What is CPQ? Configure, Price, Quote explained
Also called: Configure Price Quote, CPQ software, CPQ model, Quoting software
What is CPQ? Configure, price, quote software turns a deal into a valid, priced, signed quote. How CPQ works, CPQ vs quoting tools, and CPQ for subscriptions.
CPQ — Configure, Price, Quote — is sales software that turns a deal into a valid, correctly priced quote a customer can sign. It configures a combination of products that actually goes together, prices it from the catalog plus any approved discounts, and produces the quote document, routing it through approvals and e-signature on the way.
Bunny CPQ does this for B2B SaaS, on the same system as Bunny billing and RevOps — which matters more than it sounds, as the rest of this guide explains.
How CPQ works: the configure, price, quote model
The CPQ model is three jobs in sequence:
- Configure — assemble a combination of products, plans and add-ons that is valid and deliverable. The product catalog enforces what can be sold together, so a rep can’t build a deal the product cannot fulfil.
- Price — apply the right rates from the catalog and price book, then negotiated discounts, multi-year ramps, usage tiers or custom terms on top — on this deal only, without polluting the catalog.
- Quote — generate the branded document the customer reviews, route it through approval workflows when it breaks policy, send it for e-signature, and capture acceptance as an order form.
A CPQ example
A rep is quoting a 3-year deal: 150 seats, a usage-based API add-on and onboarding.
- Configure: the rep picks the Scale plan; the catalog adds the required onboarding package and blocks an add-on that only works on Enterprise.
- Price: list price is applied, the rep enters a 15% discount and a ramp of 100 → 125 → 150 seats over three years. The usage add-on carries its tiered rates.
- Quote: a 15% discount exceeds the 10% rep limit, so the quote routes to the sales director. Once approved, it goes to the customer for e-signature.
Without CPQ, each of those steps is a spreadsheet tab, a Slack message to finance and a PDF someone formats by hand.
CPQ vs quoting tools
The two get confused because the output — a quote PDF — looks the same.
| Quoting tool | CPQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Product rules | Rep types line items | Catalog enforces valid configurations |
| Pricing | Typed or copied from a sheet | Calculated from the price book, tiers and ramps |
| Discounts | Whatever the rep enters | Checked against policy, routed for approval |
| Changes to existing customers | Start from scratch | Priced against the live subscription |
| After signature | Re-keyed into billing | Flows to the order, subscription and invoice |
| Best for | Simple, fixed-price offers | Negotiated, multi-product or recurring deals |
A quoting tool is fine while every deal looks the same. CPQ earns its place when they don’t.
When you need CPQ
You do not need CPQ to sell a single plan at a fixed price. The threshold is crossed when quotes stop being predictable — custom rates, multi-year ramps, mixed recurring and usage charges, approval chains, or a catalog large enough that reps assemble invalid combinations.
The symptom is usually a spreadsheet: a shared pricing model that one person maintains, that every rep copies and edits, and that finance re-checks by hand before anything is signed.
CPQ for subscriptions is a different product
Most general-purpose CPQ was built for selling things — a configured machine, a bill of materials, a one-time order. It models the initial transaction well and has no concept of what happens afterwards.
Subscription businesses need quoting that understands the current state of an existing subscription, because the majority of quotes a mature B2B SaaS company produces are not new business. They are upgrades, add-ons, mid-term changes and renewals, all of which require answering “what does this customer have today, what have they paid for, and what changes?” before a price can be calculated at all. Subscription CPQ has to:
- Prorate mid-term changes to the day (proration).
- Co-term add-ons to the existing end date so the account renews once (co-terming).
- Quote renewals from the live subscription, with price uplifts applied.
- Mix charge types — recurring, usage-based and one-time — on one quote.
That is why standalone CPQ bolted onto a separate billing system tends to disappoint: the quote and the subscription live in different places, so the two have to be reconciled by a human on every deal, and the errors land on the customer’s invoice. Bunny CPQ for SaaS avoids that by quoting and billing from one subscription record, so a signed quote becomes the subscription, the invoices and the revenue schedule without re-keying — the full quote-to-cash flow in one product.
If you are weighing options, see the best CPQ for B2B SaaS, or what Bunny CPQ does in detail.
CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) in Bunny
Bunny's CPQ prices from the same catalog that bills. A quote carries recurring, usage and one-time charges, per-deal overrides, ramps and approvals; it goes out for e-signature through Bunny, DocuSign, PandaDoc or Dropbox Sign; and on acceptance it becomes the subscription, invoice schedule and revenue schedule.
Frequently asked questions
What is CPQ?
CPQ stands for Configure, Price, Quote. It is sales software that assembles a valid combination of products, applies the correct pricing and discounts, and produces a quote the customer can sign — with approvals enforced on the way.
What is the CPQ model?
The CPQ model is the three-step process the software follows: configure a valid deal from the product catalog, price it with list rates plus any approved discounts, ramps or custom terms, and generate a quote document for approval and signature.
What is the difference between CPQ and a quoting tool?
A quoting tool formats a document from line items a rep types in. CPQ enforces the rules behind it: which products go together, which prices and discounts are allowed, and who must approve exceptions. The output looks similar; the error rate does not.
Is CPQ part of the CRM?
It can be. Some CPQ products run inside the CRM, others connect to it. Bunny CPQ connects to Salesforce and HubSpot: reps start a quote from the opportunity or deal and the priced deal syncs back to the CRM.
What is CPQ for subscriptions?
Subscription CPQ quotes changes to an ongoing relationship — upgrades, add-ons, co-termed expansions and renewals — not just new deals. It has to know what the customer has today before it can price what changes. See CPQ for SaaS.
When does a company need CPQ?
When quotes stop being predictable: custom rates, multi-year ramps, mixed recurring and usage charges, discount approval chains, or a catalog big enough that reps build invalid deals. The usual symptom is a pricing spreadsheet that finance re-checks by hand.
What happens after a CPQ quote is signed?
In a standalone CPQ, someone re-keys the deal into billing. In Bunny CPQ, the accepted quote becomes the subscription, invoice schedule and revenue schedule directly — that end-to-end flow is called quote-to-cash.
Stop calculating this in a spreadsheet
Bunny computes SaaS metrics, revenue schedules and retention from your live billing data — because quoting, subscriptions, usage and invoicing all sit in one system.