The Quote Promised Date Does Not Match the Real Schedule

A quote's promised date can differ from the real schedule because the quote is an in-memory simulation that reserves no capacity: it estimates against the plant state at the moment you ran it and then discards the result without holding a slot. Once real jobs load that capacity, the routing changes, or the quote's assumptions diverge from the order, the actual plan moves.

EDGEBIC by User Solutions runs a quote as a what-if promise-date simulation. It borrows the live scheduling engine to compute a realistic start, finish, and cost, but it writes no schedule rows, so a sales engineer can run many quotes without disturbing the floor plan. That design is exactly why a quoted date is an estimate, not a commitment. This post reconciles the two; it sits in the EDGEBIC troubleshooting guide and pairs with quote simulation explained and how EDGEBIC turns a quote into a promise date.

First, Understand What a Quote Is

A quote runs the full scheduling engine against a temporary order, in memory, and reads back an estimated start and finish. Nothing is persisted and no capacity is held. The estimated lead time is simply the span between those two dates, and the estimated hours are the actual work hours the simulation allocated, not the wall-clock span, which is why a job can show a short hours figure and a longer promised window at the same time. The estimate reflects the plant exactly as it stood when you clicked run. Change the plant, and the estimate no longer describes it. Almost every "the dates do not match" report resolves to one of the four differences below.

Cause 1: Capacity Filled In After the Quote

Because the quote holds no slot, any job scheduled into that capacity afterward consumes the windows the quote assumed. A Monday estimate that saw open capacity can schedule to a later date on Friday because the week's work took the room.

How to tell: the quote is older than the real scheduling run, and other jobs were scheduled into the same work centers in between.

Fix: re-run the quote close to when you commit, so it reflects current capacity, and convert and schedule the order promptly if the date matters. A date only becomes real when the order is scheduled and actually consumes capacity.

Cause 2: A Scenario Used Different Assumptions

A quote scenario is a what-if configuration: a weekend shift, a custom start date, a capacity override for comparison. Those assumptions shape the estimate but do not change the real work center calendars, so the real order schedules against the actual plant and comes out differently.

How to tell: the quote used a scenario, and its weekend shift, custom start, or override does not exist in the real calendars the order schedules against.

Fix: if the scenario reflects a change you intend to make, make it real in the calendars and work center capacity, then re-run scheduling. If it was only exploratory, treat its date as a what-if, not a promise. Scenarios are covered in what-if scenarios explained, and if the override you set on a scenario appears to have changed nothing in its own estimate, a scenario override that did not apply covers the reasons it never reached the run.

Cause 3: The Routing Changed Between Quote and Order

The quote estimates against the routing as it stood at quote time. If the routing's hours, setup, or steps changed before the order ran, the real schedule reflects the new routing and diverges from the quoted figure.

How to tell: the routing was edited after the quote and before the order was scheduled.

Fix: re-quote against the current routing before committing, or accept that the newer routing is the accurate one. The order should schedule against the routing you actually intend to run.

Cause 4: Direction or Dates Differ

The scheduling direction carries from the quote onto the order at conversion, but the order's own start and due dates drive the real run. A quote simulated forward from a requested start and an order scheduled against a different due date will not land on the same dates.

How to tell: the quote's requested date and the order's start or due dates differ, or the direction was changed after conversion.

Fix: align the order's dates and direction with what you quoted, or re-quote to match the dates you will actually commit to. Forward and backward direction is covered in forward versus backward scheduling.

The Reconciliation, in Order

1. Check how old the quote is and whether capacity filled in since.
2. Check whether a scenario's assumptions made it into the real calendars.
3. Check whether the routing changed between quote and order.
4. Compare the quote's requested date and direction with the order's actual dates.
5. Re-quote close to commitment so the estimate reflects the plant you are scheduling against.

Prevention

• Quote close to the commit, because an estimate ages as capacity fills.
• Make a scenario real before relying on its date. A weekend shift in a scenario does not exist on the floor until you add it.
• Re-quote after routing edits, so the estimate and the order describe the same work.
• Convert and schedule promptly when a date must hold, since only a scheduled order consumes capacity.
• Treat the estimate as a snapshot, not a reservation. Two quotes can both promise the same open capacity, and the first order to schedule is the one that actually takes it.

A job that finished later than its due date after scheduling is a related but separate question covered in my job finished later than the due date.