I’ve spent years working in lighting sales, and I know how quickly one project can take over your entire day.

It usually isn’t one massive task that slows you down. It’s the constant back and forth between fixture schedules, drawings, specifications, manufacturer websites, catalogs, pricing files, spreadsheets, quoting software, cut sheets, and project folders.

You find the specified fixture. You cross it. You double-check the cross. You request pricing. You build the quote. Then, once the project moves forward, you gather everything again to build the submittal package.

When the schedule changes, you may have to go back and redo a large portion of that work.

Here is what that process can realistically look like.

A Typical Lighting Rep Workflow

For this example, we’ll use a moderate commercial project with 12 fixture types.

All times are estimates. Every project is different depending on the fixture types, manufacturers, specifications, documentation, pricing requirements, and complexity of the crosses.

Receive and organize the project documents

The rep receives the lighting schedule, drawings, specifications, addenda, and other project documents.

Before any crossing or quoting begins, the files need to be downloaded, organized, and reviewed for missing information.

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Review the fixture schedule, drawings, and specifications

The rep reviews the fixture types, quantities, basis-of-design products, voltages, mounting conditions, controls, finishes, emergency requirements, environmental ratings, and other project-specific details.

The fixture schedule does not always contain everything needed, so the rep may also need to search through the drawings and written specifications.

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Locate and understand the specified products

Before the rep can cross a fixture, they need to understand what was originally specified.

That can mean searching manufacturer websites, old catalogs, PDF files, previous projects, distributor portals, and internal product folders just to locate the correct product information.

Part numbers may be incomplete, outdated, discontinued, or configured differently across multiple documents.

Estimated time: 45–90 minutes

Cross each fixture manually

On average, manually crossing one product takes approximately 8–12 minutes.

A legitimate cross requires more than finding something that looks similar. The rep may need to compare:

• Fixture type

• Dimensions

• Mounting method

• Lumen output

• Wattage

• Distribution

• Optics

• Color temperature

• CRI

• Voltage

• Dimming and controls

• Emergency options

• Finish

• Listings and certifications

• Wet, damp, or dry location ratings

• Photometric performance

• Available configurations

For 12 fixture types, the crossing process alone takes approximately:

Estimated time: 1 hour 36 minutes to 2 hours 24 minutes

Some fixtures can be crossed quickly. Others can take significantly longer, especially when the basis-of-design product is highly configurable, discontinued, custom, poorly documented, or outside the rep’s normal product lines.

Request or verify pricing, availability, and lead times

Once the proposed crosses have been identified, the rep may need to confirm pricing, lead times, availability, option compatibility, freight, minimum-order requirements, or technical details.

The active work required to prepare and send those requests is separate from the time spent waiting for responses.

Estimated active time: 20–40 minutes

Potential manufacturer turnaround: 1–2 business days or longer

Manufacturer response time is not included in the active labor calculation below.

Enter the project into the quoting system

The rep enters the fixture types, quantities, manufacturers, catalog numbers, descriptions, pricing, notes, and other relevant information into a spreadsheet or quoting platform.

Because information is often coming from several different sources, this frequently involves copying, pasting, reformatting, and manually checking data.

Estimated time: 30–45 minutes

Build and review the quote

The rep applies pricing, margins, freight, terms, exclusions, alternates, and project notes.

They then review the quote to make sure the quantities, catalog numbers, fixture types, and totals are correct.

Estimated time: 30–45 minutes

Build the lighting submittal package

A complete lighting submittal is not just a few PDFs combined into one file.

The rep may need to:

• Locate the correct cut sheet for every fixture

• Confirm that each sheet matches the product being quoted

• Mark or highlight the selected configurations

• Add fixture type labels

• Include relevant photometric information

• Include drawings, controls information, or supporting documentation

• Arrange the documents in fixture schedule order

• Create a cover page or table of contents

• Remove irrelevant or duplicate pages

• Check that every quoted fixture has supporting documentation

• Confirm that the quote and submittal show the same products

• Combine everything into a clean, customer-ready package

For a 12-fixture project, this process can easily take several hours.

Estimated time: 2–4 hours

On larger or more complicated projects, building and revising the submittals can take considerably longer.

Perform final quality control and send the package

Before anything is sent, the rep should verify that no fixture types are missing, catalog numbers are accurate, selections are properly marked, pricing is current, and the quote matches the submittal package.

Estimated time: 20–30 minutes

Traditional Processing Time

For a moderate project with 12 fixture types, the complete crossing, quoting, and submittal workflow takes approximately:

6 hours 41 minutes to 11 hours 14 minutes of active work

The midpoint of that range is approximately:

8 hours 58 minutes of active work per project

These estimates do not include:

• Waiting for manufacturer responses

• Waiting for special pricing

• Customer review time

• Architect or engineer review time

• Resubmittals

• Major schedule changes

• Product discontinuations

• Pricing corrections

• Value-engineering revisions

• Alternate quote requests

The final submittal package is also not always created at the same time as the original quote.

Depending on the agency and project, submittals may be completed after the quote is accepted, the project is awarded, or the order is ready to move forward.

