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Sales quotes

Create a quote, add line items, check stock, send, revise, copy and win or lose it, with the quote page, award forecasting, chase and award tasks, automatic closing, quote proformas and what prints on the PDF.

Written by Chris Hearn

A sales quote is a priced offer to a customer. Omono tracks each quote through Draft, Active, Won and Lost. It keeps every revision, and turns a won quote into a sales order in one click.

The Sales Quotes screen

Click Sales Quotes in the navigation bar. The heading shows the number of quotes that match your filters and their total value. Each card shows the quote number, customer, reference, latest revision date and value. Draft quotes appear faded. Won and lost quotes show a coloured dot.

The Sales Quotes screen with the quote count and total value in the heading and a faded draft card.

Filter matches the quote number, customer name or reference. Status starts on Draft and Active. This means a quote disappears from the list as soon as you mark it won or lost. Tick Won or Lost to see it again. Date Range is the date the quote was created. Under Advanced you can also filter by Flag, Stock #, Tag #, Salesperson, Account Manager, Division, Chase By and Lost Reason, and sort by value.

Creating a quote

The customer must already exist in Companies and be marked as a customer.

  1. Click + next to Sales Quotes in the navigation bar, or click Raise SQ on the customer's page.

  2. Fill in the Add New Sales Quote form.

  3. Click the tick to save. The quote opens as a Draft.

The Add New Sales Quote form, with the contact and address fields greyed out until a customer is chosen.

The fields

Field

Meaning

Customer

Start typing the name. Required. It cannot be changed later. Use Copy to re-quote another customer.

Contacts

Who the quote is for. Required. Click + to add a new contact.

Delivery

Free-text delivery terms, for example "3 to 4 weeks".

Delivery Address

Where the goods would go. Required. Click + to add one. The last entry, — Customer Collection —, is for goods the customer collects (see below).

Reference #

The customer's enquiry reference.

Our EORI #, Incoterm

For international trade. Our EORI # fills in automatically when you have exactly one. See International trade.

Validity

How long the quote stands. Required. Options come from Settings → App → Sales Quote Validity.

Chase By

The date to follow up. Required by default (an admin can change this in Settings → App → Sales Quote Settings). It cannot be in the past. If a saved date has passed, you must change it before Edit, New Revision or Copy will save.

Conversion Probability

How likely the quote is to be won. Options come from Settings → App → Conversion Probabilities. Omono suggests a value (see Award forecasting below).

Expected Award Date

When you expect a decision. Omono suggests a date. It cannot be in the past, and it is required when quote auto-close is on.

Enquiry Received Date

Defaults to today. Cannot be in the future.

Exchange Rate

For foreign currency customers only. Defaults to the rate in Settings → App → Currencies.

Division

Only if your organisation uses divisions. Defaults to the customer's division, or to your own division if the customer has none. See Divisions.

Sales Person

Defaults to you. Required.

Commission

The referrer scheme. Shown only when schemes exist. Defaults to the customer's scheme.

Contacts and Delivery Address are greyed out until you choose a customer. If you clear the customer, the contact, delivery address, division, commission, probability and expected award date are cleared too. If you choose a different customer, the division is reset and the commission comes from the new customer. Raising a quote locks the company's Currency.

You can change the Exchange Rate later with Edit. Omono then recalculates the quote's value in your base currency. It also writes a note with the old and new rate.

Customer collection

Choose — Customer Collection — as the Delivery Address when the customer collects the goods. The quote then shows Delivery: Customer Collection in its details panel. The PDF prints that line instead of a delivery address. The setting is kept on revisions and copies. When the quote is won, the sales order Omono creates is a collection order.

