If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Most dealership owners find out what a job actually made weeks after it closed — when accounting finally reconciles it. By then the margin is whatever it is. Equilibrium moves that moment to before the quote leaves the building, and keeps score in real time from first quote to final service call.
Margin control that works before the sale
EQ validates your quotes and orders at any point in the process, so the back office never has to chase the sales team for missing information — and you get the right quotes, at the right margins, with the right information, by the time you order.
- Owners set the margin. Control the margin a quote is priced at and who is allowed to approve it.
- Lock a floor by role. Set a minimum margin a salesperson can’t price below — tied to each person’s role — with warning flags when a job doesn’t meet your margin minimums.
- Line-item audit. The printable Cost/Sell report shows exactly how EQ built every number on every line. When a job’s margin looks wrong, you can see why in one report.
- Credit holds. Customers on hold can’t receive quotes. Anywhere.
What’s a healthy margin to target? Our cabinet dealer target margin guide covers the benchmarks.
[ Screenshot placeholder: the Cost/Sell report and a Job Financial Summary (estimated vs. actual profit) — Brent to provide ]
Dashboards built for dealerships
Generic BI tools make you build everything from scratch. EQ’s dashboards were designed by industry experts who ran multi-million-dollar cabinet dealerships and remodeling firms, so the metrics are the ones that actually run a dealership: closing rates, quote pipeline, jobs by workflow stage, service and warranty cost, and sales versus forecast — in real time, with the supporting detail one click away. And because EQ is cloud-based, you can check them from anywhere, including a tablet.
Multi-location visibility — where EQ stands apart
Multi-location visibility is one of the greatest strengths of the software. Create as many locations as you want, and EQ keeps each one self-contained — its own people, catalogs, margin rules, and settings, almost like separate companies. Then roll it all up.
- Drill into locations as groups or individually.
- Report on closing rates, forecast sales, and customer segments — then compare location performance to find internal inefficiencies that need attention.
- Roll-up reporting for owners; per-location views for managers.
Security that matches how you’re structured
- Location-based security. Control what each user can access and see by location.
- Customizable roles. Build your own roles and give people exactly what they need — and nothing they don’t.
- Central control. User access is administered centrally, and can be deactivated in one place.
The dealers who grow on EQ, stay on EQ. Brock Cabinets — one of the largest dealers in the country — has more than doubled its number of locations while running on Equilibrium. Modern Builders Supply runs close to 30 locations on EQ, and has for roughly 20 years.
The reason I chose to invest in Equilibrium was to ensure that as we continue to grow, we will have the controls in place — consistency in my sales force, control over margins, and reporting that allows for the type of analysis we need.
David Trachten, Owner, Viking Kitchens
What week one looks like
It starts with an onsite business process review — we roll up our sleeves, dig into your job folders, and flowchart how your operation runs today. Then we show you the future-state process for better margins and scalability, and configure EQ to enforce it. Your dashboards go live with your real numbers, and the first time EQ catches a quote priced below your margin floor before it ever reaches the customer, you’ll feel exactly what it’s worth.
Questions? Call us at 704-688-4090.