However, it is still labor associated with the same project—and much of the same product information has traditionally been gathered, entered, and checked more than once.

The Same Project with Luxion

Luxion connects crossing, quoting, and submittals through one workflow, allowing the information approved during the crossing process to move directly into the quote and eventual submittal package.

Upload the fixture schedule and project documents

The rep uploads the available lighting schedule, spreadsheet, PDF, image, or related project information.

Estimated time: 15 seconds

Review the organized fixture schedule

Luxion reads the uploaded schedule and organizes the fixture information for review.

The rep confirms that the fixture types, quantities, manufacturers, part numbers, and other extracted details are correct.

Estimated time: 30 seconds

Generate recommended crosses

Luxion searches the manufacturers represented by the agency or distributor and identifies potential crosses for the specified products.

Estimated time: 45 seconds

Review, configure, and approve the recommended crosses

The rep reviews the recommended products and confirms that each cross meets the project requirements.

As the rep reviews the crosses, they can also build out and configure the complete part number based on the project specifications.

The rep remains responsible for the final product decision. Luxion removes much of the manual searching, comparison, configuration, and data-entry work surrounding that decision.

On average, reviewing, configuring, and approving each product takes approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds.

For 12 fixture types:

Estimated time: 18 minutes

Confirm pricing and generate the quote

Using the approved products and available pricing information, Luxion organizes the fixture lines and helps generate an AI-assisted quote.

The rep reviews margins, pricing, freight, terms, exclusions, and project-specific notes before sending it.

When pricing is already configured within Luxion:

Estimated time: Up to 5 minutes

Pricing that is not already available may still require confirmation from a manufacturer.

Generate the submittal package

Luxion uses the approved product selections to locate and organize the documents required for the submittals.

Instead of manually finding, downloading, renaming, sorting, and combining every cut sheet, the rep begins with an organized package based on the products already approved during crossing and quoting.

The information selected while building the part numbers can also carry into the submittal workflow, reducing the need to mark and configure the same products again.

Estimated time: Up to 5 minutes

Perform the final review and send

The rep confirms that the quote and submittal package contain the correct fixture types, catalog numbers, selections, quantities, pricing, and supporting documents.

Estimated time: 5–7 minutes

Luxion Processing Time

With Luxion, the same 12-fixture crossing, quoting, and submittal workflow takes approximately:

34 minutes 30 seconds to 36 minutes 30 seconds of active work

The midpoint of that range is approximately:

35 minutes 30 seconds

That means Luxion can reduce a workflow that traditionally consumes most or all of a working day to approximately 35 minutes of active processing time.

Save More Than Eight Hours on a Typical Project

Using the midpoint of both estimated ranges:

• Traditional workflow: approximately 8 hours 58 minutes

• Luxion workflow: approximately 35 minutes 30 seconds

• Estimated time saved: approximately 8 hours 22 minutes

That represents an estimated:

93% reduction in active processing time

Depending on the complexity of the project, Luxion could save approximately:

6 hours 5 minutes to 10 hours 40 minutes per project

Actual results will vary based on project size, fixture complexity, documentation quality, available pricing information, and the number of revisions.

Luxion cannot control how quickly a manufacturer responds when new pricing or technical confirmation is required.

What it can do is eliminate hours of searching, comparing, copying, organizing, re-entering, and rebuilding work around those responses.

The Difference

In a traditional workflow, lighting sales reps spend a large portion of their time:

• Searching for product information

• Manually crossing fixtures

• Opening and comparing multiple PDFs

• Tracking down discontinued products

• Copying and re-entering catalog information

• Building quotes line by line

• Searching for individual cut sheets

• Marking product selections

• Organizing submittals

• Checking quotes against submittals

• Rebuilding work after revisions

With Luxion, reps can spend more time:

• Reviewing important product decisions

• Helping customers select the right products

• Responding to more quoting opportunities

• Following up on active projects

• Closing business

• Growing customer relationships

• Generating revenue

• Getting home at a reasonable time

I’ve done this work. I know how frustrating it is to realize that your entire day disappeared because you were searching through PDFs, rebuilding a quote, or trying to find the right cut sheet for a submittal.

That work is necessary, but it is not where a lighting sales rep creates the most value.

A rep creates value through product knowledge, judgment, relationships, responsiveness, and the ability to help a customer move a project forward.

Luxion does not replace that expertise.

It removes the repetitive work that keeps reps from using it.

Crossing, Quoting, and Submittals in One Connected Workflow

Luxion connects fixture crossing, AI-assisted quoting, and submittals in one platform.

Instead of managing separate spreadsheets, manufacturer websites, pricing files, quoting systems, PDFs, email threads, and project folders, reps can move from an uploaded fixture schedule to approved crosses, a completed quote, and an organized submittal package through one connected workflow.

Spend less time trying to cross products manually.

Spend less time building every quote line by line.

Spend less time searching for documents and organizing submittals.

Spend more time helping customers, winning projects, generating revenue, and being with your family.

Gianni Fontanna

CRO, Luxion

Lighting industry professional focused on product crossing, quoting workflows, and lighting project execution.