Best quote-to-cash automation tools for manufacturers in 2026

For most manufacturers the shortlist looks like this. Salesforce Revenue Cloud if your sales team already lives in Salesforce. Conga for pricing, quoting and contracts across a large catalogue. Tacton and Epicor CPQ for configure-to-order products that need a real configurator. Elfsquad for mid-sized machine builders who want one fixed-fee plan. Mercura and Lleverage for turning emailed RFQs into quotes and orders without anyone retyping them. And Elentaria for the manufacturer whose quoting is not the slow part, because the time goes in everything between the approved quote and the paid invoice.

None of these is best in general. Each one is strong at a different stretch of the cycle, and the useful question is which stretch is costing you.

What is quote-to-cash automation for manufacturers?

Quote to cash is everything between a customer asking for a price and the money landing: the RFQ, the configuration and feasibility check, the costing and the quote, the approval, the order, production and delivery coordination, the invoice and the payment. In a manufacturer it is rarely one system. The quote lives in a spreadsheet or a CPQ, the order in the ERP, the delivery dates in someone's inbox and the invoice corrections in finance.

Most of it is still manual. In a July 2025 survey of 200 decision-makers at US manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, run by TrendCandy for the CPQ vendor Aleran, only 37 percent said their quoting was fully automated, and respondents estimated that manual quoting and sales processes cost them an average of 5 percent of revenue a year. The sponsor sells quoting software, so read the size of the number with that in mind. The direction matches what anyone who has sat next to an inside sales desk already knows.

The tools on this page split into three families. CPQ platforms (Salesforce, Conga, Tacton, Epicor, Elfsquad) make configuring and pricing a product correct and fast. Intake tools (Mercura, Lleverage) read what customers send and turn it into a quote or an order. Commercial operations systems (Elentaria) carry the work from request through to invoice and reorder. A walk through the full cycle, stage by stage, is in the B2B commercial operations process, from quote to cash.

How we evaluated these tools

Five criteria, applied the same way to every entry.

1. Which stretch of quote to cash it automates. Configuration, pricing, RFQ intake, order entry, invoicing. Named from the vendor's own pages.
2. Where the automation stops. Every tool hands off somewhere. The question is whether that handoff lands before or after the work your team finds expensive.
3. Fit for how you sell. Engineer-to-order, configure-to-order and make-to-stock manufacturers need very different things from a quoting tool.
4. Evidence you can check. Independent review counts on Capterra, stated implementation times, named customers.
5. Pricing transparency. Where a vendor does not publish, this page says "pricing on request" and quotes no number.

The order is not a score. It runs roughly from broadest scope to narrowest.

Quote-to-cash tools for manufacturers at a glance

Tool	What it automates	Where it stops	Pricing
Elentaria	Request, quote, order, delivery coordination, invoicing and reorders, as one chain under your own rules	At judgment. Prepares work for human approval	On request, on a live demo
Salesforce Revenue Cloud	CPQ, contracts, order capture, subscriptions, billing and revenue recognition inside Salesforce	At the Salesforce boundary. Production and delivery stay in the ERP	Published. $150 or $200 per user per month, billed annually, plus Sales Cloud
Conga	Pricing, rules-based configuration, quoting, contracts and billing	At the contract and bill. Order intake is not its focus	On request
Tacton	Configuration, pricing, quoting, self-service buying and configured order fulfilment	At the handoff to the ERP for invoicing	On request
Epicor CPQ	Visual 3D configuration, pricing, quotes with BOMs, CAD and production documents	At the proposal pushed to CRM, ERP or PLM	Not published by Epicor. From $150 per user per month per Capterra
Elfsquad	Configuration, pricing, quoting, 3D, dealer management and order handoff	At the order sent to the ERP	On request. One fixed-fee plan, unlimited users
Mercura	RFQs from email, attachments and phone into quotes and ERP entries	At the quote and the ERP record	On request
Lleverage	Quotes and sales orders from email, PDF and Excel, plus procurement, planning and invoice matching agents	Works alongside the ERP. Not a buyer-facing configurator	On request, priced per agent

1. Elentaria

What it does. Elentaria is one system for commercial operations. For a manufacturer that means RFQ intake, requirements and feasibility, costing and quotation, order and delivery coordination, billing and repeat business, run as one chain rather than as separate tools. It follows the company's own rules, terminology and approvals, so a quote or an invoice does not move without the right person seeing it.

Who it is for. Manufacturers where the quote is not the bottleneck. The quote goes out on time, and then the days disappear: the order that does not match the quote, the delivery date nobody confirmed, the invoice finance has to correct, the repeat order nobody chased.

Where it stops. At judgment, deliberately. It prepares quotes, orders and invoices for a person to approve. It does not decide a pricing exception, sign off on feasibility or do physical execution. Automation runs the routine and humans own the exceptions.

Pricing. Not published. Shared on a live demo, matched to the workflows in scope.

