How CPQ Elevates Finance and Operations Across Industries

CPQ (configure, price, quote) is a powerful software that automates several aspects of the sales process — product selection and configuration, pricing alignment, quote delivery, approval workflows, and contracting.

83% of sales teams use it because it’s the only way to manage the complexities of modern selling. And really, we’re surprised that figure isn’t 100%.

But CPQ isn’t just a sales tool. Across various industries, CPQ vendors have incorporated additional features, integrations, and product suites that go beyond the standard CPQ functionality into their solutions.

As such, it plays an increasingly important role in finance and operations teams’ everyday responsibilities.

In today’s article, we’re diving into how you can use CPQ beyond the sales function to elevate your finance and operations processes.

How CPQ streamlines finance

While it might not seem like it at first glance, CPQ can significantly improve finance processes. Since it eliminates the potential for errors from manual calculations and data entry, your finance team won’t have problems resolving discrepancies. And, despite accounting processes taking a fraction of the time, your books will be much more accurate across the board.

Improved quoting accuracy

Since it automates the pricing and quoting process, it eliminates manual errors related to pricing calculations and sales numbers. This is especially crucial when you offer discounts, promotions, bundling, and other types of sales incentives.

Simplified pricing management

CPQ software allows finance teams to manage and adjust pricing models dynamically. It supports complex pricing structures, including volume discounts, promotional offers, and tiered pricing, ensuring pricing consistency across transactions.

If your comapny uses an AI-powered CPQ software, your finance team can even test different prices using price segmentation or conduct pricing, volume, product mix, and profitability analyses.

Because it’s the source of all your transactional data, it also serves as a starting point for what will become a much more holistic picture of your business. By integrating CPQ and CRM, you’ll be able to see the entire customer journey from inquiry to quote to close, which customer segments are most profitable, and which products or services generate the most revenue.

Better sales forecasting and analysis

When each transaction is tied to a specific product configuration, price, and quote, finance teams can easily analyze sales data to identify trends and predict future revenue. In addition to better financial planning, this means improved demand forecasting, budgeting, and resource allocation.

Your finance team can also use sales and product data from CPQ for more advanced predictions, like propensity modeling, revenue/customer churn forecasting, lead scoring, and white space analysis.

Faster order processing

With CPQ, you can set up automations for:

• Pricing calculations
• Configurations and bundles
• Approvals
• Contract generation
• Payment schedules
• BOM, PO, and invoice generation

Since it also integrates with your ERP system, it can check stock availability, process payments, and update inventory levels, dramatically reducing order processing times.

Compliance and audit readiness

CPQ integrates with billing and accounting systems to automate the revenue recognition process. Even if you receive an upfront payment for a product or service, CPQ can ensure it isn’t recognized until that service or product is delivered. That way, your financial reporting is always 100% accurate.

As the engine behind your sales transactions, CPQ also provides a reliable audit trail. If you’re ever audited, you can easily access all the data and documentation you need through the CPQ system.

How CPQ boosts operations

Ops teams have a few critical responsibilities: guaranteeing product quality, optimizing the supply chain, and managing customer relationships. These responsibilities all benefit from CPQ.

Clear, defined product configuration

CPQ validates configurations based on product rules and dependencies. For instance, if a product can’t be sold in certain regions due to regulatory restrictions or two products can’t be bundled together, the system will flag it. This ensures your ops teams only have to produce and ship products that are compliant with your policies and feasible for your business.

For your customers, it means receiving accurate quotes with precise product specifications. Since CPQ also provides real-time pricing and availability information, customers can see how different configurations or quantities affect the price and delivery dates.

This is a huge win for the customer experience. When products always meet customer specifications, you can avoid rework, delays, and unmet expectations.

Enhanced inventory management

Through ERP and PIM integrations, CPQ can provide real-time inventory data. This improves the accuracy of quotes and delivery estimates, as well as ensures that your ops team can fulfill orders without delays or stock shortages.

Sme CPQ systems also integrate with your vendor portals. The Product Sourcing module in ConnectWise CPQ is a perfect example — it offers comparative views of products with up-to-the-minute availability and pricing info from distributors and vendors.

