Prototype Machine Shop Software: Fast Quotes for Low-Volume Work
Prototype work is a quoting business. Quantities are one to a few dozen, setup dominates the cost, the engineer on the other end wants an answer today, and the part will change rev twice before it ships. The buyers in this market are blunt about it: a local shop that takes a week to quote loses to an overseas shop that quotes the same day.
Traveler is designed so a small shop can answer RFQs fast without losing control of revisions or margin. Quotes go out as a PDF and an accept link, changes come back as a threaded comment that becomes Rev B, and every part keeps its full history.
“We quote ten jobs to win two, and every quote takes as long as a real one.”
Fast-quote mode takes lump hours plus material when a full routing isn't worth it. The quote pipeline shows outstanding, viewed, won, and lost, with a loss reason on each, so you can see which work you actually win.
“On qty 1 to 5, setup is the whole price and I keep getting it wrong.”
Setup is entered once per op and amortized across every quantity break automatically, with margin shown per break and a warning when a break falls below your margin floor.
“The engineer sends a new rev mid-quote and I lose track of which version we priced.”
Change requests come back as comments on the quote and create a new quote revision with the history kept. Part records hold every rev with its drawings, and quoting an old rev raises a supersede warning.
“I don't know if they even opened the quote.”
The quote link is tracked, so you see when the customer viewed it and how many times. Follow-up emails can be drafted automatically after a set number of days without an answer.
Speed is the product in prototype work
Prototype buyers send the same RFQ to several shops and often pick whoever answers first with a reasonable number. Traveler is designed to cut quote turnaround by removing the retyping: forward the RFQ email, the drawing opens beside the draft quote, and customer and part autocomplete from what you already have.
The buyer gets a page they can open on a phone, pick a quantity, attach a PO, and accept. Acceptance creates the job and notifies you, so the gap between yes and the first chip is as short as you want it.
When the prototype becomes production
The prototype you ran last spring is the production order you quote next year. Because every quote, job, actual hour, and setup photo attaches to the part record, the production quote starts from what really happened on the prototype, not from memory.
If the last run went over quote, the repeat quote is designed to flag it and offer to price from actuals instead.
Want this handled without the spreadsheet?
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Straight answers
▸Do quotes expire?
Yes. The default is 30 days, or 14 for material you flag as volatile. An expired quote has to be re-priced before it can be accepted.
▸Does the customer need an account to accept a quote?
No. They open a link, choose a quantity break, enter or attach a PO, and accept. The name, timestamp, and acceptance are recorded in a signed acceptance PDF.
▸Does Traveler analyze CAD geometry to price parts?
No. Traveler is being built to handle the quoting mechanics, history, and delivery. Geometry-based AI estimating is a separate category, generally priced for larger shops.