for sales, estimation and management
  • Website enquiry webform wired directly into the lead queue
  • Customer master with GST fields, credit terms and customer-type classification
  • Assignment rules, first-response SLAs and follow-up reminder workflows
  • Duplicate detection on phone, email and GSTIN
Flow 02

RFQ & CAD File Intake

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1
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RFQ Record
CRM
  • Every request gets an auto-numbered RFQ (RFQ-0001…) — the join key that follows the job through costing, quoting and production
  • Linked to the customer, the requesting contact and the sales rep
  • Due date, delivery expectation and special instructions captured up front
→
2
+
CAD Upload
WorkDrive
  • DXF, DWG, STEP and PDF drawings attached per RFQ, stored in a WorkDrive folder created for the RFQ
  • Re-uploads create versions — the estimator always knows which revision is current
  • Files travel with the RFQ into the costing bridge automatically
→
3
+
Part Line Items
CRM
  • One line per part: material, grade, thickness, quantity and finishing operations (bend / weld / powder-coat / deburr)
  • Material and grade come from controlled picklists driven by the material master — no free-typing
  • Cut length, pierce count and nesting yield are left to Almaquote — nobody estimates them by eye
→
4
+
Material Master
CRM
  • One controlled list of materials — type, grade, thickness, sheet size, current ₹/kg — maintained in Zoho as the single source of truth
  • Mirrored to Almaquote's material database by a scheduled export, so both systems always speak the same codes
  • Rate changes are dated and audited — you can see what any quote was priced against
→
5
+
Ready-for-Costing Gate
CRM
  • Validation before anything leaves for costing: files present, every line's material code valid, quantities set
  • The RFQ flips to "Sent to costing" — locked against edits until the result returns, so the estimate always matches what was sent
  • Incomplete RFQs are bounced back to the rep with a specific checklist

Process diagrams

Click a card to open the full diagram.

RFQ assembly and validation
Requirements §3.2 · drawings + structured lines, gated before costing
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Quoting data model
Customer → RFQ → quote lines → costing results, one join key throughout
● View diagram

Your scope

  • Upload CAD files (DXF, DWG, STEP, PDF) per RFQ
  • Structured part entry — material type, grade, thickness, quantity
  • Finishing operations captured per part
  • Cutting length, pierce count and nesting yield from real nesting, not guesswork

Our deliverables

  • Auto-numbered RFQ module linked to customers, deals and files
  • Per-RFQ WorkDrive folders with version-safe CAD storage
  • Part line-item subform with controlled material/grade/thickness picklists
  • Material master with dated rate history, mirrored to Almaquote on schedule
  • Ready-for-costing validation gate with a bounce-back checklist
Flow 03

Almaquote Costing Bridge

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Send to Almaquote
Deluge
  • One button on the RFQ packages everything the estimator needs: the CAD files plus an rfq.csv carrying RFQ number, customer, part lines, materials, quantities and finishing operations
  • The packet is written to a WorkDrive exchange folder — no email, no USB sticks, no retyping
  • The RFQ number is the join key: it travels out and must come back
→
2
+
Sync to Shop PC
WorkDrive Sync
  • WorkDrive Desktop Sync on the estimator's Windows PC lands the packet in Almaquote's local watch folder within seconds
  • Cloud-to-shop bridging with zero custom infrastructure — and if sync is ever down, manual drag-and-drop of the same folders always works
→
3
+
Nesting & Costing
Almaquote
  • The estimator imports the parts and runs Almaquote — cut time, pierce counts, material weight and cost computed from Alma's actual nesting algorithms
  • Times for bending, welding and other operations included where configured
  • This is the same mathematics that will later drive the real nest on the machine — the quote and the shop floor agree by construction
→
4
+
Planned-Task Export
Almaquote
  • Almaquote's planned task (its built-in scheduled export) drops the result file — cut time, pierce count, material cost, nest utilisation per line — into the return folder automatically
  • Standard licensed functionality, configured once with the Alma reseller — no custom Alma development in this stage
→
5
+
Result Importer
Deluge
  • A scheduled function polls the return folder every 10 minutes, matches on RFQ number and line, and writes cost data into the quote lines
  • The RFQ flips to "Costed" and the sales rep is notified — typical round trip under 15 minutes
  • Nest utilisation is stored per line, ready for the production phase's remnant planning
→
6
+
Exception Guard
Cliq
  • Unknown material code, unmatched RFQ number or a malformed file never fails silently — it lands in an Exceptions log with a Cliq alert to the estimator
  • Every packet out and result in is logged: what was sent, when, what returned
  • Concurrent-costing safety: a locked "Sent to costing" status prevents double-pricing the same RFQ

