Case Study: How Quote Automation Helped Finance Teams Cut Revenue Errors

Spotlight

A mid-sized B2B SaaS company offering cloud-based tools for enterprise collaboration faced mounting challenges in managing sales quotes manually. With over 50 sales representatives across global regions and an expanding product catalog, their quote creation process became increasingly inefficient. The manual approach led to delays, errors, and the team needed quote automation which helps in manage product quotes effectively.

Highlights

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Reduction in Quote Turnaround Time

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Accuracy in Generated
Quotes

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Faster Invoice Generation After Approval

Customer’s Speak

Mike Reynolds

Legal Operations Manager

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Managing contracts manually led to missed deadlines, compliance risks, and inefficiencies. With SharePoint Contract Management, automation streamlined workflows, reduced manual effort, and ensured compliance. Now, we focus more on clients instead of paperwork.

Challenges Faced Before Implementing Revenue 365

Before adopting Revenue 365, the organization encountered several operational challenges that hindered growth and efficiency.

1. Slow Quote Turnaround Time
The finance team often needed 1 to 3 days to prepare a single quote. This was mainly due to complex pricing rules and the need to get approvals from multiple departments. These delays made it hard to respond to customer inquiries quickly, leading to frustration and even lost deals. An automated quotation process could have helped reduce this waiting time.

2. Inconsistent Pricing Across Teams
Different teams were using different versions of price sheets and templates. Since there was no central pricing system, quotes often had outdated or wrong prices. This confused customers and led to lost revenue. With an automated quotation system, prices stayed consistent across all regions and products.

3. Errors in Quotes Due to Manual Entry
The team used spreadsheets to create quotes, typing in customer details, product names, and prices manually. This often led to mistakes like typos, wrong totals, and incorrect product combinations. These errors slowed down the process and added extra work for the finance and legal teams. An automated quotation could reduce these manual errors significantly.

4. Lack of Quote Approval Transparency
Quote approvals happened through scattered emails and chats, so it was unclear who had reviewed or approved them. This made it hard to track updates, follow up, or know who was responsible. As a result, approvals took longer and some quotes were sent without proper checks.

5. Limited Integration with Billing Systems
The quote creation process was not linked with the company’s billing software. This meant customer data had to be entered manually at multiple points, increasing the risk of duplication and delay. The lack of integration also slowed down invoice generation and affected revenue tracking.

How We Solved It – The Solution

We implemented a tailored quote automation solution that addressed the company’s entire quote-to-close workflow. The approach focused on building consistency, speed, and accuracy in sales quoting while improving collaboration between sales, finance, and operations teams.

1. Centralized Product Catalog
We built a central product and pricing catalog that the billing team could trust for accurate details. It had region-based pricing, approved discounts, and add-on rules. Quote automation made sure every quote used the latest pricing, so fewer corrections were needed during billing. With this clear data, billing became quicker and more predictable.

2. Automated Approval Workflows
Earlier, the sales and finance teams relied on emails or chat messages to receive approval confirmations. Now, an automated approval process triggers based on deal size and structure. For smaller deals, approvals are instant. For larger ones, decision-makers are notified right away. Quote automation helped clear and automated workflow meant the billing team no longer had to follow up manually or delay invoicing due to unclear status.

3. One-Click Handoff to Billing and Contract Generation
After a quote receives approval, it is instantly transformed into a draft invoice and contract without any manual effort. All the data customer info, product breakdown, pricing, and terms flows directly from the approved quote. This step eliminated the need for the billing team to re-type or re-verify information. Contracts were also auto filled, allowing the finance and legal teams to finalize documents quickly and move the deal to close.

4. Reduced Dependency on Manual Spreadsheets
Before automated quotation, billing teams relied heavily on Excel files, which required manual updates and constant version control. Now, with automated quotation feeding directly into billing software, the need for spreadsheets has been nearly eliminated. Teams spend less time managing files and more time focusing on high-value financial activities.

5. Multiple Currency Support for Global Billing
With a growing global customer base, the billing team had to manage quotes and invoices in various currencies. Automated quotation enabled dynamic currency conversion at the quote stage, and this information was carried through to invoicing. The finance team no longer needed to manually adjust pricing or convert totals, significantly reducing errors and saving time on international transactions.

Results & Business Impact

Within three months of implementing quote automation, the company experienced measurable improvements in quote efficiency, deal velocity, and customer satisfaction.

80% Reduction in Quote Turnaround Time
Quote creation time dropped from an average of 2 days to less than 4 hours, enabling reps to respond to leads while they were still hot.
92% Accuracy in Generated Quotes
By eliminating manual errors and using automated rules, quote accuracy increased dramatically, reducing back-and-forth revisions with customers.
60% Faster Invoice Generation After Approval
Since approved quotes now automatically convert into draft invoices, the billing team reduced invoice generation time by over half. This improvement sped up the quote-to-cash cycle and helped recognize revenue earlier.