Margin guardrails on line items
The line that went out at four percent because it was Friday. A floor per family or customer, a flag when a line crosses it, and an approval on the exception.
Development progress
0%
Target Wave 1 · M4. Progress figures move when the work does, and the changelog records the release.
In short
Margin guardrails put a minimum margin on KanchanFlow quote lines, by product family or customer, and flag or route for approval any line that falls below the floor. It is at 0 percent — specified and scheduled for Wave 1 Milestone 4, with no development work started. It will be a Professional and Enterprise capability.
What it is
Margin leaks a line at a time. Nobody approves a bad quarter; they approve twelve individually defensible concessions, each made late in the day by somebody who wanted the job. By the time it shows up in the numbers, the quotes are out and the orders are booked. By then the only remaining option is to price the next job better.
The specified behaviour is simple and deliberately not clever. You set a margin floor by product family, by customer, or globally. When a quote line prices below it, the line flags in the editor before the quote is sent, and depending on your rules it either warns or requires an approval from a named person. The exception is recorded either way.
Capabilities
What it does
Floors by family, customer or globally
A machined component family may carry a different floor from a fabricated assembly, and a strategic account may carry a lower one deliberately. The rule should match the reality.
Flag at the line, before the send
The warning appears on the line in the editor while the estimator can still do something about it, not in a report at month end.
Warn or block, your choice
Some shops want a warning and a record. Others want the quote to stop until someone senior approves. Both are configurable per rule.
Approval routing on the exception
Below-floor lines route to a named approver with the buildup, the floor and the shortfall shown, using the same approval engine as discount approvals.
Exception reporting
Every below-floor line that was sent, who approved it and why, in one list. That report is the conversation you cannot have today.
Step by step
How it works
The order these steps happen in matters more than the feature list above it.
- 1
Define the floors
Set a default margin floor and any overrides by product family or customer. Rules are held centrally rather than in individual heads.
- 2
Estimator prices the line
As the four-column buildup produces a margin, the line is compared against the applicable floor in real time.
- 3
The line flags
A line below the floor is marked with the floor, the actual margin and the shortfall. Nothing is hidden and nothing is silently corrected.
- 4
Approve or reprice
Depending on the rule, the estimator reprices or routes the line for approval. The approver sees the buildup and the shortfall, not just a discount percentage.
- 5
Review the exceptions
Approved exceptions report by customer, product family and approver, so a pattern of concessions is visible while it is still fixable.
What this is not
This is not a pricing optimisation engine — it enforces the floors you set, it does not recommend a price or predict what the customer will accept.
This is not an ERP, MRP, CAD, BOM, or advanced CPQ system — it manages customer RFQs, quotes, follow-ups, and order handoff.
Tier availability
What you get on each plan
These rows come from the same feature matrix the pricing page publishes. If the two ever disagree, the matrix is wrong and we fix it.
| Plan | Availability |
|---|---|
| Starter | Not included — Starter has a 2-column buildup and no approval engine. |
| Professional | Included as part of the 4-column buildup with the full rules-based approval engine. |
| Enterprise | Included, with custom thresholds and custom approval workflows. |
Starter is $39 per user per month, Professional $49, Enterprise $99 plus a $2,000 monthly platform fee. Annual billing is 17% lower. See the full matrix.
Interface
What it looks like
Specification mock of a quote line flagged below its margin floor, showing floor, actual margin and shortfall.
Design specification mock. No development work has started on this feature.
Specification mock of the below-floor exception report grouped by customer.
Design specification mock, not a build capture.
Screenshots are described rather than mocked up. Captures are taken from the build current at the date shown in the changelog, on a sample workspace.
Questions about margin guardrails
No. It is at 0 percent, specified and scheduled for Wave 1 Milestone 4. It depends on the four-column buildup and the approval engine, both of which are further along.
Related features
Manufacturing CPQ
Manufacturing CPQ Lite — cost buildup, quantity breaks and margin floors
Read moreApproval engine
Rules-based approval engine
Read moreRevenue leakage dashboard
Revenue leakage dashboard
Read moreWhat's shipping today
All 47 features grouped by status on one page, with the newest releases alongside.
Read moreSee a live quote draft built from a real RFQ
Fourteen days, no credit card, sample data pre-loaded. If it does not fit your shop, we will tell you in the first call.
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