Boardera Release Note Log

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Stay up to date with what’s going on at Boardera. Release Notes summarize all​​ new product features , bug fixes and improvements .

2026-JAN-29

Via Plugging (IPC-4761)

Boardera now supports the full range of IPC-4761 via plugging options, replacing the previous "Resin Plugged Vias" checkbox with a dedicated dropdown. PCB design engineers can now specify the exact via protection method required for their board, from simple tenting through to filled and capped configurations.

The available options include Type I Tent through Type VII Fill & Cap Copper, and non IPC Solder Mask Plug & Cover. Each option is available in the project editor, pricing configuration, and manufacturer capabilities settings, allowing you to configure pricing for each plugging method and define which options your facility supports. Existing projects that used the Resin Plugged Vias checkbox have been automatically migrated to the corresponding dropdown value.

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More Solder Mask Colour Options

We have expanded the solder mask colour selection from a limited set to 13 options, giving designers a wider range of finish and appearance choices for their boards. The full list now includes Green (default), Green Matte, Green Semi-Matte, Green Glossy, Black, Yellow, Red, Purple, White, LED White, Blue, Clear, and None.

Each colour option is integrated across the project editor, pricing configuration, and manufacturer capabilities settings. Manufacturers can configure pricing for individual colours and define which options their facility supports. The selected colour is passed through to order output and manufacturing notes.

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Laminate CTI (Comparative Tracking Index)

A new Laminate CTI configuration is now available, allowing designers to specify the electrical safety rating required for their PCB laminate. CTI measures a material's resistance to surface electrical tracking and is critical for meeting IEC and UL safety certifications.

The available options follow the IPC Performance Level Categories: PLC 0 (CTI >= 600V), PLC 1 (CTI >= 400V), PLC 2 (CTI >= 250V), and PLC 3 (CTI >= 175V), with PLC 2 as the default — the standard rating for FR-4 laminates. This attribute is configurable in pricing, the project editor, and manufacturer capabilities.

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2026-JAN-08

Sourcing issue count and filter

We have added a new sourcing issue summary to the BOM view that clearly surfaces the overall health of component sourcing. The system now displays a count of items that are OK, have warnings, or contain errors, giving users an immediate understanding of potential sourcing risks within a project.

Each status is fully interactive. Clicking on any indicator automatically filters the BOM to show only the relevant components, allowing users to focus quickly on issues that require attention. In addition, individual warning and error indicators are displayed directly beside the affected part numbers, making it easy to identify specific problems such as lifecycle concerns or missing attributes without leaving the BOM view. This enhancement improves visibility, speeds up issue resolution, and reduces the risk of overlooking critical sourcing constraints during quoting.

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Box components are now collapsable

We have added the ability to expand and collapse individual components throughout the interface. This improvement is particularly valuable on pages with a high level of detail, such as the Quote Line Item details view, where large numbers of components and supporting sections are commonly displayed.

By allowing users to collapse sections that are not immediately relevant, the interface becomes easier to navigate and significantly less cluttered. This helps users focus on the information that matters most at each stage of the quoting process, improving usability and efficiency when working with complex jobs.

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Lead Times are now available in custom formulas

We have added support for using project lead time values directly within custom pricing formulas. Manufacturers can now reference calculated lead times when defining their own logic, making it possible to adjust pricing and markups dynamically based on how quickly a job needs to be completed. This enables scenarios such as applying premium costs for expedited builds or adjusting pricing tiers automatically based on delivery expectations.

Lead times are calculated in working days and are kept consistent with the values shown throughout the system. This enhancement gives manufacturers greater control and flexibility in how they price jobs, while ensuring that lead time–driven logic remains reliable, predictable, and aligned with the overall quoting model.

2025-NOV-20

UI/UX

Based on continued testing and your feedback we continue to improve the user experience. Thank you for your feedback.

1. You can now hover over a part in the BOM and access a copy control for pasting into other pages as needed.

2. Global column visibility control has been added to all box components so you can see the data that is important to you and hide that which is not.

3. We are including the part numbers and descriptions on the Quotes table so you can see your customer references to the line items within the quote.

4. Metric values are now visible for Copper Weight in both Capabilities and the Project Editor.

5. References to ‘Partial Drills’ will now be referenced as ‘Controlled Depth Drilling’ to add clarity in both Pricing Automation and Editor experiences.

PRICING AUTOMATION

Our vision and investment in automating the mundane to keep you focussed on your meaningful tasks continue.

1. Further improvements to automated layer assignment for the PCB have been added and refinement to our models will continue. This will minimize oversight and effort to create the digital twin.

2. Tariffs. We will now supply worst case scenario tariff costs in scenarios where >1 CoO (Country of Origin) is identified for a single component. This will ensure we are all planning for worst case scenario when the true CoO for a future purchase is unclear.

DATA EXPORT

Investment continues to ensure the results of the platform's analysis, manufacturing and pricing recipes are made available to your systems appropriately.