Watch out for. Elentaria is not a product configurator. If you sell engineer-to-order machines with thousands of option combinations and your quoting problem is getting the configuration right, Tacton, Epicor CPQ or Elfsquad are built for that and Elentaria is not. It is also newer and smaller than every CPQ vendor on this list, and it needs your operating rules written down before it can follow them.

2. Salesforce Revenue Cloud

What it does. Salesforce Revenue Cloud covers CPQ, contract management, order automation, assets and subscriptions, billing and revenue recognition, all inside the Salesforce platform.

Who it is for. Manufacturers whose sales team already runs on Salesforce and who want quoting, contracts and billing in the same place as the pipeline. Its own manufacturing page does not position Revenue Cloud specifically, so it is a general revenue platform used by manufacturers rather than one built around them.

Pricing model. Published. Growth is $150 per user per month and Advanced $200 per user per month, both billed annually, and both bought in addition to Sales Cloud. Billing is priced on request. There is a 30-day free trial, which is rare in this category.

Where it stops. At the Salesforce boundary. Production scheduling, delivery coordination and the ERP side of the order remain in your ERP, connected by integration.

Reviews. 4.4 out of 5 from 83 reviews on Capterra, the largest review base on this page.

3. Conga

What it does. Conga sells CPQ, contract lifecycle management, billing, price management and price optimisation. Its manufacturing page names pricing guardrails, rules-based configuration for complex assemblies, contract automation, guided selling and document generation from ERP data. Named integrations include Salesforce, Dynamics 365, SAP and Oracle.

Who it is for. Manufacturers with large catalogues, complex price lists and contracts that matter as much as the quote. Customers named on its manufacturing page include Embraer, Finning, Vaisala, FORVIA HELLA and Manitou Group.

Pricing model. Not published. Pricing on request.

Where it stops. Its pages cover pricing, quoting, contracts and billing. They do not describe capturing incoming customer orders from email, or collections.

Reviews. Conga CPQ holds 4.2 out of 5 from 20 reviews on Capterra.

4. Tacton

What it does. Tacton is a buyer engagement platform for manufacturers covering configuration, pricing, quoting, a product selector, self-service buying channels, configuration lifecycle management and configured order fulfilment. It integrates with Salesforce, Dynamics 365, SAP, Oracle and Infor, and offers both cloud and on-premise deployment.

Who it is for. Manufacturers of complex configurable products: industrial machinery, energy, fluid handling, specialty vehicles, mining equipment and similar. Customers named on its site include Valmet, Husky, Yaskawa, IMI and Siemens Energy.

Pricing model. Not published. Its pricing page leads to a demo request.

Where it stops. Tacton describes its reach as from buyer interest to product delivery. It does not describe invoicing or billing, which stays in the ERP.

Reviews. 4.4 out of 5 from 13 reviews on Capterra. The on-premise option is worth knowing about if your IT policy rules out cloud-only tools.

5. Epicor CPQ

What it does. Epicor CPQ, formerly KBMax, which Epicor acquired in 2021, is a visual configurator: 2D, 3D, AR and VR configuration, dealer-specific and multi-currency pricing, branded quotes with bills of materials, and a no-code rule engine. It also automates CAD through AutoCAD, SolidWorks and PTC Creo and generates assembly instructions and production documents.

Who it is for. Manufacturers who sell a visual, configurable product through reps, dealers and the web, and who want the quote to produce drawings and BOMs rather than just a price. It is the natural first look for a manufacturer already on an Epicor ERP.

Pricing model. Epicor does not publish a price. Capterra lists a starting price of $150 per user per month. Confirm with Epicor before you budget on it.

Where it stops. At the proposal and its documents, which it pushes to a CRM, ERP or PLM. Order processing and invoicing happen downstream.

Reviews. 4.6 out of 5 from 21 reviews on Capterra. Reviewers praise the 3D visualisation and support, and mention a learning curve on complex configurations.

6. Elfsquad

What it does. Elfsquad is a CPQ for manufacturers covering product and project configuration, pricing and quoting, 3D visual configuration, guided selling, dealer management and BOMs. Its pricing page describes the scope as configure, price, quote and order. Named integrations include Dynamics 365, Business Central, Ridder iQ, Odoo, Exact Online, Salesforce and Windchill.

Who it is for. Machine builders that compete on customer-specific solutions: agricultural and construction equipment, packaging machinery, elevators and lifts, pumps and valves. It says more than 200 manufacturers use it, including Handtmann, Cibes Lift Group, Damen and Dewulf.

Pricing model. One plan with a fixed fee and unlimited users, with add-ons for a showroom, dealer management and advanced visualisation. The fee itself is not published. The no-per-user model suits a manufacturer that wants dealers and engineers in the tool without a seat count.

Where it stops. At the order sent to the ERP. Elfsquad states 3 to 6 months to the productive phase, which is honest about what a real configurator rollout takes.

Reviews. 4.5 out of 5 from 13 reviews on Capterra. Reviewers praise the rule engine and support and note that ERP integration takes technical effort.