Award forecasting

When you choose a customer on a new quote, Omono looks at your recent quotes for that customer and fills in two fields. Conversion Probability is the share of those quotes you won, rounded to the nearest option. Expected Award Date is today plus the average number of days it took that customer to order. Hover over the information icon next to each field to see the figures behind the suggestion. For example, "Won 3 out of 8 quotes (38%)". You can change both, but choosing a different customer afterwards replaces what you typed. If the customer has no quote history, the fields stay empty. Omono does not suggest again when you edit a quote.

An admin sets how far back Omono looks in Settings → App → Quote Award Forecasting. The Quote Lookback Period can be from 1 month to 3 years. The default is 6 months. There is also a Disable Feature option.

The quote page

The heading shows the quote number and its flag. Once there is more than one revision, it also shows the revision picker. Buttons that do not fit across the action bar are under More. Drag files onto the page to attach them as documents.

A draft quote page showing the details panel, three line cards and the totals bar.

The details panel shows the status, customer, contact, reference, revision date, validity, delivery, salesperson and currency. A lost quote shows its reason, for example "Lost - Expired". The commission, EORI numbers, incoterm, conversion probability, chase date, award date and enquiry date show only when set. The exchange rate shows only on a foreign currency quote. Once the quote is won, the revision it was won from shows an SO# link to the sales order.

Adding line items

Click Add Line Item and choose a stock item by Part # or Title. Quotes also have a Lead Time field per line. Each line appears as a card under the details panel, with the totals bar below. For the other fields, the cards, the Normal / Compact switch and the totals, see Sales line items, pricing and margins.

Checking stock for a quote

Click BOM in the action bar to see whether you have the stock to fulfil the quote. The button shows a red counter with the number of items that are short. The form lists every line with its Qty, Available, Location and Warehouse. It highlights the rows you do not have enough stock for; an assembly row is highlighted only when one of its components is short. Never-diminishing items show a dash.

Expand an assembly row to see its components. For a standard assembly, the component quantities show only what is needed to build the shortfall. A customised assembly shows the components for the full quantity. You can change an assembly's components for this quote only. To do so, open the component form from its row. Choose a component, enter the quantity and click the tick. To change a component's quantity, click the pencil at the end of its row, enter the new quantity and click the tick. To remove a component, click its pencil, then the bin, and confirm with Delete Component. On a won or lost quote the form still opens. Saving then changes nothing and shows no message. Copy the quote if you need a different build. See Assemblies and bills of materials.

Sending the quote

Click Email to send the quote to the contact, or Download or Print to produce the PDF. Any of these moves the quote from Draft to Active. Preview does not. A quote needs at least one line item first. Only the latest revision changes the status. See Sending documents by email.

An active quote. New Revision has appeared in the action bar, and Download and Print have moved under More.

What prints on the quote

The PDF is headed Quotation #: SQ-1136 and saved as SQ-1136.pdf, or SQ-1136-A.pdf for a revision. The header shows the invoice address and the date the quote was first created; from Revision A on, it also shows the revision letter and date. Beside them are Account #, Reference #, Sales Person, Validity and Delivery, plus the EORI numbers and incoterm when set. The line table has Line, Part # / Description, Quantity, Unit Price and Amount. If any line has a discount, List Price and Discount columns are added. If no line has a discount, a Lead Time column is added instead when any line has a lead time. The delivery address (or Delivery: Customer Collection) prints below the lines, with the totals on the right.

An admin chooses the totals and where the contact name prints in Settings → Templates → Sales Quote Paperwork. Preview produces the same PDF with a watermark and a file name starting DRAFT-. The watermark reads "DRAFT PREVIEW COPY - FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY - DO NOT SEND TO CUSTOMER". See Templates, paperwork and email templates and What prints on your PDF documents.

Revising a quote

Click New Revision on an active quote. The form opens with the current header details filled in. Change what you need, then click the tick. Omono creates the revision and copies every line item and its bill of materials. It puts the quote back to Draft, so Won and Lost disappear. Send or print the new revision to make it active again. Chase and award tasks move to the new dates. Revisions are named Original, Revision A, Revision B and so on. The quote number never changes.