1. A more detailed breakdown of of pricing is now available in the JSON Data Export.

2. An Add to Cart link is now available in the JSON Data Export. This will allow the buying customer the ability to click and confirm the order using non native communications and quote documents.

2025-OCT-02

Beta Testing - An AI boost for Labour Pricing challenges.

We are excited to announce the Beta launch of a powerful new feature that brings natural language AI prompts into the labor pricing process. This feature allows users to guide the system with simple instructions, and in turn the AI analyzes each component to determine which pricing formula should apply. Traditional formulas remain at the core of the calculations, ensuring that labor costs are always accurate, consistent, and aligned with established methods.

What makes this feature stand out is the intelligence it brings to component analysis. Instead of requiring the user to manually classify every part into families, the AI evaluates details such as package type, solderability, and inspection requirements, and then selects the appropriate formulas accordingly. This combination of trusted calculations and AI-driven insights provides the best of both worlds: the reliability of structured cost formulas with the flexibility and automation of modern AI.

In addition, the system can support several AI prompts at once, giving users the flexibility to describe exactly how they want to price manufacturing jobs down to the finest detail. This approach enables labor costs to be calculated with unprecedented accuracy, while at the same time leveraging automation to quote even the most complex jobs in minutes instead of days. The result is a faster, smarter quoting process that maintains precision without sacrificing speed.

This feature is currently available as an opt-in Beta. If you would like to participate and explore how AI-driven prompts can enhance your quoting process, please contact us to enable it on your account. We look forward to your feedback as we continue to refine and expand this capability.

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2025-SEP-25

Gantt Chart Lead Time View

We have introduced a new Gantt chart view for lead time calculations, providing manufacturers with a clear and visual representation of production timelines. This feature allows users to better understand scheduling impacts and plan resources more effectively throughout the quoting process.

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Improved Shipping Lead Time Estimate

Shipping lead time estimates are now more accurate, reflecting improvements in how we calculate and adjust for regional variations and carrier performance. These refinements ensure that manufacturers can provide customers with realistic delivery expectations.

More Tiers for Attrition Quantity

Attrition configurations have been expanded to include more quantity tiers, offering manufacturers finer control over production assumptions at varying volumes. This enhancement allows for more precise planning in situations where different production runs experience different attrition rates.

Attrition Rates can be Calculated as a Percentage

A new calculation method has been added for attrition, giving users the ability to set values as percentages in addition to fixed numbers. This option provides greater flexibility and helps manufacturers match their internal costing practices more closely.

Tariff Rate Export Improvements

Tariff rate exports within pricing reports have been improved to provide more accurate values. These updates help ensure that the landed cost of parts is clearly and reliably reflected in all customer-facing documents.

Designer Purchase Order PDF

Designers placing an order can now attach their own purchase order directly in the system. This makes it easier for both parties to align internal documentation and streamlines the order handoff process.

Line by Line BOM and Labor Markups

Manufacturers now have the ability to edit BOM component markups line by line. By default, the system automatically applies markup values based on the manufacturer’s standard configurations, but this feature provides the flexibility to adjust individual components where necessary. Once changes are made, the system automatically recalculates the overall profit and margin projections, ensuring that the financial impact of each adjustment is immediately clear. This gives quoting teams both accuracy and agility when fine-tuning their pricing strategies.

Assembly labor markups can also now be edited on a line-by-line basis, providing the same combination of automation and manual control. Default markup values are applied automatically to maintain consistency, but manufacturers can override them for specific tasks or labor types as needed. Every adjustment is reflected in updated profit and margin projections, giving teams confidence that their quotes capture both detailed cost realities and accurate overall profitability.

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2025-AUG-08

Automatic Notifications for Quote Process Owners

We have added a feature that keeps team members informed when they are assigned as the process owner of a quote. As soon as a quote is created or updated with a specific process owner, that team member will automatically receive a notification. This ensures the right person is aware of their responsibility and can take action without delay.

By notifying process owners immediately, this update helps maintain accountability, improves response times, and keeps your quoting workflow running smoothly from start to finish.

Support for Semicolon-Delimited BOMs

We have expanded our BOM import capabilities to support files that use semicolons as delimiters. This improvement ensures that BOMs formatted with semicolons can now be parsed and processed correctly without the need for manual reformatting.

With this update, you can work more easily with files from different design tools or customer formats, saving time and reducing the risk of errors during the import process.

2025-JUL-25

Cost, Price, Margin, and Markups Box Component

We’re excited to introduce a powerful new feature that brings full profit transparency to your quoting process. With our new profit projections tool, Boardera now automatically calculates detailed profit breakdowns for every quote giving you instant visibility into the financial performance of each job before you send a quote to your customer.

You’ll see a complete breakdown by cost category (PCB, Assembly, and BOM), including applied markups, gross profit, and margin percentages. The platform clearly displays both the list price values and the impact of any customer discounts, so you can compare how each offer affects your bottom line at a glance. You’ll know exactly where your profits come from and how adjustments to pricing or discounts will affect your margins and total profitability.

