Capacel

Private-label capacitor banks for Mexico, built for transformer distributors.

Capacel is a private-label sourcing and sales platform for importing manual and automatic capacitor banks from China and selling them in Mexico under the US Electric umbrella. It helps the mother company standardize product specs, manage suppliers, control landed cost, and fulfill orders for low voltage transformer customers with faster quoting and better margins.

Business Goals

  • Reach $1.2M in first-year gross merchandise value from capacitor bank sales in Mexico.
  • Reduce sourcing-to-quotation cycle time from 5 days to under 24 hours within 3 months of launch.
  • Improve gross margin by 8 to 12 percentage points through direct sourcing and private labeling within 2 quarters.
  • Achieve 95% on-time delivery for Mexico shipments by month 6.
  • Convert at least 30% of US Electric transformer customers into capacitor bank buyers within 12 months.

User Goals

  • Let sales teams quote manual and automatic capacitor banks in minutes using approved BOMs and landed-cost pricing.
  • Give operations a clear workflow to approve suppliers, samples, compliance documents, and purchase orders.
  • Provide customers with consistent branded product options that match their transformer purchases.
  • Track orders, shipment status, and inventory availability in one place.
  • Reduce errors in product specification, voltage rating, and accessory configuration.

Non-Goals

  • Building a full ERP or accounting system.
  • Managing direct consumer retail or marketplace checkout.
  • Designing the internal electrical engineering of the capacitor banks beyond approved product configurations.
  • Handling customs brokerage operations end-to-end beyond document tracking and shipment milestone visibility.

Rosa, Sales Manager at US Electric - Rosa manages transformer and power-quality related sales in Mexico. She needs to quote fast, keep pricing consistent, and avoid promising unapproved configurations.

Rosa, Sales Manager at US Electric

  • As a sales manager, I want approved product bundles with current landed prices, so that I can quote customers accurately.
  • As a sales manager, I want to see stock and lead times by product, so that I can set realistic delivery expectations.
  • As a sales manager, I want branded spec sheets in Spanish, so that I can send professional proposals quickly.

Daniel, Supply Chain Coordinator - Daniel coordinates suppliers in China, sample approvals, shipments, and purchase orders. He needs a controlled workflow and visibility into delays or document gaps.

Daniel, Supply Chain Coordinator

  • As a supply chain coordinator, I want to compare suppliers by price, lead time, and certification status, so that I can choose the best source.
  • As a supply chain coordinator, I want approval checkpoints for samples and technical documents, so that only validated SKUs can be sold.
  • As a supply chain coordinator, I want shipment milestones and exception alerts, so that I can react before delays impact customers.

Marisol, Operations Lead in Mexico - Marisol manages warehousing, incoming inspection, and order fulfillment. She needs accurate item data and clear receiving instructions.

Marisol, Operations Lead in Mexico

  • As an operations lead, I want packing lists and receiving specs tied to each PO, so that inbound inventory is checked correctly.
  • As an operations lead, I want serialized or lot-based tracking where needed, so that I can trace product issues back to shipments.
  • As an operations lead, I want low-stock alerts, so that I can reorder before customer demand is missed.

Product Catalog and Private Label Management · High priority

  • Maintain a controlled catalog of manual and automatic capacitor banks sold under the company brand, with approved technical specifications and localized product content.
  • Support product families, variants, kVAR ratings, voltage classes, manual/automatic modes, enclosure types, and accessories.
  • Store bilingual product content in English and Spanish, including model numbers, spec sheets, and marketing descriptions.
  • Allow product approval status such as draft, technical review, approved, and retired.
  • Generate branded PDFs and quote-ready product sheets using US Electric branding.
  • Prevent sales use of unapproved or incomplete SKUs.