7. Mercura

What it does. Mercura reads RFQs and specifications from emails and attachments, including PDF, Excel, Word and the GAEB and ONLV tender formats, matches the requested items to your products, generates the quote and enters the data into the ERP. Voice agents take quote and order calls by phone.

Who it is for. Manufacturers and distributors in HVAC, electrical and building materials who receive a high volume of text-heavy requests and tenders. It is a Munich company founded in 2024, EU hosted and ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Not to be confused with Mercura CPQ, a separate Danish company.

Pricing model. Not published. Pricing on request.

Where it stops. At the quote and the ERP record. It is not a product configurator and does not describe invoicing.

Reviews. No listing on Capterra, G2 or Gartner Peer Insights at the time of writing. That is a consequence of being new, and it means references are the only way to check its claims.

8. Lleverage

What it does. Lleverage calls itself the autonomous back office for companies that make, move and sell physical products. Its quote and sell agents handle quotes and sales orders from email, PDF and Excel, including configuration, pricing and the quote document. Other agents cover procurement and invoice matching, forecasting and planning, and support. It works inside existing ERPs including SAP, Business Central, Dynamics 365, Exact Online, AFAS, Infor and Oracle.

Who it is for. Manufacturers and distributors, many of them European, who want AI agents across several back-office processes, working alongside the ERP. Named customers include Bosch, Royal A-ware, allnex, TP Vision and Lufthansa Cargo. It is EU hosted and says the first use case goes live in weeks.

Pricing model. Not published. One monthly price per agent, with no seat or usage charges, agreed after mapping the work.

Where it stops. It works alongside the ERP rather than replacing it, and it is not a buyer-facing configurator. No independent review record yet. A fuller comparison is in best Lleverage alternatives.

How do you choose between them?

Start from the stretch of the cycle that costs you most, not from the category label.

"Our configurations are wrong or slow." A configurator. Tacton for complex industrial products and on-premise options, Epicor CPQ if you need CAD output and 3D or already run Epicor, Elfsquad for a mid-sized machine builder that wants unlimited users on a fixed fee.

"Our pricing and contracts are the mess." Conga, for price management and contracts on a large catalogue. Salesforce Revenue Cloud if the sales team is already in Salesforce and you want the published price and the free trial.

"We drown in emailed RFQs and tenders." Mercura for text-heavy requests in building services and electrical. Lleverage if you also want agents on procurement and planning.

"The quote is fine, the order-to-cash side is the problem." If the pain is only order entry and receivables in a large enterprise, look at Esker, covered in best Esker alternatives. If the time goes in the gaps between stages, the order that does not match the quote, the delivery date nobody confirmed, the invoice that needs correcting, the reorder nobody chased, that is the case for Elentaria. A better quoting tool will not reach any of it.

Common mistakes when buying quote-to-cash software

Buying a configurator for a problem that is not configuration. A CPQ makes the quote correct. If your quotes are already correct and the pain starts after the customer says yes, a CPQ project will take months and leave the pain where it was.

Counting the quote as the finish line. A fast, accurate quote is the start of the cash cycle, not the end. Ask each vendor what happens to their output: which system reads it, and who is still retyping it.

Budgeting on seat prices alone. Per-user pricing (Salesforce, Epicor per Capterra), fixed fees (Elfsquad) and per-agent pricing (Lleverage) behave very differently once dealers, engineers and customer service all need access. Model your real headcount, not the pilot team.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between CPQ and quote to cash?

CPQ, configure price quote, is the front part of quote to cash: getting a correct configuration and price onto a quote. Quote to cash is the whole cycle through order, delivery, invoice and payment. Most tools sold as quote to cash are strongest at one end of it, which is why this page lists where each one stops.

Which quote-to-cash tools publish their prices?

Of the eight here, only Salesforce Revenue Cloud publishes list prices: $150 or $200 per user per month, billed annually, on top of Sales Cloud. Capterra lists a starting price for Epicor CPQ of $150 per user per month, which Epicor does not state on its own page. Everyone else prices on request.

Do manufacturers need a separate CPQ if they have an ERP?

Not always. If your products are standard and your price lists are simple, the ERP's own quoting can be enough and the time goes elsewhere. A dedicated CPQ earns its cost when products are configurable, rules are complex, or dealers and customers need to configure without an engineer.

How long does quote-to-cash software take to implement?

It varies with scope. Elfsquad states 3 to 6 months to the productive phase for a configurator, and Lleverage says its first use case goes live in weeks. Most vendors do not state a figure. Ask each one what "live" means, because it usually means the first process running, not the whole cycle.

Is Elentaria a CPQ?

No. Elentaria does not configure products or generate CAD. It is one system for commercial operations that carries a request through quote, order, delivery coordination, invoicing and reorder under your approvals. Many manufacturers would run it next to a CPQ rather than instead of one.

How the full cycle runs in a manufacturer, from RFQ to repeat business, is set out in manufacturing.