This level of insight helps you make smarter pricing decisions, quickly identify quotes that need adjustment, and ensure that your business remains competitive and profitable. With automated profit projections, you’re always a step ahead in managing your manufacturing business with confidence.

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Allow numbers in Custom Formula/Project Calculations labels

We’ve made a small but impactful improvement to help you organize your pricing and calculation workflows. You can now include numbers in the labels for your custom formulas and project calculation formulas. This makes it easier to create clear and descriptive names, such as “Markup_1,” “SMTCount_Line_2,” or “Step_3.” Your team will be able to quickly identify and manage different formulas within your projects.

This update makes it simpler to keep your work organized and your processes more intuitive, especially when handling complex quotes with multiple custom calculations.

Storefront Update: Request Quotes for Multiple Quantities

We’ve made it easier for designers to get comprehensive pricing information. In the Storefront, designers can now add multiple quantities to a single quote request. This allows you to compare pricing for different order sizes and submit your requirements all at once, without the need for separate requests.

When the quote request is sent, the manufacturer receives a single, consolidated request showing all quantities and requirements in one place. This streamlines the review process, reduces back-and-forth communication, and makes it simpler for both designers and manufacturers to find the best solution for every project.

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2025-JUL-18

Connect Your Mouser & Arrow Accounts and Fetch Contract Pricing

We’ve expanded our contract pricing integration to include both Mouser and Arrow, two of the industry’s leading electronics distributors. Manufacturer users can now connect their Mouser and Arrow accounts to Boardera using their own credentials, allowing them to fetch their exact negotiated prices for BOM components during the quoting process. This enhancement builds on our existing integrations with Digikey and Cofactr, giving you even more options to ensure your quotes reflect your true purchasing costs.

With contract pricing support for Mouser, Arrow, Digikey, and Cofactr, you can now streamline your sourcing, eliminate manual price checks, and create quotes that are both accurate and competitive—no matter which distributor you work with. This new capability makes it easier than ever to keep your quoting aligned with your purchasing agreements.

Custom Pricing Formulas: Query Mount Types and Placement Counts

We have introduced a new capability that gives manufacturer users even more control over their custom pricing formulas. You can now query specific mount types and placement counts directly within your pricing logic. This means you can create highly tailored pricing strategies based on the number of components with certain mount types such as SMT or through-hole and the total placement count for each project.

By leveraging these new parameters, you can better reflect true production complexity, apply differentiated markups, and fine-tune your pricing for a wide range of assembly scenarios. This feature allows you to build smarter, more flexible formulas that adapt to the unique requirements of every job.

Improved Clarity in the PCB Project Editor

We’ve made the PCB project editor easier to use and more intuitive with a series of clarity-focused enhancements. Users will now notice improved tooltips, more informative helper text, and clearer toast notifications throughout the editor. These updates are designed to make it easier to understand each step, reduce confusion, and help you complete your projects faster and with greater confidence.

With these improvements, finding the right options and understanding your next steps is simpler than ever, so you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time getting your quotes and projects completed.

Manufacturer-Configurable Messages for Customers

We’ve added a new feature that allows manufacturers to communicate important information directly to their customers within the Boardera platform. Manufacturers can now configure a custom message that will be displayed to designers when they access their quotes or projects. This makes it easy to highlight timely updates, such as changes to tariff rates, important reminders, or any other critical notes the customer should be aware of. With this capability, manufacturers can keep designers informed and ensure everyone is on the same page throughout the quoting and order process.

2025-JUN-16

Detailed Markup Calculations

Take your quoting strategy to the next level with enhanced markup options.

What’s new?
Boardera now gives you much greater control over how markups are applied to your quotes. Instead of a single slider, you now have separate markup formulas for three distinct cost categories: PCB Fabrication, Labor, and BOM. Each category can have its own formula and unique logic, allowing you to trigger different markup calculations based on the specifics of each job.

How does this help you?
You can tailor your margin strategy to fit the needs of your business, products, or customers. For example, apply different markups for high-layer boards, special labor requirements, or BOM components. The system’s flexibility means your quotes are always accurate, competitive, and aligned with your pricing goals.

With these new markup controls, you gain the power to automate complex pricing strategies and respond to changing market conditions without extra manual effort.

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Expanded Support for BOM substitutions

We’ve made importing BOMs even more flexible and reliable by broadening our support for part number substitutions. Designers often specify alternate or substitute part numbers in different formats, and Boardera can now recognize and process more of these variations automatically during BOM import. This means fewer manual adjustments, less risk of missing key alternates, and a smoother workflow for getting from design to quote.

You can confidently import complex BOMs, knowing that Boardera will recognize designer-specified substitutes. This leads to fewer errors, better sourcing flexibility, and faster quoting, especially when parts are constrained or supply chains are unpredictable.

With this update, you spend less time cleaning up BOMs and more time moving your projects forward.

