✏️ Creating and editing a quote
In 30 seconds
- New quote opens the order form, simplified: customer, sales channel, lines and price.
- It's created with its number, a validity date, your workshop's tax and currency; all three can be changed on each quote.
- The customer is required.
- Five tabs: General, Dates, Documents, Notes and History.
Create a quote
Click New quote above the list. You choose the customer and the sales channel, add catalogue or custom lines and, if you want, a discount: the price works itself out.
When you save it for the first time, BolloPrint gives it:
| What | Starting value |
|---|---|
| Number | The next one in the year's series (see Quotes). |
| Valid until | Today plus your workshop's default validity days (30 if nobody has changed it). |
| Tax | Your workshop's. If it's changed in the settings, it only affects new quotes. |
| Currency | Your workshop's. See Documents in another currency. |
The defaults are set by an administrator in General settings and in Tax information.
The customer is required
A quote is always addressed to someone: it can't be saved without a customer. If it's a new customer, create them from the selector itself.
The header
- The title (editable), the offered total with its margin and the dates it has so far: created, valid until, sent, accepted or rejected.
- The progress line: Draft → Sent → Resolution. The last dot is the resolution: clicking it lets you choose Accepted or Rejected, just like the payment status on an order. See Accepting, rejecting and deleting.
- If it has already been accepted, the Order #N chip takes you to the order created from it.
- In the three-dot menu, Delete quote.
The large figure is the total including tax: price, shipping and tax. Below it you'll see how it's made up, for example £17.00 + VAT 20% (£3.40); the first figure is price plus shipping. Without tax, you'll see No tax configured in amber and the large figure is just the price. Next to it, Set up → takes you to Settings › Tax information if you can access Settings; if not, a ? tells you to ask the workshop owner. The margin is always on the price excluding tax: neither shipping nor tax is profit.
General
- Left panel: sales channel, customer and attachments. Open customer record opens their record without leaving, in case it's missing a detail you want on the PDF.
- Right panel: the lines, with thumbnail, quantity and price breakdown. They're added with Product (from the catalogue) or Custom. They have no "printed" flag: nothing is being manufactured here yet.
- Financial summary: the quote's figures.
The financial summary and tax
Each quote carries a single tax. Besides these eight fields there's the Currency (see Documents in another currency).
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cost | What it costs you to make the lines. It can't be edited. |
| Shipping cost | What you charge the customer for shipping. |
| Discount | What you take off for the customer. You type it in £ or in % (the button in the field switches between them); the amount is what's saved. It can't be more than the sum of the lines. |
| Reason | Optional: why you're giving the discount (Regular customer). It's printed with the discount on the PDF and on the invoice. It becomes available once there's a discount. |
| Margin | What you earn on the price excluding tax, as a percentage. |
| Subtotal | The price you're offering: the sum of the lines minus the discount, without tax and without shipping. It's calculated automatically; you don't type it. |
| Tax % | This quote's percentage. If the tax has a name, the field shows it (for example VAT %). |
| Total | Price plus shipping, plus the tax on both. It's calculated automatically. |
Shipping is part of the tax base: £5 of shipping with 20% VAT also pays VAT. The discount comes off before tax and never off the shipping. If you want to charge more than the lines (a rush job, assembly), add it as a line: the Subtotal can't go above the sum of the lines.
Three notices may appear in the summary:
| Notice | When it appears |
|---|---|
| "Customer's country: France. Check the tax rate manually." | The customer and your workshop both have a country and they don't match. BolloPrint doesn't change anything: which tax to apply depends on your situation. |
| Not set, in amber under the tax field | Neither the quote nor your workshop has a tax. Next to it, Set up → takes you to Settings › Tax information if you can access Settings; if not, a ? tells you to ask the workshop owner. Tax is set up there, never from the quote. |
| «This document was saved before discounts existed…», in amber above the summary | The quote predates discounts and its price doesn't match the sum of the lines. Make it a discount turns the difference into a discount (if it charged less); Recalculate sets the price to the sum of the lines. Until you choose, the price stays as it was. |
Not configured is not the same as 0%
With no tax configured it's calculated as 0%, but BolloPrint reminds you in the header (and in the summary, if your workshop doesn't have one either). If you really don't charge tax, enter 0: it's your decision and the notices disappear.
Dates
Four dates (an order has five):
| Date | How it works |
|---|---|
| Creation date | When it was created. |
| Valid until | The validity of the offer. It's filled in automatically on creation and is printed on the PDF. |
| Date sent | When you sent it to them. It's filled in automatically when moving to Sent; and if you set it yourself on a draft, it moves to Sent. |
| Acceptance date | BolloPrint sets it on acceptance and it can only be touched on an accepted quote. You can correct it, but not remove it while it's accepted. |
Documents
This is where you generate the PDF for the customer and see its versions. It's all in The PDF and its versions.
Notes
The team's internal comments. The customer never sees them.
History
Who changed what and when:
- Changes of state, validity, price, tax (rate and name) and lines.
- Every version generated, restored (recorded when you save) or deleted.
- The acceptance: "Quote accepted: order created". You'll find the order in the header's Order #N chip.
If a change came in through an integration, you'll see the name of the API token that made it instead of a person.