Process diagrams

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The costing round trip
CRM → WorkDrive → Almaquote → back, matched on RFQ number
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What travels in each direction
rfq.csv out · result.csv back · master data mirrored on schedule
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Your scope

  • Use Almacam's quoting capability as the pricing engine
  • Auto-calculate price from material, thickness, cutting time and nesting yield
  • No re-keying between sales, estimation and quoting
  • Pull cut time and material utilisation back into the job's record

Our deliverables

  • "Send to Almaquote" packaging function — CAD + structured rfq.csv per RFQ
  • WorkDrive exchange folders with Desktop Sync configured on the estimator PC
  • Result importer matching on RFQ number, populating quote lines automatically
  • Field mapping locked against a real Almaquote sample export before build
  • Exceptions log with Cliq alerts — nothing fails silently
  • Material-master mirror export in Almaquote's import format
Flow 04

Price, Approval & Quote

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1
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Commercial Rules
Deluge
  • On top of Almaquote's base cost: margin bands by customer type and order value, minimum order charge, urgency surcharge and freight
  • Rules live as configuration your manager can read — not buried in code
  • Manual price override is allowed but always visible: who, when, and against what calculated price
→
2
+
Quote Versions
CRM
  • Multi-version quotes per RFQ — revisions after negotiation keep the full history
  • Each version stamps the material rates and costing result it was priced against
  • Quote expiry dates enforced; expired quotes need re-validation before acceptance
→
3
+
Approval Blueprint
CRM Blueprint
  • Quotes within the rep's discount authority go straight out; anything above the threshold routes to the sales manager
  • The Blueprint physically blocks sending an unapproved quote — it is not a convention, it is a gate
  • Every approval or rejection recorded with reason
→
4
+
Branded Quote PDF
CRM
  • Professional quote template with your branding, line-item detail, terms and validity
  • Sent by email from CRM with one click — delivery and opens tracked on the record
  • What the customer sees is always a version the system priced and approved
→
5
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Send & Track
CRM
  • Deal moves to "Quoted"; follow-up tasks created automatically against the quote validity window
  • Customer replies and revision requests are logged on the RFQ — one thread of truth
  • Expiring quotes trigger reminders before they lapse

Process diagrams

Click a card to open the full diagram.

From base cost to approved quote
Requirements §3.2 · margins, overrides and the approval gate
● View diagram

Your scope

  • Auto-calculated price: material + machine time + labour + finishing + margin
  • Multi-version quotes with approval workflow and expiry
  • Audit trail on quotes and price changes
  • Professional quotes sent and tracked from one place

Our deliverables

  • Commercial rules engine — margin bands, surcharges, minimums — as readable configuration
  • Quote versioning with rate-stamp per version and enforced expiry
  • Approval Blueprint with discount-authority thresholds — unapproved quotes cannot send
  • Branded quote PDF template with email send and open tracking
  • Override audit: calculated vs entered price, always attributable
Flow 05

Pipeline & Won-Order Handoff

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Pipeline Stages
CRM
  • Exactly your stages: Lead → RFQ Sent → Quoted → Negotiation → Won / Lost
  • Stage changes are driven by real events — costing returned, quote sent, customer response — not manual drag
  • Stalled deals surface automatically after a configurable quiet period
→
2
+
Win / Loss Reasons
CRM
  • Closing a deal requires a reason — price, lead time, capability, relationship — from a controlled list
  • Loss reasons feed the win-rate analytics that tell you where quotes die
→
3
+
Quoting KPIs
Analytics
  • Quote win rate by customer, material and rep; quote turnaround time; revenue forecast by stage
  • Average quoted margin by customer type — spot the accounts quietly eroding your price
  • Delivered as a live dashboard, not a month-end spreadsheet
→
4
+
Won → Sales Order
CRM
  • Acceptance converts the approved quote version to a Sales Order in one step — customer PO reference, delivery date and terms attached
  • The order carries the costing data: cut time, pierce counts, utilisation — the production phase inherits it without re-entry
  • No order can exist that doesn't trace back to an approved quote version
→
5
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Production Handoff
Cliq
  • The shop is notified of the new order with its files and costing data — the boundary of this stage
  • Everything production needs next (scheduling, travelers, inventory, invoicing) is specified in the full implementation plan as Stage 2+
  • Because cut time and utilisation are already on the order, Stage 2 starts with quoted-vs-actual costing built in from day one

Process diagrams

Click a card to open the full diagram.

