Quotes built from the estimator's head
Every RFQ means opening drawings, counting parts into a spreadsheet and guessing hours. When the estimator is away, quoting stops, and nobody can say why the last similar job lost money.
Software for Edmonton manufacturers, from drawing to shipped job
Most small shops run on an estimator's spreadsheet, a paper traveller and QuickBooks. We build software for manufacturers in Edmonton: quotes from drawings, work orders on the floor, material control and quality records, connected to the accounting you already have.
Updated
Four places this work leaks time and money.
Travellers that fall out of date
A paper traveller follows the job across the floor. Engineering issues a new revision after it is printed, and a part gets cut to the old dimension before anyone notices.
Material that is somewhere in the yard
Plate, pipe and remnants get counted at year end. Purchasing orders what the job needs without knowing a usable drop is already sitting on the rack.
Quality records assembled after shipping
Mill test reports, inspection sign-offs and NCRs live in folders and inboxes. Building the data book takes days after the job leaves the shop, and the final invoice waits for it.
What we build for this sector.
Quoting from drawings and BOMs
Import a BOM or build one from the drawing, price material from current supplier costs, add routing hours per operation and outside processing, and issue the quote in your format. Every quote is kept, so the next similar RFQ starts from history.
Software band: $18,000 – $50,000Work orders and digital job travellers
Won quotes become work orders with operations, drawings at the current revision and inspection hold points. Each station sees the job on a tablet and signs off its step, and the office sees where every job sits.
Software band: $18,000 – $50,000Inventory, purchasing and heat numbers
Stock, remnants and consumables tracked by location, with reorder points and purchase orders raised against jobs. Heat numbers and mill test reports attach on receipt and follow the material through to the finished part.
Software band: $18,000 – $50,000Inspection records and data books
Inspection checklists, NCRs and photos captured at the hold point and tied to the job and part. The quality dossier builds itself as the job moves, so it ships with the product instead of weeks later.
Software band: $18,000 – $50,000Shop dashboards
Quoted against actual hours by job and operation, late jobs, work in progress and material on hand, pulled from the systems above and from QuickBooks or your ERP. Shown in Power BI or on a screen above the floor.
Reporting: from $4,500Floor safety, people data and traceability
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation expects hazards on the shop floor to be assessed and controlled, equipment to be inspected and workers to be trained for the tasks they do. Serious incidents may need reporting to WCB-Alberta. Employee and customer records fall under PIPA, and your clients add their own quality and traceability requirements on top. We build these records into daily work so they exist when someone asks. This is general information, not legal advice.
- Hazard assessments and equipment inspections on shop tablets
- Incident records ready for WCB-Alberta reporting
- Employee and customer data handled under PIPA
- Heat numbers and inspection sign-offs tied to each part
In detail
What software does a small manufacturer actually need?
Usually not a full ERP. A shop of up to forty people tends to need a connected chain: quotes built from drawings and BOMs, work orders and travellers the floor can follow, inventory and purchasing tied to jobs, and inspection records that ship with the product. Each step reuses the last one's data, and accounting stays in QuickBooks.
We build that chain as custom software around how your shop already quotes and schedules, one piece at a time. The first piece is the one costing you most: quoting for a shop losing bids on speed, travellers for one doing rework, material control for one buying plate it already owns.
Quoting from drawings and BOMs
A good quoting tool turns a drawing package into a priced bill of materials, routing hours and outside processing in one sitting. Material is priced from current supplier costs by weight or length, labour from your rates per operation, and galvanising, coating or heat treatment from saved vendor quotes, so two estimators reach the same number.
Every quote is stored with its drawings and assumptions, so you can compare quoted hours with actual hours once the job closes. Where RFQs arrive as emailed PDFs, an AI automation step will pull out part numbers, quantities, materials and due dates for the estimator to check. The model comes from a major model provider and may process requests outside Canada, so we tell you which provider and region it uses, and customer drawings go only where you approve.
Job travellers and shop-floor tablets
A digital traveller is the work order the floor actually uses: operations in sequence, the drawing at its current revision, inspection hold points and a sign-off at each station. Operators clock onto an operation on a tablet at the machine or weld bay, so the office sees where every job sits without walking the floor.
When engineering issues a new revision, the tablet shows it and marks the old one superseded, which ends the habit of cutting parts to last week's drawing. Screens suit dirty hands and noisy bays: large buttons, scanning of the job tag and photos instead of typing. The tablet side is app development in the same price band as the rest of the system.
Should a job shop buy an ERP or build around what it has?
Buy an ERP when your processes are standard and you have staff to configure and maintain it. Build around what you have when your work is custom, your team is small and QuickBooks already handles the accounting. The answer is often in between: keep the existing ERP or accounting system and add focused tools where it falls short.
| Option | Best for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets and QuickBooks | A few repeat products | Low cost, but quotes and travellers depend on one person |
| Off-the-shelf ERP | Standard processes and staff to run it | Wide feature set, vendor licences, long configuration |
| Focused tools from Glasshead Tech | Custom work and small teams | Quoting, travellers, inventory or quality built to your process, $18,000 – $50,000 |
Business systems, not plant control
We build the business side of manufacturing: quoting, scheduling, work orders, inventory, purchasing, quality records and reporting. We do not program PLCs, build SCADA or HMI screens, write CNC programs or touch safety systems on equipment. That work belongs with controls specialists, and we will say so if a request crosses the line.
Where a machine or line already produces counts or reports, we read those exports into your job records or a reporting dashboard in Power BI, without connecting anything to the control network.