Customer Purchase Order Processing

We’ve made it easier for manufacturers to process orders, even when customers prefer sending purchase orders by email.

Manufacturer users can now create and process orders on behalf of their customers directly in Boardera. If you receive a PO from a customer outside the system, you can enter the order into Boardera, ensuring it’s correctly tracked and visible to your customer in their account.

All order paperwork—including confirmations and invoices—will automatically reflect the right customer and vendor details. This keeps your documentation clean, reduces confusion, and ensures everyone is on the same page, no matter how the order was submitted.

This update gives you more flexibility in managing customer relationships, streamlines your workflow, and helps maintain accurate records throughout the quoting and ordering process.

Edit Component Package Type

You now have even more control over your component placement labor in Boardera.

Manufacturer users can manually edit the package type and lead count for each BOM component. This is especially useful when automated imports miss or misinterpret this data, or when you need to specify a unique package for quoting purposes.

Accurate package and lead count information means Boardera’s automation can provide precise pricing and attrition calculations every time. By manually entering or correcting these details, you can ensure your quotes reflect the true cost and yield for every part.

This feature gives you the flexibility to fine-tune your labor and maximize the value of Boardera’s automated calculations.

Locked Quotes

We’ve introduced a new system to help you maintain the integrity of your quoted prices. When a quote is moved into the READY state, it becomes locked and is set to view-only. This means no further edits can be made while the quote remains in this state, ensuring that the prices and details you’ve shared with your customers are preserved exactly as quoted.

If a situation arises where changes are necessary, the quote can easily be moved back to the PENDING state. Only then will edits be permitted. This process minimizes the risk of accidental updates to finalized quotes, provides greater transparency, and creates a reliable audit trail for your quoting workflow. With locked quotes, you can be confident that the prices you present to your customers will remain consistent and secure until you decide a change is required.

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2025-MAY-29

New Integration: Boardera and Cofactr – Automated Quoting and Sourcing

We’re excited to announce a major step forward in automating your electronics supply chain. Boardera now offers seamless integration with Cofactr, a leading provider of sourcing and logistics solutions for electronics manufacturers.

With this integration, you can generate all your customer quotes quickly and accurately in Boardera. Once your quote is ready, Boardera passes all the detailed data directly to Cofactr, where you can handle every aspect of purchasing, kitting, and logistics. This workflow lets you take advantage of Cofactr’s extensive supplier network, real-time inventory insights, streamlined procurement, and powerful kitting and shipping capabilities.

You benefit from fast, detailed quoting inside Boardera, and then use Cofactr’s advanced platform to manage everything from purchasing to final delivery. This approach reduces manual entry, saves time, and helps prevent errors, giving you a more connected, automated, and reliable process from quote to production.

With Boardera and Cofactr working together, you can automate your entire quoting, sourcing, and fulfillment pipeline, while keeping each part of the process in the system that does it best.

BOM Item Unit Cost Override

Sometimes you know your true costs better than any database

You can now manually override the unit cost of any BOM component. If our system can’t find a vendor price, or if you have special pricing from your suppliers, simply enter your own value directly.

• Total flexibility: Enter custom pricing for hard-to-find or specially-sourced parts.

• Accurate quoting: Reflect your real costs in every quote, even when vendor data isn’t available.

• Full control: Ensure your unique deals and negotiated prices are always factored in.

This update ensures your quotes are as accurate as possible, no matter how you source your components.

Import Component Manufacturer from the BOM

When you import your Bill of Materials (BOM), Boardera now automatically reads and matches the manufacturer field for each component. This means our system can distinguish between identical part numbers from different manufacturers, or recognize when a manufacturer has acquired another company eliminating common errors and ensuring the right part is quoted every time.

How does this help you?

• Greater accuracy: Reduce the risk of quoting the wrong component, even if part numbers are shared between manufacturers.

• Seamless transitions: Stay up to date when manufacturers merge or get acquired. Boardera tracks these changes for you.

• Clear reporting: If any mismatches or uncertainties arise, you’ll find them clearly listed in the Exceptions Report, so nothing falls through the cracks.

This enhancement saves time, reduces errors, and gives you more confidence that your quotes are using the exact components you need.

Quote JSON Export

We’re excited to announce a powerful new way to work with your Boardera quotes.
You can now export your entire quote—including every detail of your labor calculations, BOM costing, and PCB fabrication breakdown—as a structured JSON file.

Why does this matter?
Whether you need to bring Boardera data into your own quoting system, integrate with your internal database, or generate custom quote documents, this new export feature puts you in control. All critical quote data is included, giving you the flexibility to design, automate, and create quotes exactly the way your business needs.

How it works:
Simply use the new “Export as JSON” option from the quote screen to instantly download a file ready for integration with your systems.

If you’ve been waiting for an easy way to access and repurpose all your quote data, this release is for you.

Docxtemplater is now supported

We’re making it even easier to generate fully customized quote documents.