Pipeline states and the handoff boundary
Requirements §3.3 & §4.1 · sales pipeline ending in a production-ready order
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Your scope

  • Pipeline: Lead → RFQ Sent → Quoted → Negotiation → Won/Lost
  • Win/loss reason tracking
  • Forecast and reporting by rep, customer and material type
  • Accepted quote converts to Sales Order automatically

Our deliverables

  • Event-driven pipeline with stalled-deal surfacing
  • Mandatory win/loss reason capture from a controlled list
  • Quoting dashboard: win rate, turnaround, margin by customer type, forecast
  • One-step quote-to-Sales-Order conversion carrying all costing data
  • Production notification marking the clean boundary to Stage 2

Who does what

Four roles, each seeing exactly what their job needs.

Sales Rep

CRM & quoting

  • Own leads, customers and follow-ups
  • Assemble RFQs with drawings and part lines
  • Send quotes within discount authority
Sees own pipeline and customers; cannot alter material rates, margin rules or another rep's records.

Estimator

Almaquote & costing

  • Receives costing packets automatically
  • Runs nesting and costing in Almaquote
  • Clears exceptions flagged by the bridge
Owns the costing queue and material technical data; commercial margins stay outside the estimator's screen.

Sales Manager

Approvals & margin control

  • Approves quotes above threshold
  • Maintains margin bands and rate card
  • Reviews win/loss and margin dashboards
Full pipeline visibility, approval authority and the audit trail on every override and price change.

Admin

Configuration & users

  • User and role management
  • Material master and picklist governance
  • Backup and audit configuration
Administers the system without commercial approval rights; audit history is immutable even for Admin.

The stack for this stage

Five Zoho products and Almaquote — each with one clear job.
CRM
Customers, RFQs, quotes, pipeline
WorkDrive
CAD files & exchange folders
Deluge
Bridge logic & commercial rules
Cliq
Alerts & exceptions
Analytics
Quoting KPIs
Almaquote
Cut time & material costing
Integration architecture
System of record, costing engine, and the bridge between them
● View diagram

How we deliver

Mapping locked first, proven on real quotes, then automated.
01

Sample file before build

Before any bridge code is written, we obtain Almaquote's actual planned-task export from your Alma reseller and lock the field mapping against it. The importer is built against reality, not documentation.

02

Proven on your history

Five past RFQs are re-quoted through the pipeline and checked against the prices you actually charged. The bridge is accepted only when the numbers agree within the tolerance you set.

03

AI-accelerated, acceptance-gated

Modules, fields and functions are generated through an AI-assisted toolchain, so paid hours concentrate on the mapping, rules and testing. Each milestone is demonstrated live and accepted before the next begins.

Investment

Stage 1 — lead to quote, one clear price.
Stage 1 investment
₹45,000
Discovery, CRM build, Almaquote bridge, commercial rules, testing, training & handover — all included
Timeline
3 weeks
delivered in three acceptance-gated milestones
Estimated effort
≈ 45 hours
AI-accelerated build — hands-on time on mapping, rules & testing
45%
₹20,250
M1 · Foundation & Quoting Workspace
Org, roles & permissions, customer and material masters, lead capture with assignment rules, RFQ module with CAD folders and part lines, pipeline — accepted on a live walkthrough with your data.
30%
₹13,500
M2 · Almaquote Bridge Proven
Field mapping locked against the real Alma sample export, manual round trip working, five historical RFQs re-priced and matching your actual prices within agreed tolerance.
25%
₹11,250
M3 · Automation & Approval Live
Watch-folder automation with sub-15-minute round trip, exception alerts, approval Blueprint, branded quote PDF with tracking, quoting dashboard, team training and handover.

The estimate is deliberately lean: repetitive configuration (modules, fields, workflows, functions) is generated and applied through an AI-assisted toolchain, so paid hours concentrate on what needs judgement — the Almaquote field mapping, commercial rules, approval gates and acceptance testing. The split is front-loaded because M1 carries the densest build (org, masters, RFQ engine, pipeline). Almaquote licensing and any Alma-side configuration services are between you and your Alma reseller; Zoho subscription licences are billed to you directly at cost. Taxes as applicable.

Where this goes next: Stage 2+ of the full implementation plan takes the won order into production — machine scheduling, QR job travelers, inventory & remnant tracking, QC, invoicing and the customer portal. Because every order from Stage 1 already carries its Almaquote costing data, Stage 2 begins with quoted-vs-actual job profitability built in. The Alma bridge also has a documented upgrade ladder — Alma's ERP connector, instant budgetary quotes via the Almacam Nesting Component API, or the Webquote customer portal — each an optional, separately quoted mini-project once Stage 1 is live.