The Machine Shop playbook
Covers CNC machining, fabrication, welding, prototyping
Quotes that speak RFQ — setup, run time, material, and inspection, every time. A free starter setup: the intake questions Studio asks, structure-only starter quotes, and the nudges that make pricing learn from your own books.
Free to start · no credit card · structure only, never prices
What slows Machine Shop quoting down
Every RFQ gets re-quoted from a blank page — the same material / setup / run-time breakdown rebuilt by hand, and the inspection line forgotten on the busy weeks.
Generic quoting tools think in flat rates. Your shop prices setup, programming, cycle time, fixturing, and first articles — and the tool should already know that.
New software usually means teaching it your trade before it earns anything: weeks of template-building and configuration before the first useful draft.
What the playbook sets up on day one
All structure, no numbers — the scaffold your quotes hang on.
- ✓Intake guidance for Studio: on every RFQ it establishes the price drivers first — whether a drawing or CAD/STEP file exists, material and spec, quantity and whether repeat batches are expected, the tightest tolerance callouts, finishing in-house or sent out, inspection and cert needs like first articles and material certs, and lead-time pressure.
- ✓Three starter quote structures, by name: CNC Machining — Standard Run (material, setup and programming, run time, deburr and finishing, first-article inspection as separate lines), Welding & Fabrication (fit-up, weld, grind and finish), and Prototype Run. Structure only — every price field starts unset.
- ✓Shop-profile placeholder hints in shop language — your machines, your finishing processes and whether they run in-house or get sent out, the materials you actually run — so Studio drafts in your vocabulary from the first conversation.
- ✓Integration nudges in a sensible order: connect QuickBooks so Setell learns your real costs from what you actually invoiced, wire inbound email so RFQs land as drafts, and add a price book or supplier list so material lines carry your real costs.
What Setell learns from your own data
The playbook is the scaffold. The pricing comes from you.
- ✓Your real costs and rates from QuickBooks history — connect it and Setell mines your recent invoices and estimates for pricing signal before your first Setell quote ever goes out.
- ✓Your accepted quotes — every quote a customer signs sharpens your per-customer baselines, so suggestions converge on what your shop actually charges, not an industry average.
- ✓Your revision patterns — what customers push back on and where you hold or concede, learned from your own quote history instead of a canned discount rule.
- ✓The receipts behind every number — suggested prices show their work, line by line, so you can trust them or override them with full context.
Structure on day one. Your prices, not ours.
A playbook never includes prices. Day one it gives you your trade’s structure; connect QuickBooks and Setell learns from what you actually paid and charged — and shows its work on every line.
See how the pricing engine learns →Machine Shop playbook: FAQ
Does the playbook come with pricing?
No — structure only. It sets up the intake questions Studio asks, named starter quote structures, and shop-profile hints; every price field starts unset. Pricing comes from your own data: connect QuickBooks and Setell learns from what you actually paid and charged — and shows its work on every suggested line.
Is the playbook free?
Yes. Applying a playbook is free — it is the starting scaffold for your account, not a paid add-on.
We do CNC work, fabrication, and the odd prototype. Which playbook do we pick?
This one — it covers the whole cluster: CNC machining, fabrication, welding, and prototyping, with a starter structure for each shape of work. The fine-grained specialization comes later, from your own jobs, not from picking a narrower box up front.
How do I apply it?
Three ways, whichever fits how you work: pick it during onboarding, ask Studio in the app (“set me up with the machine shop playbook”), or call the setell_apply_playbook MCP tool from your own agent.
What happens if I apply it again later?
Re-applying is safe. Setell returns a report of what it applied and what it skipped — and it never overwrites structures or settings you have edited.
Can I change what it sets up?
All of it. The starter structures become your templates — rename them, add or remove lines, change units, make your own the default. The playbook is a starting point, not a cage.
Start with the structure
Apply the Machine Shop playbook during onboarding and send a structured quote today — the pricing gets smarter with every job you close.