The new JSON export is now compatible with Docxtemplater, a powerful tool that lets you upload your own Word or Excel template and automatically generate professional, formatted documents populated with any Boardera quote data.

• Brand your quotes: Use your company’s templates to create perfectly formatted, on-brand quote documents with no manual editing required.

• Streamline your workflow: Instantly generate PDFs or Word/Excel files from your Boardera quotes with just a few clicks.

• Maximum flexibility: Whether you need unique layouts, additional calculations, or special terms, Docxtemplater puts you in the driver’s seat.

Combine the power of Boardera’s detailed quote data with your own document templates to create professional, tailored output that fits your exact business needs.

Tariff Rates Always Displayed

The Boardera Quote Tool now displays the tariff rate percentage for each BOM line item, even when your vendor’s price already includes tariffs. This small but valuable update ensures you always have a clear view of all tariff-related costs, whether they’re broken out separately or bundled into the vendor’s price.

Vendor Grouping Options for PCB Fabricators

We’re giving you more control and intelligence when managing your PCB fabricator vendors.

You can now organize your PCB fabricators as Preferred, Approved, or Request-for-Quote Only just like you already do for BOM suppliers. This makes it easy to quickly identify and select the right fabricators for each job.

The Boardera platform uses this vendor grouping data, along with each fabricator’s capabilities and cost configurations, to automatically optimize your sourcing decisions. The system prioritizes your preferred and approved partners, helping you get the best mix of quality, cost, and reliability without extra manual effort.

Additionally, if a vendor is labeled as RFQ Only the system will never use their pricing for the automated quotes or orders.

With these new grouping options and built-in automation, Boardera makes your PCB sourcing process smarter and more efficient than ever.

Automatic Tariff Calculation for PCBs

We’re making it easier to quote with total accuracy, right down to the landed cost of every PCB. Boardera now automatically calculates and applies tariffs to all PCB fabrication costs. When you add a PCB item, the system immediately factors in the latest applicable tariff rates. This ensures your quotes always reflect the true delivered cost without any extra research or manual calculations. You can ensure compliance with up-to-date tariff rates and quote your customers with confidence that tariff costs are included. This enhancement saves you time, improves accuracy, and helps prevent surprises, so you can focus on winning more business.

2025-APR-04

New BOM Management Tool!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our brand-new BOM (Bill of Materials) management tool! This feature has been in the works for weeks, and we can’t wait for you to experience how it streamlines your quoting and sourcing processes.

With our new BOM tool, you can:

• Manage sourcing options and substitutions more seamlessly, ensuring you always have reliable component alternatives.

• Change vendor selection and attrition effortlessly, simplifying how you handle multiple vendors or adjust for potential supply issues.

• Select specific offers from your vendors at a glance, empowering you to make the best choice for cost, availability, or lead time.

We designed this release to save you time, reduce errors, and give you more control over your PCB assembly workflows. Let us know what you think—your feedback will help us continue improving and delivering the tools you need. Happy quoting!

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Issues and Exceptions Report

We’re happy to introduce our new “Issues and Exceptions” report, now automatically included in your pricing export. This additional section highlights any design issues, vendor problems, or component anomalies in your customer’s design, helping you spot and resolve potential problems faster. By surfacing these issues directly within the pricing export, you can finalize more accurate quotes and maintain tighter control over your quoting workflow.

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2025-FEB-10

Automated Component Tariff Calculation

We've introduced an initial version of automatic tariff calculations for components to help users better understand potential costs. Additionally, users can now specify if a vendor already includes tariffs in their pricing, ensuring that tariffs are not added twice. This is our first step toward streamlining tariff estimations, and we plan to continue improving and expanding this feature over time.

PCB Fabrication Priced by Square Meter

PCB fabricators can now configure their base fabrication costs based on the square meter usage of materials. This improvement enhances pricing accuracy by ensuring fabrication costs better reflect material consumption, leading to more precise and competitive quotes.

Updated AI Layer Assignment

Our AI-driven layer assignment feature has been upgraded to support a wider range of PCB layers with greater accuracy. This improvement allows for better recognition and automatic assignment of complex layer configurations, reducing manual adjustments and streamlining the quoting process. Users can now experience faster and more precise layer detection across various board designs.

Even More Attrition Calculations

We've added more configuration options for manufacturer-specific component attrition calculations. This update provides greater flexibility in defining attrition rates, ensuring more accurate cost estimates and material planning. Users can now better align attrition settings with their manufacturing requirements.

Show Assembly Sub-totals on the PDF Quote

Manufacturers can now choose whether to display subtotals for PCB fabrication, labor, and BOM pricing on the PDF quote. This added flexibility allows for better customization based on customer preferences and internal pricing strategies.

Find a simple way for users to continue with panel files

Users will now be asked to specify whether uploaded files are panel files (or "working" files) in cases where our automation cannot detect them automatically. This ensures greater accuracy in file processing and prevents misinterpretation of manufacturing data.

