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Quotes and proposals

Updated

Overview

CRM has two ways to send pricing to a client: a quote (a clean line-item price sheet) and a proposal (a fuller document with narrative, inclusions, exclusions, and e-sign). A quote is built from the line items you enter. A proposal is built in Proposals, the CRM sidebar's own proposals area: that screen lists the proposals your organisation holds, and the Proposal Studio builder it opens creates, edits and sends one. ⚠️ The builder edits the narrative copy, the services, the theme and the branding — it has no scope, terms or pricing editor, and it does not attach the proposal to a deal, a company or a contact, so a proposal built there carries no line items of its own; use a quote when the money is the point of the send. The link a proposal send emails opens a read-only proposal page with no working Accept control — read Creating a Proposal below for what the screen and the API path each do and do not do.

Creating a Quote

  1. Go to Quotes in the left navigation, or open the deal record and click New Quote from there.
  2. Click New Quote.
  3. Select the associated Deal, Company, and Contact. If you started from a deal, these are pre-filled.
  4. Give the quote a Title (for example, "Managed Services — Monthly Package").
  5. Add Line Items:
    • Click Add Item.
    • Enter a description, quantity, and unit price.
    • Repeat for each service or product.
  6. Set a Tax Rate if applicable — CRM calculates the tax total automatically.
  7. Apply a Discount — enter a flat dollar amount or leave it at zero.
  8. Set a Valid Until date so the client knows when pricing expires.
  9. Add Notes and Terms (for example, payment terms, cancellation policy).
  10. Click Create Quote to save it as a draft you can review before sending.

Using a Quote Template

CRM can store quote templates — default line items, terms and notes a quote is created from — but the CRM app renders no template screen and no template control: the quote builder starts from a blank quote, and there is no Start from Template step to take. A template is created and applied through the CRM API (/api/v1/crm/quote-templates) today.

Applying Discounts

Enter the discount as a flat dollar amount in the Discount field. CRM subtracts it from the subtotal before calculating the total. The quote summary shows the subtotal, discount, tax, and final total clearly so the client can see the breakdown.

Sending a Quote to a Client

  1. Open the saved draft quote.
  2. Click Send.
  3. CRM mints a public share link and, when the quote has a contact with an email address, emails that link to the linked contact and creates an E-Sign envelope for the same quote.
  4. The emailed link opens a read-only quote page — the line items, totals, notes, terms and the valid-until date, rendered from an unauthenticated read of the quote's own data. It carries no Accept and no Reject control: the client's answer is recorded in E-Sign (step 5).
  5. The client accepts or declines in E-Sign, which emails the signer its own link: signing that envelope marks the quote accepted, and declining or voiding it marks the quote declined or voided. You can also record it yourself from the quote (Accept / Reject).
  6. On acceptance, CRM records the date. Accepting a quote dispatches no workflow trigger, so no workflow rule fires on a quote acceptance — the deal is not advanced for you.

Creating a Proposal

Proposals in the CRM sidebar is the screen. It lists the proposals your organisation holds with their status and their sent and updated dates, and the Proposal Studio builder it opens creates, edits and sends one: the builder sets the delivery mode (a plain document for e-signature, or a themed branded page), the theme, the headline and narrative copy, which services from the content library are included, and your branding.

⚠️ What the builder does not have: there is no editor for scope, terms or pricing line items, and there is no control that attaches the proposal to a deal, a company or a contact — a proposal built here stands on its own and its line items are empty. There is also no control to mark a proposal won or lost.

Sending creates an e-sign envelope and emails the contact the proposal is addressed to. What the link it emails does not do: the page it opens is read-only — the customer can read the proposal, but its Accept Proposal control does nothing, so it never accepts anything. The signature is collected in E-Sign.

When the line items are the point of the send, send a quote — see Creating a Quote and Sending a Quote to a Client above.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a quote and a proposal?

A quote is a line-item price sheet — simple, clean, and focused on numbers. A proposal is a full document with narrative context, scope, and a signature field. Neither moves the deal when it is accepted — acceptance records the quote's or the proposal's own status and date, and the deal stage is changed by hand.

Can I resend a quote after the client has already received it?

Yes. Open the quote and click Send again. A new email goes to the contact with the same share link.

What happens if a quote expires?

The quote's own status is not changed for you and it is not automatically rejected — but the share link stops opening once the valid-until date has passed, because the public read refuses an expired quote. While the link still works the page shows the valid-until date; after it passes, nothing renders the quote for the client. Update the date and send the quote again if the client still needs it.

Can I have multiple quotes on one deal?

Yes. A deal can have multiple quotes (for example, different pricing tiers). Only one can be accepted; the others remain in their current status.

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