Supplier and Sourcing Workflow · High priority

  • Manage Chinese supplier onboarding, comparison, sampling, and approvals to ensure sourcing decisions are traceable and compliant.
  • Capture supplier profile, factory location, contact info, certifications, and capacity.
  • Track sample requests, sample approval status, and document uploads such as datasheets and test reports.
  • Compare suppliers by unit cost, MOQ, lead time, defect rate, and payment terms.
  • Require internal approval before a supplier can be assigned to an active SKU.
  • Maintain audit history of supplier changes and approvals.

Pricing and Quotation Engine · High priority

  • Calculate landed cost and sales price for Mexico using supplier cost, freight, duties, taxes, and target margin.
  • Support manual override and formula-based pricing by SKU and customer segment.
  • Include landed cost components such as EXW cost, ocean freight, inland freight, customs fees, VAT, and buffer.
  • Show margin impact for each quote line and flag below-threshold pricing.
  • Allow currency conversion between CNY, USD, and MXN using daily exchange rates.
  • Lock approved quote versions so sales can avoid pricing drift.

Order, Inventory, and Shipment Tracking · Medium priority

  • Track purchase orders, inventory availability, and shipment milestones from China to Mexico with clear operational visibility.
  • Create purchase orders from approved SKUs and supplier terms.
  • Track container, pallet, or carton shipment status with milestones such as booked, departed, customs cleared, and received.
  • Maintain available, reserved, in-transit, and damaged inventory states.
  • Trigger alerts for delay, missing document, or stockout risk.
  • Support basic receiving and discrepancy logging on inbound delivery.

Reporting and Controls · Medium priority

  • Provide management visibility into commercial and operational performance while protecting data accuracy.
  • Dashboard for sales pipeline, order status, landed cost, and margin by product family.
  • Report supplier performance by lead time, defect rate, and document compliance.
  • Show inventory coverage in days and reorder recommendations.
  • Log changes to pricing, product specs, and approvals for auditability.
  • Export CSV and PDF reports for finance, operations, and leadership.

Launch and Configure the Catalog

  • Sign in with company email or SSO and choose role-based access.
  • Create the first branded product family or import an existing SKU list.
  • Add supplier, technical spec, and landed-cost inputs for each product.
  • Upload spec sheets, certificates, and product photos for review.
  • Approve the first sellable SKUs and publish them to the sales catalog.
  • Time to first usable quote: under 30 minutes for an existing SKU set.

1. Set Up Branded Product Families

  • The user creates capacitor bank families and defines the approved variants sold in Mexico.
  • Validate voltage, kVAR, and mode combinations before saving.
  • Reject duplicate model numbers or missing mandatory technical fields.
  • Auto-generate SKU codes based on company naming rules.

2. Source and Approve Suppliers

  • The user compares China-based suppliers and routes the best option through approval.
  • Highlight suppliers missing certifications or test reports.
  • Require an internal approval step for new factories.
  • Keep a full history of supplier changes tied to each SKU.

3. Build Landed Cost and Price

  • The system calculates true landed cost and proposes a sales price for Mexico.
  • Combine supplier cost, freight, duties, and taxes into one formula.
  • Flag quotes below target gross margin.
  • Allow FX rate updates and show recalculated margins immediately.

4. Quote and Confirm Orders

  • Sales creates a quote or order from approved items and sends customer-ready documents.
  • Generate bilingual proposal PDFs with US Electric branding.
  • Prevent ordering of unapproved or discontinued SKUs.
  • Warn if delivery timeline exceeds stock or inbound availability.

5. Track Fulfillment and Exceptions

  • Operations follows shipment and inventory progress until the product is received and available.
  • Show milestone status and overdue alerts.
  • Capture receiving discrepancies and damage notes.
  • Move units from in-transit to available inventory upon receipt.

Advanced Controls for Scale

  • Multi-currency pricing rules by customer segment and channel.
  • Role-based approval thresholds for discounts and supplier changes.
  • Batch import of supplier quotes and SKU specs from Excel.
  • Exception management for customs delays, partial receipts, and damaged goods.
  • Version history for product specs, pricing formulas, and quote templates.

