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How to use Spindlewise

Short guides to the things you do every day. Can't find it? Email [email protected] and a person will answer.

Getting started · Costing a part · 3D models and drawings · Approving, issuing and sending · Follow-ups and reminders · Job actuals and insights · Importing your lists · Routing templates · Which jobs made money · Won jobs into Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks · Order acknowledgement · Machine load · Buy list · Calibrating times from finished jobs · Job travellers · Quote requests by email · Online quote requests · Country, tax and units · Your team and roles · Plans, your data and security · Questions we get

Getting started (about 30 minutes)

Setup guide (left menu) walks you through the five things a first quote needs. Load sample data shows a finished quote you can open and press Calculate on; remove it with one click when you are done.
Settings → Costing defaults: your labour rate per hour, overhead and admin percentages, target return and minimum order value.
Machines: each machine with its cost rate per hour (depreciation, power, maintenance — not wages; labour is separate). Not sure of a rate? The setup guide has a calculator.
Materials: bar and plate you buy, with density and price per kg. Leave a price empty if you don't know it: quotes using it are blocked, never priced at zero.
Customers, then Quotes → New quote.
Already have lists in Excel? Use Import on the Customers, Materials and Machines pages (see “Importing your lists”).

Costing a part

On a quote, Add line opens the line editor. Fill in the material and blank, then the routing: one row per operation with its machine, setup minutes per batch and cycle minutes per piece. Add one-off costs (CAM programming, fixtures) and outsourced processes (anodising, plating) below.

Templates estimate times for you: Mill rough from the volume to remove, Turning from cut length, passes, feed and cutting speed. The result appears on the line and can always be overwritten with your own time.

Quantities: enter the breaks the customer asked for (e.g. 10, 25, 50, 100). Each break gets its own price; yield adds the extra pieces you start to finish the good ones.

Preview price calculates without saving. Save line, then Calculate on the quote: official prices are always calculated on the server.

Mark a cost “not charged again on a repeat order” and it drops out when you copy the quote as a repeat order.

3D models and drawings (Pro)

Attach the customer's files under Drawings & files on the quote. STEP and IGES models are measured automatically: volume, smallest block and round bar, holes (by diameter and depth), pockets and slots. View 3D shows the part.

In the line editor, From 3D model fills the blank with your machining allowance (Use as block or Use as round bar) and can add drilling, tapping and turning operations with estimated times. Check them: they are a starting point, not CAM times.

PDF and image drawings are read for part number, revision, title, material and finish, plus callouts that cost money (threads, fits, tight tolerances, fine finishes, heat treatment). Use drawing details copies them into the line. If the drawing and the model look like different parts, the editor warns you.

Never upload export-controlled (ITAR, EAR other than EAR99, DSGL, UK or EU military and dual-use lists, Canadian controlled goods) or classified material.

Approving, issuing and sending

Approve and freeze locks the prices and terms of that version; Issue & download PDF produces the quote document for your customer. To change an issued quote, press Revise: you get a new version and the old one stays exactly as it was sent.

Online acceptance (Pro): email the buyer a private link. They see the quote (never your costs), pick a quantity per line and accept with their PO number on any phone, without an account. You get an email and the quote is marked won.

Copy creates a new quote from an existing one — for another customer, or as a repeat order — priced with today's rates.

Follow-ups and reminders

Each morning whoever made a quote gets one email listing quotes still waiting on the customer: 3 and 10 days after issue, when the validity is about to end, and when the buyer opens the online link without answering. People who cost quotes are also reminded when a material price is about to expire. Record won or lost on the quote and it drops off the list. Turn reminder emails off in Settings.

A quote nobody answered is marked Expired automatically 7 days after its valid-until date, so win rates count it. A buyer who answered through the online link is left for you to record. If the customer comes back later, copy or revise the quote.

Job actuals and insights

Log time lets the shop floor record real setup and run times against a won job; Job actuals compares them with what you quoted, operation by operation, so the next quote is closer. Insights shows your win rate, quoted and won value, turnaround and why quotes were lost, month by month.

Importing your lists

On Customers, Materials and Machines, Import takes an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file whose first row is headings. Columns are matched by name (e.g. Company, Contact, Email; Material, Density, Price per kg; Machine, Process, Rate per hour) and other columns are ignored. You see every row before anything is saved; names already in your list are skipped, never overwritten. Download a template gives you the exact headings.

Routing templates

For parts you quote often, set up one line, then click Save as template in the line editor. It keeps the operations and times, other costs, outside processing, material and quantity breaks. In a new line, pick it under Start from a template and adjust. Machine and labour rates are always today's, so an old template never brings old prices with it; if a machine has since been removed, the line asks you to choose one. Rename or delete templates under Settings → Routing templates.

Which jobs made money

On Insights, every won job with logged time is costed again with the minutes it really took, at the rates frozen in the quote: what you charged, what it cost, and the profit you kept, next to the profit you quoted. Group the results by customer, material, quantity or process to see which kind of work pays and which does not, and each job shows the operation that ran over most. A job counts in the totals once every operation has time logged. Material follows the pieces actually started if you record them; other costs and outside processing stay as quoted.