BOM Importing Preview - Row Selection

The BOM Import Preview now allows users to see and select which rows will be imported. While our automation accurately detects rows in most cases, this feature serves as a fallback to ensure no data is missed when automation does not capture all entries.

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Support for Customer’s Part Number and Internal Part Number

We've added support for two new unique identifiers in the BOM import: the customer's part number and the manufacturer's internal part number. This enhancement improves part tracking and ensures greater accuracy when matching components across different systems.

Expanded Inspection Labor Calculations

We've improved the inspection labor calculation to include calculating the price per component placement to provide more accurate estimates based on job complexity and board specifications. This enhancement ensures better labor cost projections and more precise quoting for manufacturers.

Quote Level Market Adjustment

Users can now adjust the "Market Adjustment" dial on a per-quote basis rather than just globally. This allows for more flexible pricing adjustments tailored to individual quotes, improving responsiveness to market conditions and customer-specific pricing strategies.

2025-JAN-15

Automated PCB Fabrication Quotes!

We are thrilled to announce the release of one of our most anticipated features! With the new PCB Fabrication quotes tool you can automatically receive formal quotes from your PCB vendors. Invite your vendors to use the Boardera platform and we will get them set up with their automated pricing, then when you need a quote we will process the job against their configurations and generate the PDF for you in seconds. Of course, this won’t apply to every job. For the more complicated requirements, your vendor will get a notification that they need to review the design and quote manually.

We understand if some of your vendors do not wish to use our software automation. We also offer an automated email request that asks them to enter their bid and attach their quote.

Additionally, there is a built-in messaging tool that will help organize all communications and questions related to each individual line item.

With all the different workflows, we have every scenario covered to automate your quoting needs.

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2024-DEC-24

Pricing Summary

We’ve added a few more details to the pricing summary. Now you can quickly see the subtotals for PCB Fabrication, BOM Sourcing, and Labor Calculations. This will allow you to quickly quote your customers' simple jobs without digging into all the detailed calculations.

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Edit ‘Quote Required’ Values

You can now directly edit the individual ‘Quote Required’ values within the calculations. This will allow you to edit only a few requirements that need human review and then take advantage of the full pricing automation so that you can quickly quote your customers.

Optional Reference Designators

While processing a quote you no longer require reference designators on the BOM. This will make it easier for you to respond to your customer at the quote stage if they did not provide their reference designators.

Preferred Vendors

You can now designate which vendors you prefer to use from your configured list of approved vendors. The BOM sourcing will prioritize the preferred vendors first, then fall back to an approved vendor.

2024-Nov-20

For Manufacturers

You can now add your custom items and scenarios to your quotes!

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2024-NOV-08

Project Editor Updates

We’ve updated the look and feel of the project editor to match the other workflows on the platform more closely. Your team and customers can create a quote or process an order more easily.

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New Pricing Configuration - per M²

You can now configure your pricing based on the square meters of the boards, which helps you price options like conformal coating more accurately.

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Project Editor Mobile Support!

You can now review your customer's projects on the go. Our project editor, including the 3D model, is fully functional on mobile browsers.

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More Sourcing Details on the BOM

The BOM sourcing table now includes more details about the parts, like lifecycle status, minimum order quantities, and placement per board.

Test Users

You can now automatically create a test user on your domain. Simply go to the ‘Customers’ page, navigate to the ‘Test Users' section, and click on 'Add Test User’. With this new tool you can freely test projects, sourcing, pricing, and quotes but the data will not be included in the analytics.

2024-OCT-16

PDF Quotes Language

On the Quote overview page, you can now select between English and French language templates for your PDF Quote.

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Edit Contact Info on the Quote

It is now possible to edit your customer's contact information on the quote overview page.

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2024-SEP-27

New Quote Tool

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our advanced Quote Tool, which is designed to revolutionize your quoting process. Our tool is built with automation at its core, streamlining complex workflows by offering automated pricing, real-time updates, and seamless integration with the eCommerce platform. Say goodbye to manual quoting and embrace a more efficient, accurate, and responsive way to meet customer demands and enhance your business operations.

New Quotes Page and Table

We’ve redesigned the quotes page to make it easier for you and your team to see the important details of your best opportunities.

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Multiple Line Items per Quote

As requested by many customers, you can now add multiple quantities and multiple line items to each quote, allowing you to provide your customer with the best options for their project.

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New Quote Overview Page

See all the details for a quote on a single organized page so that you and your team can quickly focus on the required tasks and easily quote your customer.

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New Quote Line Item Detail Page

See the new updated line item detail page where all the information about a quoted line item is easy to quickly review and edit.

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Quote History

You can now see when and who made all the historic changes to a quote so that you can easily update the quote without presenting offers that conflict with previous agreements.

Lead time

The line item lead time can now be edited a set to a specific timeframe for your customers.

Shipping

Shipping charges can now be edited for each line item individually, including the ability to remove shipping from the quote to show a more aggressive total price.

Product preview

The much-loved product preview is now included on the quote line item details page with the ability to quickly open and edit the project if changes are required before quoting your customer.