Fast, Clear, Bilingual Operations UI

  • Spanish-first interface with English technical field support.
  • Color-coded status chips for draft, review, approved, in transit, and received.
  • High-contrast tables and accessible form labels for warehouse and sales use.
  • Responsive layout that works on desktop in sales offices and tablets in warehouses.
  • Fast search across SKU, supplier, quote, PO, and shipment records.

Rosa used to wait days for product specs, supplier confirmations, and landed-cost calculations before she could quote a customer in Mexico. That delay caused lost deals and inconsistent pricing, especially when exchange rates or freight changed mid-week.

With Capacel, Rosa picks an approved capacitor bank family, sees the current MXN landed cost, and generates a branded proposal in minutes. Daniel and Marisol keep supplier approvals, shipments, and receiving status up to date, so the business can sell faster, protect margin, and deliver with fewer surprises.

User-Centric Metrics

  • 90% of quotes generated in under 10 minutes after product approval.
  • At least 95% of active SKUs have complete bilingual specs and pricing.
  • Reduce pricing errors in customer quotes to below 1% of issued quotes.
  • Achieve 80% on-time visibility for shipment milestones within 24 hours of actual status change.
  • Reduce manual spreadsheet handoffs by 70% within 4 months.

Business Metrics

  • Reach 30% conversion from existing US Electric transformer accounts to capacitor bank buyers in 12 months.
  • Maintain average gross margin of 22% or higher on sold capacitor banks.
  • Achieve monthly repeat purchase rate of 35% among active B2B customers.
  • Grow catalog coverage to 25 approved sellable SKUs in the first 6 months.

Technical Metrics

  • 99.5% monthly uptime for the web app.
  • Under 300 ms p95 response time for catalog search and quote calculation.
  • Zero critical security incidents and encrypted sensitive data at rest and in transit.
  • Nightly backup success rate above 99% with tested restore procedures.

Tracking Plan

  • track_sku_created
  • track_supplier_submitted
  • track_supplier_approved
  • track_quote_created
  • track_quote_sent
  • track_purchase_order_created
  • track_shipment_status_updated

Technical Needs

  • Frontend built in Next.js with TypeScript for fast internal workflows.
  • Backend API using NestJS or Fastify with a PostgreSQL database.
  • Prisma ORM for schema management and reliable migrations.
  • File storage in AWS S3 for spec sheets, certificates, and proposal PDFs.
  • Authentication and role-based access control using Auth0 or Clerk.
  • Background jobs with BullMQ and Redis for quote generation, alerts, and document processing.
  • Observability with Sentry, OpenTelemetry, and structured logs.

Integration Points

  • Currency exchange rate feed such as OpenExchangeRates or fixer.io.
  • Email delivery via SendGrid for quote and approval notifications.
  • WhatsApp notification integration through Twilio or Meta WhatsApp Business API.
  • Accounting export or sync with QuickBooks Online or NetSuite.
  • Google Drive or SharePoint for legacy document import during rollout.

Data Storage & Privacy

  • Store supplier contacts, customer contacts, and quote history with role-based permissions.
  • Encrypt files and sensitive records at rest and use TLS 1.2+ in transit.
  • Support data retention and deletion workflows aligned with GDPR and CCPA where applicable.
  • Log access to pricing, supplier documents, and approval events for auditability.
  • Separate Mexico commercial data from internal supplier documents using scoped access controls.

Scalability & Performance

  • Design for 10,000 SKUs and 50,000 quote lines without slowing search.
  • Cache reference data like FX rates and product taxonomy for low-latency quoting.
  • Use async jobs for PDF generation and heavy document processing.
  • Partition audit and event tables as volume grows to keep reporting fast.

Potential Challenges

  • Risk of incorrect landed-cost formulas leading to margin loss; mitigate with locked formulas, approval rules, and periodic finance review.
  • Risk of poor supplier data quality or missing certifications; mitigate with required document checklists and approval gates.
  • Risk of shipment delays affecting customer trust; mitigate with milestone alerts, buffer lead times, and exception escalation.
  • Risk of bilingual spec inconsistencies; mitigate with single source of truth fields and template-driven document generation.
  • Risk of scope creep into full ERP functionality; mitigate with strict focus on catalog, sourcing, quoting, and fulfillment visibility.

