Send a quote and track the outcome

A quote offers prices to a customer before any sale. It does not change the customer's balance. When the customer accepts, you turn it into an order or an invoice.

Before you start

• You need the Books right Manage sales documents and payments.

Steps

1. Open Books → Quote and select + Quote.
2. Choose the customer.
3. Set the Date and the Valid until date.
4. Add the lines, tax codes and terms as on an invoice: see Create and issue an invoice.
5. Select Save · Draft, then Post entry · Quote. The quote gets its number (QT-…) and the status Sent.
6. Share it: select Customer link, then Send e-mail or WhatsApp. See Send an invoice or quote.
7. The customer opens the link, types their name and selects Accept quote or Decline quote. The status changes to Accepted or Declined, with the name and time.
8. If the customer answers by phone, open the quote, type their name and select Accept quote or Decline quote yourself.
9. For an accepted quote, use Convert selected quantities to make an order or an invoice: see Turn a quote into an order and delivery.

See how your quotes went

1. Open Books → Quote outcomes.
2. Choose From, Through (up to 36 months of issue dates) and a Branch, then select Show.
3. The first time, select Prepare report summaries, then Continue preparation until the figures appear.
4. Read the totals for Won, Lost, Awaiting a decision and Expired, compared with the previous period and the same period last year. Open Source documents to see the quotes behind a figure.
5. Download the page as CSV or Excel.

Good to know

• The status Viewed shows that the customer opened the link.
• An undecided quote becomes Expired the day after its Valid until date, even if the customer never opened it. An accepted quote can still be converted after that date.
• Acceptance records the typed name, the time and a fingerprint of the customer's connection. It is a record of the customer's decision, not an electronic signature.
• An issued quote cannot be changed and has no versions. To offer new terms, use Copy as a new draft and issue the copy.
• Won counts accepted and converted quotes; Lost counts declined ones. Comparisons show those quotes' current outcome, not how they stood at the end of each period.
• Quote amounts are not revenue and not cash.