Building and sending standalone quotes

Summary

Build standalone quotes — parts, labour, and pricing — without creating a work order. Send the quote to your customer as a branded PDF and a portal link. The customer can accept, reject, or request changes from their portal. You decide if and when to convert the accepted quote into a work order.

This is a separate feature from quotes attached to work orders (the inspection-findings approval flow used by technicians). Standalone quotes live under Finance → Quotes.

Prerequisites

• You have the right permission. The defaults are:
  • View quotes: finance.quotes.view — Owner, Manager, Service Advisor.
  • Create quotes: finance.quotes.create — Owner, Manager, Service Advisor.
  • Send / void / convert / duplicate: finance.quotes.manage — Owner, Manager.
• The customer record exists. New customers can be added from the quote builder via the Add new customer link.
• The customer has an email address if you want to send the quote — the Send to Customer button is disabled otherwise.

Steps

Configure quote settings (one-off)

1. Go to Settings → Finance → Quoting.
2. Set:
   • Quote prefix — defaults to Q-.
   • Next quote number — defaults to 1.
   • Default expiry days — defaults to 30.
3. Save.

These are used for every quote you create afterwards.

Create a quote

1. Go to Finance → Quotes.
2. Click Create quote.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Customer (required) - search or pick. Click Add new customer to open the customer list in a new tab if you need to create one first.
   • Vehicle (optional) - filtered to that customer’s vehicles. Leave blank for general quotes.
   • Quote date — defaults to today.
   • Expiry date — defaults to today + your configured default.
   • Customer notes — appear on the PDF and in the portal.
   • Internal notes — staff only, never shown to the customer.
4. Add lines. Three line types:
   • From catalogue — search and pick a part. Pulls description, price, supplier.
   • Labour — pick a labour rate.
   • Ad-hoc — type whatever you want.
5. For each line, set qty, unit price, VAT %, optional discount, optional nominal code, optional supplier. Drag the handle to reorder lines.
6. The footer totals (Net / VAT / Gross) update live.
7. Click Save as draft.

The quote gets the next quote number from your settings (e.g. Q-0014). It opens on its detail page.

Send the quote to the customer

1. On the quote detail page, click Send to customer.
2. The confirmation dialog says “Send quote {number} to {email}?”. Confirm.
3. The customer receives an email with the PDF attached and a link to view the quote in their portal.
4. The quote moves from Draft to Sent. You can no longer edit it (duplicate it instead if you need a revised version).

If the customer’s email is missing, Send is disabled. Add an email to their customer record first.

Resend, download PDF, duplicate, void

• Resend — re-sends the email. Does not change the quote status or the original sent timestamp.
• Download PDF — generates the branded PDF on demand. Available on every status, even voided.
• Duplicate — creates a new draft from any quote (any status). The new draft links back to the original via the “Superseded by” indicator on the original. Use this to revise a quote in response to a customer’s change request.
• Void — marks the quote void on Draft or Sent. Voided quotes stay in the list for audit. Cannot be undone.
• Mark as expired — manual override on Sent quotes. Quotes expire automatically once the expiry date passes; this button is for cases where you want to expire one early.

Convert an accepted quote to a work order

1. On a quote in Sent or Accepted status, click Convert to work order.
2. If the quote has no vehicle, you are prompted to pick one of the customer’s vehicles. Work orders need a vehicle.
3. The new work order is created with the customer and vehicle, and a description summarising the quote lines. The quote moves to Converted (terminal).

The quote-to-work-order step is deliberately manual. Acceptance is a customer signal that they want the work, but you decide when to schedule it.

The Quote Inbox

When customers start interacting with quotes through their portal, you can see what is happening at a glance.

Go to Finance → Quotes → Inbox. Three stat cards summarise:

• Awaiting response — quotes you have sent that are not yet accepted, rejected, or expired.
• Responded — accepted or rejected in the last 30 days.
• Change requests — customers who have asked for revisions and you have not acknowledged yet.

Three sections below the cards:

• Awaiting response — sorted by sent date, with an amber warning if expiry is within 7 days.
• Recent customer responses — accepted (green) or rejected (red), with rejection reason preview if any.
• Change requests — the customer’s message, with Acknowledge and Revise quote actions.

Click any row to open the full quote detail.

Reading customer activity on a quote

Open any sent quote’s detail page. The Portal activity panel shows:

• When the customer first viewed the quote in the portal.
• When they accepted or rejected.
• The rejection reason if they gave one.
• Any change requests, with the message, timestamp, and Acknowledge / Revise quote buttons.

You also receive an email when the customer accepts, rejects, or requests changes — sent to the staff member who created the quote.

Revising a quote in response to a change request

1. Go to the quote detail page or the inbox.
2. In the change request row, click Revise quote.
3. The confirmation dialog says “Create a revised quote from Q-XXXX? The original will stay live until you send the revision.” Confirm.
4. A new draft is created, copying the customer, vehicle, lines, and notes. The change request is marked acknowledged automatically.
5. Edit the new draft — change prices, add or remove lines, adjust expiry — then Send to customer.
6. The original quote stays live in Sent until the customer makes a decision on the revision. When they accept or reject the revision, the original auto-voids.

Expected Outcome

• A quote in your list with the right number, customer, totals, and status.
• The customer receives a branded PDF in email and can open the same quote in their portal.
• You see customer activity in the inbox and on the detail page.
• An accepted quote can be converted into a work order in one click.

Notes

• Quote numbering is gap-tolerant. If a creation fails part-way through, the number it had may be skipped. This is normal and HMRC-acceptable.
• The PDF is regenerated whenever the quote changes. There is no “preview” mode — the PDF is the customer’s view of the quote.
• Voided quotes still allow PDF downloads — useful for record-keeping.
• Old work-order-bound quote URLs (the inspection-findings approval flow) keep working as before. The /portal/quotes/{id} URL is the new standalone-quote URL.

Troubleshooting

Problem: I cannot find the Quotes link in navigation. Cause: Your role does not have finance.quotes.view. Fix: Ask an Owner to grant the permission.

Problem: The Send button is disabled with “Customer has no email”. Cause: The customer record has no email address. Fix: Open the customer detail page, add an email, return to the quote and click Send to customer.

Problem: I clicked Send to customer and it failed. Cause: The send is atomic — if the email send fails, the status is rolled back to Draft so you can retry. Fix: Click Send to customer again. If it keeps failing, check the customer’s email is valid.

Problem: Customer says they cannot see the quote in their portal. Cause: Either the email link is to the wrong customer’s portal session, or the quote was voided / expired. Fix: Confirm the customer is logging in to the right portal account. Check the quote status. Resend the email if needed.

Problem: The Convert to work order button is disabled. Cause: The quote is in Draft, Voided, Expired, or Rejected, or has been Converted already. Fix: Convert is available on Sent and Accepted only. If the customer accepted but the conversion is greyed out, refresh the page.

Permissions

• finance.quotes.view — see the quote list and inbox. Owner, Manager, Service Advisor.
• finance.quotes.create — create new quotes. Owner, Manager, Service Advisor.
• finance.quotes.manage — send, void, duplicate, convert, acknowledge, revise. Owner, Manager.