I’d like to be somewhat vague because my job is somewhat niche. For my job I made custom products that are made up of subcomponents that cost me either by the foot, by the pair, or individually. So a particular product may include 5 feet of X, Y and Z, a pair of V and 1 of T and U. Then I add a bit for profit.
Right now I have a somewhat simple spreadsheet that has all my components and their costs listed which are then referenced on other sheets. The problem is adding or removing components is a real pain in the ass because I’d have to edit each and every sheet.
I’d like a better system where I can create a new product then from a drop down or something pick all the relevant components and enter how many of that component I need. Then create a quote that I can email to a client that lists the final cost of a bunch of products.
I’d prefer this to be a, open source web app but it can be a desktop application.
That sounds like the kind of stuff we make at $dayjob (that’s for the building trade, where they often have complex spreadsheets and going to an app that calculates everything down to the number of screws for them is a huge benefit).
You could probably still do it with a spreadsheet, just have parts list add/remove fan out into the cutting list and update automatically. I imagine it’d get quite ugly, but doable. If you want to do optimisation (buy 1 5 foot length and cut rather than 2 2 foot lengths, because it’s cheaper, for example) it gets even uglier and at that point a bespoke app becomes more sensible.
I’ve considered making a bespoke app myself either using C# or with Python and QT but I don’t have much experience with the later even though it would be more cross platform friendly.
I’d say write it for yourself then worry about the cross platform later. You can always go back and rewrite.