Simplifying the Process of Quotation Bill via Automation using Intelligent Document Processing

Manufacturing is a huge industry with multiple document related use cases to cater to. One such use case is quotation bills that are produced in ample amounts and requires processing. With traditional methods, it is possible to achieve the task but it would be very time and cost consuming.

On the flipside, with document automation solutions like VisionERA IDP, it is possible to complete these ordeals with zero to minimal intervention and much higher efficiency.

To address this problem, we have compiled this blog that talks about quotation bills, its importance in the manufacturing industry, and what VisionERA can do as an IDP platform…

What is the meaning of a Quotation Bill?

Also known as Quote, it is an estimated price of the deliverable sent by the supplier to the manufacturing company. The same bill can be sent from a manufacturing company to its client providing an estimated cost of the services which will be rendered.

It is nothing but a ballpark of the amount of money that will be costed to any party that enjoys the benefit of any service. The quotation bill is served in the format of an invoice. Although, the intent of the quotation is a lot different than that of an invoice. The document helps the client or the customer decide which service to go for during market search or it acts as a temp bill before the completion of final delivery.

To further extrapolate, let’s take an example of a toy company searching for a manufacturer to create dolls. The toy company would find multiple manufacturers that manufacture dolls and ask for a quotation. This would help them identify which manufacturer is going to be ideal for them based on the quotation bill forwarded and the past credibility of the manufacturer in the market.

Quotation Bill Format

As you see above, a quotation bill is an amalgamation of multiple data points referring to the customer or client that renders the service. It includes basic details such as name, address, items, item description, item code, cost of individual item, total cost, date of promised delivery, etc.

Each of these data points helps a company identify the point of contact (such as name, address, telephone number,…), cost quoted, and much more. To keep track of quotation bills, these are recorded within a manufacturing company. It is essential because it provides a quantifiable view of the services provided or demanded by a company or a customer.

To successfully do this, manufacturing companies can often compare quotation bills from already existing suppliers to see if the quoted prices are increased or not. Also, the data is often verified from the existing database, once the latest quotation bill is forwarded for verification. This task also includes data extraction on a much wider scale.

Primarily, these tasks were catered using traditional methods i.e. data entry and OCRs (optical character recognition). Both of these methods worked great for years but the scenario is different today. Today, the amount of documents processed by a manufacturing company is substantially a lot and it is from various sources with different formats making it difficult to process by an OCR.

To fix the problem intelligent document processing was created. It is a document processing technology that can process unstructured documents from various sources in bulk using AI technology with minimal intervention. A much greater example of this technology is the VisionERA platform.

We will talk about the solution in a bit more detail later on in the blog under its section.

Significance of Quotation Bill in Manufacturing

Talking from the perspective of manufacturing, the quotation bill could be the consolidation of bills of material (BOM). Bills of material is nothing but the description of raw material utilized for creating a finished product, their quantity, and the total cost (single unit cost, total unit cost, and the entire sum of money).

This means a supplier would provide a quotation bill for BOM. This quotation bill will be audited by the manufacturing company and later on saved as reference before the delivery. Once the delivery is fulfilled, the supplier would use the quotation bill as the invoice, if there are no changes, and feed it to their system. Likewise, the manufacturing will also record the data from the invoices, and store it in a central repository for archival.

Challenges Associated with Quotation Bill Processing in Manufacturing

The challenges associated with quotation bill processing in manufacturing are quite similar to invoice processing. It’s because both these documents portray similar kinds of data but with different intent (as mentioned above). These are:

Huge Volumes

Volume of the documents processed including quotation bills in manufacturing is the reason leaders have to rethink the traditional methods of document processing. This is the reason the IDP market is growing with a CAGR of 37% reaching $4.15 billion in 2026.

Unstructured Data

Manufacturing being central to each and every industry surrounding it receives a meticulous variety of documents from multiple sources. These sources can have different formats, templates, fonts, and even different entries for the data. It makes up for a huge pile of unstructured documents that can’t be processed by any digital system other than an IDP platform.

Lost Quotation Bills

A much bigger problem with huge volumes of data is that it is prone to get lost under the pile. This is the reason why a majority of companies have already started treading faster towards data digitization. In fact, there are various huge titan of companies that have already thought it through and are going paperless. With VisionERA IDP, it would be possible to consolidate each of these documents into a single condensed file that can be searched easily. VisionERA IDP platform can also seamlessly integrate with a cloud environment making the data both secure and substantially less prone to get lost.

To learn about more challenges related to quotation bill and how IDP can aid with quotation bill automation, click on the link below.

Original Link: https://www.amygb.ai/blog/simplifying-the-process-of-quotation-bill-via-idp-automation-manufacturing/