InnoSoft
roen
Case study · 2024

Meta Calculator — a web app for order management and weight calculation

The products sell by the kilogram, and the weight was worked out by hand — on paper or in Excel — for every piece in every order. One misplaced decimal meant a wrong quote. We built a web app where the shape is picked visually, the weight is calculated automatically and checked again on save, and every order is tracked through to completion.

meta-calculator.app
Client
Rebar stirrup manufacturer · construction
Project type
Custom web application for order management
Our role
Design, development, delivery
Status
Delivered and in daily use
TechnologiesNext.jsReactTypeScriptPostgreSQLPrisma
The challenge01

The company needed one place where the product gets configured, the weight comes out right every time, and the order stops getting lost between a spreadsheet and a notebook.

The solution02

A web app where the person on the shop floor never needs to know a formula — they simply enter the measurements already on the technical drawing. The app does the rest: draws the shape, calculates the weight, adds the product to the order and links the order to the customer.

The result03

The company moved from manual sums and orders kept in scattered files to an app where the product is configured visually, the weight is calculated automatically and correctly, and the order exports to PDF and is tracked through to completion.

The outcome

From paper and Excel to digital production.

Calculation errors — which used to mean lost money or wrong deliveries — are out of the process.

3–12
Sides — any piece shape, configured visually
2×
Every weight calculated on entry and checked again on save
1
Single calculation formula, applied identically everywhere
PDF
Order exported, ready to send or take to production
The context

The price depends on weight. And weight, on manual sums.

The client manufactures rebar stirrups — steel bars bent into various shapes, ordered by construction firms. Every order needs a total weight, based on the shape of the piece, the length of each side and the diameter of the bar. The products sell by the kilogram, so the price depends directly on that calculation.

It was done by hand, on paper or in Excel: add up the sides, multiply by the weight per metre of the chosen diameter, then by the quantity. For every product, in every order.

  • Weight calculated by hand, product by product, order by order
  • One misplaced decimal meant a wrong quote, and money lost
  • Orders and customers scattered across files and notebooks
  • No clear view of which orders were in production and which were done
What we built

The whole business, in one place.

Shape + dimensions
Automatic calculation
Order · PDF

Pick the shape, fill in the dimensions and the bar diameter. The weight appears instantly, and the order becomes a document ready to send.

Delivered capabilities

Visual product configuration

The shape is picked from a graphical selector — any shape with 3 to 12 sides. The app draws it automatically and asks only for the dimensions: every side, plus the two ends. No formulas, just measurements.

Automatic weight calculation

As the dimensions and bar diameter are entered, the app instantly shows the weight per piece and the total for the ordered quantity. On save, the system recalculates and checks it, so the order always holds the correct figure.

Full order management

Every order belongs to a customer — contact details, company, address, notes — and can hold any number of products. The order status (New / In production / Completed / Cancelled) shows at a glance what's in progress and what's done.

Orders exported to PDF

The order exports as a document, ready to send to the customer or take onto the shop floor.

Quick weight calculator

For the times someone just wants a quick weight, without recording an order at all.

Accounts and access rights

Email and password sign-in. Administrators work with orders, customers, the calculator and exports; a higher role can create accounts and manage users. All data is protected on the server, so access restrictions can't be bypassed.

Details that matter

What keeps every calculation right.

The problem

When the calculation rule is written in several places — in the form, on save, in the export — sooner or later the results stop agreeing. And then nobody knows which number is the right one.

How we solved it

The weight formula, the industry standard, is defined once and used identically across the whole app. The results simply can't drift apart.

A critical calculation still living in Excel?

We turn it into a custom app where the formula is written once and the result is checked automatically on every save.

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