Shops in Nisku, Leduc County and the Industrial Heartland
Industrial work around Edmonton spreads from the Nisku industrial area south of the city in Leduc County to Alberta's Industrial Heartland around Fort Saskatchewan, home to petrochemical, refining and energy processing. We work remotely first and visit your shop in the Edmonton region whenever seeing the floor will change the design.
For shops supplying plant turnarounds and maintenance work, that usually means fast quotes and paperwork that keeps pace with the job. Read more about working with manufacturers in Leduc and Nisku.
How much does software for a manufacturer cost?
Quoting, work order, inventory and quality systems each fall in our operational software band of $18,000 – $50,000, taking eight to sixteen weeks. Shop dashboards start from $4,500. Most shops begin with one system and add the next once the first is in daily use. Full bands are on our pricing page.
Asked before they write.
Do you write PLC or machine control software?
No. We build business systems such as quoting, work orders, inventory, purchasing and quality records. PLC programming, SCADA, HMI screens, CNC programs and equipment safety systems belong with controls specialists. Where a machine already exports counts or reports, we will read those files into your job records without connecting to the control network.
Can you quote from our drawings and BOMs automatically?
Partly. If your BOMs come out of CAD as structured files, we import them directly and price them against your material and labour rates. For PDF drawings, an AI step drafts the BOM and RFQ details for an estimator to check. A person always approves the price before a quote goes to the customer.
Will it work with QuickBooks or our existing ERP?
In most cases, yes. Quotes, purchase orders and invoices export to QuickBooks, and we connect to an existing ERP where it offers an import or an interface. We check this during discovery, before the fixed quote, so you know what connects and what needs a workaround before you commit.
How long does it take to get a quoting system running?
Eight to sixteen weeks for most quoting systems, depending on how many product types and pricing rules you have. We start by re-quoting a handful of your recent jobs together, then build, test against live RFQs and launch with your estimators. Training is part of the launch, not an extra.
Do you work with shops outside Edmonton?
Yes. We are in Edmonton and take on work across Canada, mostly remotely. Shops in Nisku, Leduc County, Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park are close enough for on-site visits during discovery and launch, which matters because watching a traveller move through the shop usually changes the design.
What is not included in a manufacturing software project?
Shop tablets, label printers and scanners are bought by you, and we will recommend models. Controls and machine programming are out of scope. Hosting and support after launch are quoted separately, from $300 per month. Your quality program and client requirements remain yours; we build the tools that record work against them.
The services behind these systems.
Custom software
$18,000 – $50,0008–16 weeks
Glasshead Tech does custom software development in Edmonton, building the systems Alberta companies run daily operations on: quoting, scheduling, job costing, safety documentation, field capture, client portals and booking. Builds cost $18,000 to $50,000 CAD and take 8 to 16 weeks, with a fixed quote before coding starts. You own the code, data and accounts at handover.
App development
$18,000 – $50,0008–16 weeks
Glasshead Tech does app development in Edmonton for field teams that work without signal: web apps for the office and mobile apps for crews, built offline-first so forms, photos and signatures save on the device and sync later. Apps cost $18,000 to $50,000 CAD, take 8 to 16 weeks and are quoted at a fixed price first.
Data and dashboards
From $4,5003–6 weeks
Glasshead Tech sets up data analytics for Edmonton businesses as one trusted view of the few numbers that run the company, pulled automatically from accounting, job costing, CRM, e-commerce and spreadsheets. It is built in Power BI or as a custom dashboard, from $4,500 over 3–6 weeks, priced in writing before any work.
Automation
From $2,5002–4 weeks per workflow
Glasshead Tech builds business automation for Alberta companies, so nobody re-keys data between the tools they already pay for: quotes become invoices, web enquiries land in the CRM with an owner, and reports assemble on schedule. Each rule-based workflow costs from $2,500 CAD, takes two to four weeks and is quoted fixed before work starts.
AI automation
From $3,5002–6 weeks per workflow
Glasshead Tech builds AI automation for Edmonton and Alberta businesses: a language model handles one narrow job, such as reading quote requests or supplier invoices, and a person approves the result before it reaches a customer or the books. Each workflow starts from $3,500, takes 2–6 weeks and is quoted at a fixed price first.
Near you.
Edmonton
Alberta's capital, where the studio is based
Glasshead Tech does web design for Edmonton businesses and publishes the range up front: $4,500 to $12,000, four to six weeks to launch. The same Edmonton studio builds custom software and AI automation and runs IT support. Discovery happens in person or by video, the quote is fixed first, and replies come within 24 hours.
Leduc and Nisku
south of Edmonton in Leduc County
At Glasshead Tech, web design for B2B companies in Leduc and Nisku costs $4,500 to $12,000 and launches in four to six weeks. Quoting, work order, dispatch and offline field software runs $18,000 to $50,000 over eight to sixteen weeks. You get a fixed quote and a reply within 24 hours.
Fort Saskatchewan
northeast of Edmonton, at Alberta's Industrial Heartland
Glasshead Tech does web design for Fort Saskatchewan contractors, fabricators and suppliers: a business website costs $4,500 – $12,000 and launches in 4–6 weeks. Safety documentation, field capture and quoting software costs $18,000 – $50,000 over 8–16 weeks. We work from Edmonton, visit when it helps and fix the quote before work starts.
Sherwood Park
Strathcona County, east of Edmonton
Glasshead Tech does web design for Sherwood Park contractors and industrial service firms who want to win homeowner and plant work: $4,500 to $12,000, four to six weeks. We also build quoting, field capture and safety documentation software at $18,000 to $50,000, eight to sixteen weeks. Quotes are fixed and enquiries answered within 24 hours.
Send us a recent RFQ and the quote you sent back.
We will show you where the estimating hours went and what a quoting tool would change. Expect a reply within 24 hours and a fixed quote after one short call.