The New Revision form, pre-filled with the header details of the current revision, with Customer Collection chosen in Delivery Address.

You can also use Edit or Add Line Item on an active quote without creating a revision. The status stays Active and the next PDF shows the new details. Use New Revision when the customer should see a revision letter and you want to keep the earlier version.

The Edit Sales Quote form, with Customer Collection chosen in Delivery Address. The customer is greyed out and cannot be changed.

Working with an earlier revision

Once a quote has more than one revision, choose an earlier one from the revision picker in the heading. Its lines and header cannot be changed, so Add Line Item, Edit, New Revision and Delete are hidden. Email, Download and Print produce that revision's PDF without changing the status. Copy copies that revision. BOM shows its bill of materials and can change it.

The Original revision of an active quote. Add Line Item, Edit and New Revision have gone from the action bar.

Won and Lost work on an active quote whatever revision you are viewing. If you click Won on an earlier revision, the sales order is built from that revision. So check the revision picker before you convert.

Winning a quote

  1. Click Won in the action bar. The form asks Would you like to convert Quote to Order?

  2. Enter the Customer Order #. It is required if an admin has ticked Set "Customer Order #" field as mandatory in Settings → App → Sales Order Settings. If an admin has ticked Warn when a customer order number is already used by the same customer in the same place and the customer already has a sales order with that number, the label shows Duplicate?. Hover over the i icon to see which. You can still continue. See Sales orders.

  3. Click Let's do it!. Omono marks the quote Won, creates the sales order and opens it. Not right now closes the form without changing the quote. There is no way to mark a quote won without creating a sales order.

The Won form asking for the Customer Order #, with the Let's do it! and Not right now buttons.

The new sales order is a Draft. It has the same customer, contact, delivery address, currency, exchange rate, division, commission and line items, including any customised bill of materials. Each line keeps its quoted lead time. The Customer Order # you entered is saved on the order. The quote shows an SO# link to the order, and any automatic chase and award tasks are cancelled. A won quote is locked, but you can still Copy it. See Sales orders.

A won quote cannot be reactivated. If you clicked Won by mistake, Copy the quote and send the copy. If you delete the draft order that Won created, the quote stays Won and its SO# link is removed. Raise the order again with Raise SO on the customer's page, or copy the quote.

Losing a quote

Click Lost, choose a reason under Why did we lose the quote? and click Yes. The status shows as "Lost - [reason]", a note records the reason, and any automatic tasks are cancelled. Reasons are set up in Settings → App → Lost Quote Reasons and feed the quote reports. You need at least one active reason. Omono will not let you archive the last one. See Quote reports.

The Lost form with the reason list and the Yes and No buttons.

To reactivate a lost quote, click Edit, then Reactivate Quote, and confirm. The quote returns to Active. Tasks that were cancelled are not reopened.

Automatic quote closing

An admin can switch on Quote Auto-Close in Settings → App. Once a day, Omono marks a quote as Lost when all of these are true:

  • the status is Active;

  • the Expected Award Date is more than the set number of days in the past;

  • the value, in your base currency, is below the value threshold;

  • if a probability threshold is set, the Conversion Probability is below it. A quote with no probability is left open.

A quote with no Expected Award Date is never closed automatically. This includes quotes created before you switched the feature on.

Each closed quote gets the chosen lost reason. It also gets a system note, such as "SQ-1136 lost - Expired (auto-closed after 30 days past EAD)", and an Activity Feed entry. Its automatic tasks are cancelled. You can reactivate it in the usual way, but then click Edit and set a new Expected Award Date, or Omono closes it again the next night. While auto-close is on, Expected Award Date is required on every quote you add, edit, revise or copy.

The Quote Auto-Close settings form.

Field

Meaning

Enable Quote Auto-Close

Tick to switch the feature on.

Days After Expected Award Date

How many days past the award date a quote must be. At least 1.