Won jobs into Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks (Pro)

On the quotes list, Export won quotes turns the jobs won in a date range into an import file: Xero draft sales invoices, MYOB service sales, QuickBooks Online invoices, or a plain CSV for Excel and ERP systems. Amounts are the prices the buyer accepted, before tax, and the buyer's PO goes along. Set the income account, tax code (or QuickBooks item) to match your books; the first time, check the column matching in the import screen. Each format's note says where to import it.

Order acknowledgement

When a quote is won, open it and click Order acknowledgement PDF to confirm the order to the buyer: the lines and quantities they took, unit prices, any minimum-order adjustment, subtotal, tax and total, their PO number, and your lead time, delivery and payment terms. Add an expected ship date if you have one. It uses only what the buyer saw on the quote, with your logo, and the activity log records each one made.

Machine load

Machine load shows, for each machine, the hours still to run on won jobs that are not finished: the machine time planned in the quote, less the setup and run time already logged in Log time. Enter how many hours a machine runs in a week to see roughly how many weeks of work are waiting, which helps when you promise a lead time. Each job shows when the customer needs it, if the request said so.

Buy list

Buy list adds up what won jobs that are not finished still need: material blanks by material and size (pieces to start, including extra for the planned yield, and the weight), and outside processing by supplier with the number of parts. It shows no prices, so operators can use it too. Download CSV to order or to send to a supplier. A job leaves the list when it is marked finished in Log time.

Calibrating times from finished jobs

On Insights → Calibrate from finished jobs, each machine shows how its real setups and cycles compared with the quotes, using the middle value of all operations on finished jobs. Once a machine has 3 finished jobs and is 10% or more off, you can Apply the suggested correction. Nothing changes by itself: in the line editor, operations on that machine then show the corrected setup and cycle time next to what you typed, with Use to take it. Clear removes the correction. Every change is in the activity log.

Job travellers

When a quote is won, open it and click Print job traveller (operators: Print traveller on the job in Log time). You get one page per line the customer took: quantity to make, material and blank size, the operations in order with machine, setup, cycle and planned time as quoted, outside processing, and boxes to sign off each step. It shows no prices or costs, so it can go out on the floor. The QR code opens that job in Log time on a phone.

Quote requests by email (Pro)

With online quote requests switched on, Settings → Online quote requests also shows your own email address (quotes+…@spindlewise.com). Forward a buyer's request email to it, or give it to buyers. The email becomes a draft quote: the subject is the title, the text is kept with the request, and drawings, 3D models and ZIP files are attached, measured and read like any upload (up to 5 files, 25 MB each). When you forward, the customer is taken from the forwarded email, so check it on the quote. Out-of-office replies are ignored. New link also replaces this address.

Online quote requests (Pro)

Turn on the request form under Settings → Online quote requests and put its link or the ready-made button on your website, email signature or invoices. Buyers fill in what they need, quantities and a date, and attach drawings and 3D models (no account needed). Each request arrives as a draft quote with the files attached, models measured and drawings read, and the people who quote get an email they can reply to. New link retires the old one if it gets passed around.

Country, tax and units

The country and state or province you choose set your currency, the tax shown on quotes (for example GST, HST or VAT at the usual rate), the time zone for quote dates, and whether sizes are in millimetres and kilograms or inches and pounds. Change any of them under Settings; the currency only before your first quote. Sample data uses typical figures for your area, which you should replace with your own. Inches or millimetres only change what you see and type: a quote prices exactly the same either way.

Your team and roles

Owner / Admin: everything, including team, plan, settings and the Activity log.
Estimator: rates, materials, machines and costing; approves and issues quotes.
Sales: customers and sending quotes; never sees your cost rates.
Viewer: read only. Operator: only logs shop-floor time.

Plans, your data and security

A new workspace gets a 30-day trial with every feature, then moves to Free unless you choose a plan (Free: 1 user, 5 new quotes a month; Shop: up to 5 users; Pro: everything, including 3D models, drawings and online acceptance). Your plan and usage are in Settings → Plan.

Nothing is deleted when a plan ends, and Settings → Your data exports everything (quotes, prices, files) at any time, on every plan. The Activity page shows who changed what, including old and new prices.

Questions we get

Why is my line blocked?: Something the price depends on is missing — usually a material price, a machine rate or a cycle time. The message on the line says which field.
Why “review required”?: The price can be calculated but something deserves a second look: an expired material price, a manual time that replaces a template without a reason, roughing volume that adds up to more than the blank can give, or a return below your floor. Approving records that you checked it.
Can I change a price after issuing?: Use Revise. Issued versions never change, so what the customer received can always be shown again.
Which currency and tax?: Set once in Settings before your first quote; GST or VAT is added on the quote, never inside your costs.