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Send / View / Submit

We’ve added a better control for your team to View / Send / Submit the quote so that they can easily control the actions on the quote and for the customer.

Quote notes

A much richer and more helpful note editor has been added to the quote tool. You can now have global default notes as well as quote-specific notes. All notes will appear on PDF Quotes and orders.

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Sales, Customer Support, and Assignee

There’s a great new way to assign a process owner to each quote. You can have a customer service contact, a sales contact, and also a dedicated assignee.

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2024-AUG-30

Panel Utilization Rate

Although we don't create a panelization (or 'working') file, we estimate the board layout in the panel to determine the price for the total number of panels. By approximating the panel, we can now calculate and display the estimated utilization rate of the PCB fabrication panel. Stay tuned for even more panel features.

Open

2024-AUG-28

DFM Report Improvements

We've made some great improvements to our DFM Report feature. You can now request a 'RETRY', and we will re-run the report with all the latest project updates to ensure it reflects the true project details. We've also increased the resources and extended the run time for the analysis to ensure we can process even the most complex projects.

Open

2024-AUG-14

Default Quote Notes

You have the option to create your own default quote notes, terms, and conditions. These notes will be automatically added to each quote. If the quote turns into an order, the notes will also be included on the order. Additionally, if your customer places an order online without a quote, the notes will appear on the documentation for them as well.

Open

2024-JUL-04

Approved Vendor List for Component Distributors

We’re excited to announce that we’ve built a feature-rich AVL for your preferred distributors. We provide a great default list based on our experience working with all of our customers, but now you can edit the list to match the distributors you use for sourcing. That’s not all - you can also set specific sourcing costs, landing factors, packaging charges, and additional lead times for each distributor!

Open

New PCB ‘Broker’ Support

We’ve added a new mode for PCB Brokers, or PCB resellers. We’ve simplified the configurations to focus on the requirements of adding your preferred vendors and reselling PCBs to your customers. You can now enable this mode on your ‘Company Info’ page.

Open

Fresh UI

We’ve made some nice updates to the interface to keep it fresh and modern. You’ll notice some controls on the tables have moved to be more consistent across the platform. Check it out and let us know if you love it as much as we do!

Open

Price Estimation Warnings

We’ve added a clear warning when we cannot automatically estimate the price so that you know which items you need to review before quoting your customer.

Open

Updates to the Outline Selection Tool

The outline selection tool is already great but we’ve made some updates so it’s even easier to find and select the correct PCB outline.

Faster BOM Sourcing Options

We’ve made some updates so that it’s much faster to edit or switch parts in the BOM sourcing tool. It’s virtually instant now. Enjoy.

Support for IPC Class III

You can now configure your capabilities and pricing for IPC Class III and allow your customer to indicate if they need IPC Class III on their project. IPC Class III will apply to the entire project, both the PCB Fabrication and PCB Assembly.

Open

2014-MAY-13

Outline Selection Tool

Our software automation can typically detect the appropriate outline for your design without any user input. However, there may be instances where the detected outline is incorrect or not detected at all. To address this, we have implemented an outline selection tool. This tool allows users to manually select the correct outline for their design.

Open

PCB Layer Stack-up

We are thrilled to share with you a new exciting feature! Our latest Stackup Tool now enables you to specify your PCB stackup with ease. You can conveniently select the options for each layer in a user-friendly interface. Not only does this tool have technical benefits, but it also has a visually appealing design for you and your customer.

Open

2024-APR-19

Even Better Shipping Estimates

We can now estimate the weight of the PCBs based on the exact shape of the traces and pours! We then use that information to accurately calculate the exact weight of each board and therefore more accurately estimate the exact cost of shipping.

Estimated Unit Price Enhancements

We now consider the price of all the parts on the BOM even if some of the parts are not currently or no longer available in the market, this will give you and your customers a much more accurate estimated unit price for their assemblies.

Automatic DNP Detection

There was an existing feature to automatically detect DNP parts on the customer’s BOM and now we’ve expanded that feature to support 0 quantities as an indication of DNPs. This means once we detect a reference designator is specified as Do-Not-Place we will exclude it for souring and labor calculations and provide an even more accurate price.

2024-MAR-27

Warn the Customer if the Price is not Accurate

If our system cannot automatically price a customer's project, we will clearly indicate that the pricing is not accurate and specify the reasons why.

Open

Approved Vendor List for PCB Fabricators

You can now configure your own list of approved PCB fabricator suppliers. You can even invite PCB fabricators that are not currently part of our platform. If you connect with your preferred vendors we will only consider their pricing when calculating the best price for the PCB.

Open

Functional Testing Time Estimate

If your customer selects ‘Functional Testing’ we will ask them to estimate how long it takes to test their board and use that estimate to calculate an accurate price.

Add Additional Fees to Cover Tube, Cut Tape, and Bulk Packaging

You can now configure additional fees to cover the cost of difficult-to-use component packaging. Once configured, we will use these fees in the calculation to consider the best sources for the BOM parts, switching to other packaging or adding the fees as necessary.