Quote Value Less Than (GBP)

Only quotes below this value are closed. Enter it in your base currency. The code in brackets shows which.

Conversion Probability Less Than (%)

Leave it blank to ignore probability.

Lost Reason

The reason applied to every auto-closed quote.

Click the tick to save. While the feature is enabled, every field except the probability threshold is required.

Chase and award tasks

An admin can set up Settings → App → Task Automation. Omono then creates two tasks from a quote's dates:

  • Follow up on quote chase date, due on the Chase By date;

  • Expected award date reminder, due on or before the Expected Award Date.

The tasks follow the quote. Saving it with Edit or New Revision resets them. Clearing a date cancels its task. Winning, losing or auto-closing the quote cancels both. A copy of the quote gets its own tasks. The tasks appear under Tasks in the quote's action bar. For the rules and what each setting does, see Tasks.

Copying a quote

Copy works on every quote, including won and lost ones, and copies the revision you are viewing. The Copy Sales Quote form opens with the header details filled in. You can change any field, including the Customer. Enquiry Received Date resets to today. Award forecasting fills in the probability and award date afresh, so check them. Click the tick to create the new draft.

Every line item and its bill of materials is copied. Omono fetches the current cost for each line. Where the cost, currency or exchange rate has changed, it recalculates the price to keep the same margin. Lines with a zero cost or a 100% margin keep their old price, converted if the new customer uses a different currency. The new quote has its own number and a note "copied from SQ-1136-A". See Stock costing and valuation.

Quote proformas

Use a quote proforma to ask for payment before an order exists. Click Documents in the action bar and choose Proforma under Documents Generated By Omono. You can also tick SQ Proforma as an attachment when you email the quote.

The Documents form on a quote, with the system-generated Proforma listed.

The proforma is headed Proforma #: PRO-SQ-1136. It prints the invoice address, today's date and the account, quote and reference numbers. Under them come the line items, Subtotal, the tax total for each rate and TOTAL. The bank details from the customer's Invoice Bank Account print to the left of the totals. The proforma follows the Invoice & Proforma Paperwork settings. Delivery prints when Show Quote Delivery on Proforma is ticked. The delivery address prints when Display Delivery Address is ticked. A quote proforma is not an invoice. It never gets an invoice number and never changes the quote's status. See Raise a quote proforma and Invoices and proforma invoices.

Deleting a quote

Delete is shown only on a Draft quote that has never been revised. Confirm and Omono deletes the quote with its line items, notes, documents and linked tasks. The quote number is not reused. Once a quote has been sent, downloaded or printed, mark it Lost instead. A revised quote is a draft again: Lost comes back when you send, download or print the new revision.

The audit trail on a quote

Open Notes to see the system notes Omono writes. They record:

  • who created the quote;

  • each revision;

  • each email sent;

  • Won;

  • Lost, with the reason;

  • reactivation;

  • copies;

  • changes made with Edit to the award date, probability and exchange rate.

The Activity Feed shows when a quote, or a new revision of it, is first sent, downloaded or printed, and when the quote is won, lost, reactivated, auto-closed, flagged or unflagged. See Notes, documents and links.

The action bar

Button

When it is shown

Add Line Item

Latest revision of a draft or active quote.

Edit

Latest revision of a draft or active quote. On a lost quote, on any revision, it opens read-only with Reactivate Quote.

New Revision

Latest revision of an active quote.

Email, Preview, Download, Print

Need at least one line item. Preview on drafts only.

BOM

Stock check and custom bills of materials for this revision.

Documents

Files uploaded to the quote, documents on its stock items and the Proforma. All can be attached to the quote email.

Notes, Links, Tasks

Notes, saved web links and tasks linked to the quote. See Notes, documents and links and Tasks.

Copy

Any status.

Delete

Draft quotes with a single revision.

Won, Lost

Active quotes, on any revision.

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