Streamlined order fulfillment

When there’s a smooth handoff between sales and order management teams, it reduces the risk of errors and delays. CPQ automatically generates BOMs, POs, and orders with the correct specifications and pricing. Your fulfillment team sees it and can begin working right away, meaning faster delivery times, fewer errors, and happier customers.

Stronger cross-functional alignment

CPQ provides a single source of truth for all product, pricing, and sales data. When your teams share the same information, it ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to pricing, product availability, and customer expectations.

This is especially important for situations where a customer may have been given different pricing or product information from multiple teams, leading to confusion and potentially lost sales. With CPQ, everyone has access to the same data and can provide consistent, accurate information to customers.

Plus, sales, finance, and ops being on the same page makes high-level decision-making much more efficient. Instead of having to gather and reconcile disparate data from different systems, everyone can rely on the comprehensive data provided by CPQ and their integrated systems.

CPQ benefits all industries differently.

Your finance and ops teams’ relationship with CPQ will differ depending on the industry you operate in. Let’s explore a few examples:

Manufacturing

For manufacturing companies, CPQ makes it easier to sell highly configurable products through guided selling. Manufacturing often involves complex product configurations that can include thousands of possible combinations. CPQ software simplifies this process by helping sales reps (or customers) choose the optimal components and configurations.

Broadly speaking, the process looks something like this:

1. A customer submits a request for a quote or places an order.
2. CPQ’s guided selling functionality helps the rep find a valid product configuration and price based on their needs and budget.
3. If certain conditions are met, the system will trigger an approval process to make sure the sale meets your internal criteria.
4. Once the quote is approved, the rep generates documentation and sends it to your production team.

Since it integerates with ERP, the production team can get to work right away. There’s no need for cross-referencing because the system already took care of that during the guided selling process.

And since it works seamlessly with CRM, manufacturers always have a unified view of customer data and product information, streamlining the quote-to-cash process.

Healthcare

In the healthcare and medical devices industries, there are a wide range of products and services a company might offer. Medical procedures, customized care packages, hospital equipment, and drugs all require specific configurations and pricing.

Healthcare pricing are also remarkably complicated due to insurance coverage, service combinations, and contractual agreements with payers. CPQ ensures accurate pricing to prevent revenue leaks and compliance with both internal policies and external regulations, like Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.

With an automated quoting process, healthcare providers can quickly and accurately produce quotes for services. This is particularly important when patients or insurance companies need detailed breakdowns of proposed treatments. Faster and precise quoting speeds up the approval processes and reduces billing errors, leading to improved cash flow and patient experiences.

Technology

The technology sector — particularly companies involved in software, SaaS, and IT services — benefit immensely from the deployment of CPQ software. The complexities associated with pricing, product configurations, and sales cycles in tech make CPQ an indispensable tool.

Tech products and services often involve complex specifications and customization options. CPQ systems help streamline the configuration of these offerings, ensuring that all possible options and customizations are presented logically.

The also frequently undergo rapid pricing changes and promotional offers due to competition and innovation. CPQ software enables dynamic pricing, which can adjust prices in real-time based on factors such as market demand, customer segment, and purchase history.

For tech companies operating on a subscription basis, CPQ tools like DealHub are adept at handling complex subscription models, tracking renewals, upsells, and cross-sells, and adjusting the terms and pricing as per contract or customer requirement changes.

What can CPQ do for your finance and operations?

CPQ is a transformative tool for both financial management and operational processes. Its ability to automate the sales process, streamline communication between departments, and provide accurate data and insights makes it an invaluable asset for businesses across all industries.

To recap, a few reasons to invest in CPQ:

• Greater accuracy and efficiency in quoting and pricing processes
• Streamlined communication and data sharing between departments
• More informed decision-making and forecasting
• Fewer manual errors and paperwork
• Faster sales cycle and increased revenue

No matter the industry, if you’re selling something, you need CPQ.

Looking to invest in CPQ? Take a look at my guide to choosing CPQ software. And check out our reviews and comparisons for a closer look once you’ve filtered down your options.