Hardware and Manufacturing Material Quantities

Non-board mounted parts like labels, screws, tools, solder, and other hardware and manufacturing material will be processed and sourced accurately. For example, we will automatically source one roll of labels per order instead of one roll of labels per label on the BOM.

Default PCB Country of Origin

You can now set the default Country of Origin for the PCB fabrication, this way your customer will see an accurately estimated price if you typically source the board locally. Your customers can still select other countries when they ask for a quote or place an order.

Open

‘Did You Mean’ Part Number Autocorrect

If your customer has a minor typo or if they did not include the proper suffix on the part number we will automatically find the matching part and ask the customer to select the correct replacement.

Open

2024-MAR-6

[EMS] Automate Procurement of BOM parts with COFACTR

Use our new integration to deliver on time and on budget with the streamlined parts quoting, procurement, and inventory management platform for electronics. When a customer places an order on your Boardera Platform, this integration will automatically upload the BOM and create a ‘Program’ on the cofactr platform allowing you to simplify and automate the procurement process.

More Info…

Open

2024-FEB-28

Bad Part Numbers are Automatically Ignored

Sometimes designers are helpful by leaving notes on the BOM so that a manufacturer will understand what is required for accurate manufacturing. These notes can sometimes cause issues with an automated system that is attempting to source all the parts on the BOM. We’ve added a feature where we can recognize these notes and automatically ignore them so that the platform does not attempt to source them.

Even More Automated Project Files Parsing!

We’ve added another great feature to our automation. Sometimes designers are helpful by including different file types, like Gerber and ODB, and also include both the compressed files and extracted files. If the designer includes these file type variations of the same project we will automatically select the most reliable file type and import the project properly.

Added Clarity for Checkout and Order Submission

We want to make sure it’s clear to the designer that they are committing to an order. We’ve updated the buttons to clearly state ‘SUBMIT ORDER’ for all payment types, including the send-to-purchasing options.

Open

One Project at a Time, Please.

We’ve added a note for your customers to explain that they need to upload one project at a time so that they understand that they will need to start multiple projects to get multiple quotes.

2024-FEB-26

Customer Quick Access Page

We’ve added a new ‘quick access’ feature to your customer’s dashboard. Now when they log in they can see their recent activity and most common actions so that they can easily reengage with you or quickly place an order. This will also allow us to track the top reasons why the designer has logged in, so in the future, we can add even more enhancements.

Open

2024-FEB-13

Increased precision for unit prices.

We understand that sometimes a unit price can be small and require more decimal places, or the order quantity might be large and require a more accurate price to multiply. We have addressed both of these scenarios by increasing all of our unit prices to four decimal places.

Key Highlights:

1. Support for very small prices

   • If a unit price is only a single digit we now support more accuracy with four decimal places

2. Support for large purchase quantities

   • If your customer needs to order many thousands of units the total price will be correct by utilizing more decimal places,

3. This applies to all unit prices

   • All unit prices have now been updated across the platform.

Open

More Assembly Capabilities and Options

We’ve greatly expanded the available assembly options so that your customers can confidently specify all their requirements for their projects. As with the other configurations, you can set the pricing calculations to reflect how you price these options. As always, you can always set a ‘quote required’ flag so that your team has an opportunity to review the project before providing a quote.

Supported Assembly Options:

• Conformal Coating

• Functional Testing

• X-RAY Inspection

• First Article Inspection

• Bed Of Nails Testing

• In-Board Programming

• AOI

Open

Import Substitutions from the BOM file

We now support importing a list of approved substitutions from your customer’s BOM file. They put all that hard work into finding appropriate replacements and now we can use that information to reduce the effort on both the customer and your quoting team.

We will automatically check the component substitutions when we are sourcing and pricing the parts so your customers will experience far fewer sourcing issues and can easily place an order. Remember that you can always add more approved part numbers in the sourcing tool.

Open

2024-JAN-29

New Support for Euro

We now offer the option to set your preferred currency to 'EUR' so that you can service customers who typically do business in Europe.

Key Highlights:

1. Euro Currency

   • Manufacturers and Designers can now have accurate Euro pricing

2. Updated UI

   • All areas of the UI now display Euro properly

3. Euro transaction

   • Documentation and Purchase Orders now support Euro.

Better Support for Purchasing

We have updated the order email to support the purchasing workflow more effectively. Now there is an easy-to-use download link for each line item on the order directly in the email so that purchasing won’t need to log into PCBSalesCeter to download the design files.

New One Page Checkout

We’ve overhauled the entire checkout process to make it even easier for your customers to place an order with you.

Key Highlights:

1. Single Page Checkout

   • Studies have shown that a single-page checkout leads to more transactions.

2. Auto completed addresses

   • Now both shipping and billing addresses will auto-complete making it even easier for your customers to place orders

3. Flexible Payment Options