Getting started

ConfigBid has two sides:

• The admin panel at /admin on your ConfigBid address. This is where you and your team set up products, questions and pricing, and where submitted quotes come in.
• The configurator at /configure. This is the page your customers use. It walks them through your questions one section at a time, shows a live price as they answer, and ends with a review screen where they submit.

You never write code. Everything the configurator does comes from what you set up in the admin panel.

The building blocks

Building block	What it is	Example
Section	A step in the configurator. Groups related questions.	“Door specs”, “Openers & accessories”, “Installation”
Question	Something you ask the customer.	“What type of door?”
Answer option	One choice on a pick-one or pick-many question.	“Manual”, “Automatic”
Part	A line item that can appear on a quote, with a SKU and a unit price.	TRACK_KIT, Track and roller kit, $149
Category	A group of parts shown inside a section, either always included or offered as optional add-ons.	“Required hardware”
Rule	“When these answers are true, do these things.” Shows and hides questions, adds parts, sets quantities, adds fees.	When door type is Automatic, add Photo-eye sensors

How a price gets built

Every quote is a list of parts multiplied by their quantities, plus any fees or discounts. Parts get onto a quote in four ways:

1. Linked to an answer option. Picking “Steel” adds the steel door panel, either a fixed number or one per opening. Set this up in the question editor.
2. Linked to a yes/no answer. Answering “Yes” to “Add a weather seal?” adds a seal for each opening.
3. From a category. Parts marked Always included are always on the quote. Optional parts are ones the customer can tick. See Parts and categories.
4. Added by a rule. For combinations of answers, like “add sensors when the door is automatic and over 16 feet”. See Rules.

Then rules can change quantities, override prices, add fees, or apply a percentage. Your store-wide discount (if you turn one on in Settings) comes last.

Start simple. Most shops get almost all the way with answers that add parts, and questions that are only asked when another answer fits (“When to ask it” in the question editor). Only reach for rules for fees, discounts, greyed-out options, or checks that combine several answers.

Changes go live when you publish

Edits to your configurator (sections, questions, answers, parts, prices, categories and rules) are a draft until you publish them. Customers keep seeing the last published version, so you can work on a change for as long as you like.

• The card at the top of the admin menu says All changes are live, or how many unpublished changes you have.
• Preview opens the configurator with your draft, so you can click through it exactly as a customer would.
• Publish… shows a list of what changed, then makes it live for the next customer who visits.
• Made a mistake? Make an earlier version live again from History.

Settings and Terms aren’t part of the draft: they apply as soon as you save them. Quotes customers have already submitted never change. Each one keeps the prices and answers it was submitted with.

Start from the example, or start blank

While your configurator is empty, the Dashboard asks how you want to start:

• Start from the garage-door example loads a finished garage-door configurator: 3 sections, 14 questions, 25 parts with prices and 3 rules. Change the questions, parts and prices to match your business, or delete what you don’t need. It’s a draft, so customers don’t see it until you publish. It doesn’t touch your logo, colors, settings or terms.
• Start blank takes you to Sections so you can build your own from scratch.

The choice goes away once you’ve added anything, and the example is never loaded over something you’ve built.

Recommended setup order

1. Settings: your logo, colors, currency and contact details. Takes five minutes and makes every preview look like yours.
2. Parts: enter or import your price list. Questions and rules point at parts, so it helps to have them first.
3. Sections: the steps of your configurator.
4. Questions and answers: what you ask in each section, when to ask it, and which parts each answer adds (a fixed number, or one per opening).
5. Rules: fees, discounts, greyed-out options and checks that combine several answers.
6. Terms and conditions: what customers agree to when they submit.
7. Preview and go live: click through every path, check the dashboard’s health card, then share your link.
8. Notifications: who on your team gets emailed when a quote comes in.

If you’d rather see a finished setup first, read the worked example. It builds a garage-door configurator from start to finish.

Getting around the admin panel

The left-hand menu has two groups:

• Configurator: Sections, Questions, Parts, Categories, Rules, Settings, Terms and Preview. Everything that shapes what customers see.
• Workspace: Quotes, Team, Customers, Invites, Activity, History, Analytics and Notifications. Everything that happens after a customer submits.

The Dashboard is the home page. It shows this month’s quotes and their value, recent activity, a count of everything you’ve set up, and an Engine health card that flags common setup mistakes. See Preview and go live.