Team & resourcing - Small team - 2 engineers, 1 product designer, part-time PM, and operations SME support.

Phase 1: MVP Catalog and Quoting · Weeks 1-4

  • Authenticated web app with role-based access
  • Product family and SKU management
  • Bilingual spec fields and PDF quote generation
  • Basic landed-cost calculator with MXN pricing
  • Initial dashboard for approved SKUs and quotes

Phase 2: Supplier and Approval Workflow · Weeks 5-8

  • Supplier profiles and document uploads
  • Supplier comparison view
  • Approval workflow for new SKUs and suppliers
  • Audit history for pricing and spec changes
  • Email notifications for approvals and rejections

Phase 3: Inventory and Shipment Visibility · Weeks 9-12

  • Purchase order creation and tracking
  • Shipment milestone timeline
  • Inventory states for available, reserved, and in-transit
  • Receiving and discrepancy logging
  • Exception alerts for delays and missing documents

Phase 4: Reporting and Scale · Weeks 13-16

  • Margin and pipeline reporting
  • Exportable operational reports
  • Advanced discount and role-based controls
  • WhatsApp or email notification integrations
  • Performance tuning and backup/restore procedures

Paste this into Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, or v0 to start building.

Build a B2B web app called Capacel for US Electric to manage private-label capacitor banks sourced from China and sold in Mexico.

Core purpose:
Create an internal catalog, sourcing, quoting, and fulfillment tool for manual and automatic low-voltage capacitor banks. Users need to manage approved SKUs, suppliers, landed cost in MXN, bilingual product sheets, purchase orders, shipment milestones, and inventory visibility.

Tech stack:
Next.js 14 + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui frontend
NestJS or Next.js server actions for backend logic
PostgreSQL with Prisma ORM
Auth0 or Clerk for authentication and RBAC
S3 for document storage
Redis + BullMQ for background jobs
Sentry for error tracking

Primary screens and flows:
1. Login and role-based dashboard
2. Product catalog with filters for mode, kVAR, voltage, supplier, and approval status
3. Product detail page with bilingual fields, supplier docs, pricing formula, and approval history
4. Supplier management screen with comparison metrics and document uploads
5. Quote builder that calculates landed cost, margin, exchange rate, and generates a branded PDF
6. Purchase order and shipment tracking timeline
7. Inventory dashboard with available, reserved, and in-transit stock
8. Reports page for margin, lead time, and supplier performance

Data model:
Users, Roles, Suppliers, SupplierDocuments, Products, ProductVariants, Approvals, ExchangeRates, PricingRules, Quotes, QuoteLineItems, PurchaseOrders, ShipmentMilestones, InventoryLots, AuditEvents, CustomerAccounts

Key functionality:
Role-based permissions for sales, supply chain, operations, and admin
SKU approval gates so only approved products can be quoted or ordered
Bilingual product content in English and Spanish
Landed-cost formula using supplier cost, freight, duties, taxes, and target margin
Generate proposal PDFs with US Electric branding
Track supplier status, purchase orders, shipment milestones, and inventory states
Audit all edits to pricing, specs, and approvals

Requirements:
Make the UI clean, fast, and operationally focused for desktop use, with accessible tables, forms, and status chips.
Implement searchable tables, detail drawers, modals, and a multi-step quote flow.
Seed realistic sample data for 3 suppliers, 12 products, 5 quotes, 4 purchase orders, and shipment milestones.
Use strong validation for required fields, duplicate SKUs, missing certifications, and invalid pricing formulas.

Business Idea

I want to build a company that purchase capacitors banks manual and automatic from china for low voltage transformers but with my own brand. Selling them in Mexico solving the need from the mother company US Electric which sells low voltage transformers

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