Jewellery costing: spreadsheet or software?
Most workshops start with a spreadsheet, and for a while it is exactly right. This is an honest look at when it stops being enough, so you can decide for yourself instead of being sold to.
A spreadsheet is fine when
- You send a handful of quotes a month.
- One person does all the pricing, and always uses the same file.
- You are happy to look up the gold price and type it in each time.
- Your clients are comfortable with a number in an email, and you do not need a formatted document.
If that describes you, a well-built spreadsheet costs nothing and does the job.
It starts costing you money when
- The metal price is typed in by hand. It goes stale, or someone forgets to update it, and a quote goes out at last week's gold price.
- The file gets copied. After a few months there are three versions, each with slightly different formulas or rates.
- Someone else needs to quote. Giving a salesperson or designer the file also gives them your margins and your cost rates.
- A formula breaks without anyone noticing. One overwritten cell can change every quote below it.
- The client expects something polished. You paste figures into a document by hand, which is slow and easy to get wrong.
- You cannot find last year's quote for the same client when they come back for a matching piece.
Side by side
| Spreadsheet | Quoting software (ELIPHASx) | |
|---|---|---|
| Metal price | Typed in by you | Live gold, platinum and silver rates applied to each quote |
| Stone setting costs | Your own table, if you built one | Costs by stone type, setting style and size |
| Your own fees | Cells you maintain | Saved once as defaults, editable per quote |
| Markup and VAT | Formulas you maintain | Applied in the same order every time |
| Client document | Pasted into Word or a template | Branded PDF generated from the quote |
| Several people | Share the file, and the margins with it | Roles; designers can work without seeing prices |
| History by client | Folders and file names | Saved against the client |
| Cost | Free | From R199 a month, with a 30-day free trial |
What to look for in any quoting software
- Live metal prices that you can see, not a number you have to trust.
- Rates you control: your setting, design, making and finishing costs.
- One markup rule, applied consistently.
- A client PDF you would be happy to send, with your branding.
- Access control, so staff can quote without seeing your margins.
- A fair price, and a way to try it before you commit.
What ELIPHASx does not do
It is a quoting tool. It does not replace your accounting package or your stock control. If you need those, keep them; ELIPHASx is for getting from "what will this cost?" to a quote the client can read.
Moving over from a spreadsheet
Take three recent quotes and rebuild them in the free quote builder using today's metal price. If the totals match your spreadsheet, you have lost nothing. If they differ, find out which one is right. Either answer is useful.
Try your own numbers.
The first quote is free and needs no account.
Build a quote free