Quotes
A quote is a proposal you send to customers that lists the items you plan to sell, their prices, and the terms of the sale. In Zoho Books, you can create quotes and send quotes to your customers. Once a customer accepts a quote, you can quickly convert it into a sales order or an invoice. You can also perform additional actions, such as creating a retainer invoice or a project from the quote.
How Quotes Work
Once you create a quote in Zoho Books, you can send it to your customer. If you’ve shared the quote through other means, you can manually mark it as sent. Once the customer accepts the quote, it is marked as accepted. If the customer accepts the quote through other means, you can manually mark it as accepted. After that, you can convert the accepted quote into a sales order or invoice when you’re ready to deliver the product or service to the customer.
Create a Quote
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Click + New in the top right corner.
- In the New Quote page, fill in the following fields:Customer Name: Select the customer for whom you want to create the quote from the dropdown.Quote#: The quote number will auto-populate, but you can click the Settings icon and choose the option to enter a custom quote number, if needed.Reference#: Enter a reference number, if necessary.Quote Date: By default, the current date is selected when you create the quote. You can modify the date while creating the quote.Expiry Date: Select the date until which the quote is valid. The customer do accept or reject the quote on or before this date.Salesperson: If you want a specific user from your organisation to handle this sale to the customer, select the salesperson from the dropdown.Project Name: If you’re creating this quote for an existing project, select the project from the dropdown. If you’d like to create a new project for the quote, click + Add New in the dropdown.Select Price List: Choose a price list from the dropdown that you want to apply to this quote.Item Table: Select and add the items and their quantities in the table. To apply price lists to individual items, select the price list from the Apply Price List dropdown under the Rate column in the table.
- Shipping Charges: Enter any applicable shipping charges.
- Adjustment: Enter the adjustment amount here. Use a negative sign (-) to decrease the transaction amount.
- Customer Notes: Add any necessary notes for the customer. If you’ve already added them in Quotes Preferences, they will appear here.
- Terms and Conditions: Add any terms and conditions for the customer. If you’ve already added them in Quotes Preferences, they will appear here.
- Create a retainer invoice for this quote automatically: Check this option to automatically generate a retainer invoice once the customer accepts the quote in the customer portal. Specify the percentage to collect as a retainer from the total amount and set up a payment gateway.
- Click Save as Draft to save the quote in the Draft status, or Save and Send to save and send it to the customer via email.
Pro Tip:Set up the Customer Portal for the customer, if you haven’t already, to enable them to view, comment, accept, or reject the quote directly.
Now, once you’ve created the quote, you can send it to the customer or mark it as sent if you’ve already shared it through other means.
Import Quotes
Scenario:Zylker Inc is migrating from another accounting system and wants to import all the existing quotes in bulk. Using the Import Quotes option, Zylker can import all the quotes into Zoho Books effortlessly instead of having to add them manually.
If you already have quotes stored locally or you’re migrating to Zoho Books from another accounting system, you can easily import them. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Click the More icon in the top right corner and select Import Quotes from the dropdown.
- In the Import page, click Choose file and select the file you want to import.
Pro Tip:You can download and use the sample file as a reference for the format, and if needed, fill in the data you want to import.
- After you select the file, under the Configure tab, fill in the following fields:Character Encoding: The default is UTF-8 (Unicode). Ensure you select the correct encoding based on your file.Auto-generate Quote Numbers: Check this box to automatically generate quote numbers for the imported quotes.
Insight:If your file is in a different format, use an online or offline converter to convert it to a supported format (CSV, TSV, or XLSX).
- Click Next >.
- In the Map Fields tab:Default Data Format: The default Date format will be Select format at field level, and the Decimal format will be 1234567.89. Click Edit to customise the format if needed.Map the fields based on your preference. Click Save these selections for use during future imports to reuse the mapped fields for future imports.
- Click Next.
- Then, in the Preview page, review the fields you mapped, and click Import.
Now, the file containing the quotes will be imported into Zoho Books.
Send Quote to the Customer via Email
To send a draft quote to the customer via email:
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Hover over and select the draft quote you want to send to your customer.
- In the Details page, click Send Quote.
- In the page that follows, review and update the email content as needed. To include a copy of the quote’s PDF, check Attach Quote PDF. If you’d like to add any other attachments, click Attachments and upload your file.
- Click Send.
Now, the quote will be sent to the customer’s email address, where they can view, accept, or decline it.
Mark a Quote as Sent
If you’ve already sent the quote to the customer via other means, you can mark the quote as sent. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Hover over and select the quote you want to mark as sent.
- In the Details page, click the More icon at the top, and select Mark as Sent from the dropdown.
Mark a Quote as Accepted
If you’ve sent the quote to a customer via other means, you will have to accept the quote manually. To manually mark a quote as accepted:
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Hover over and select the quote you want to mark as accepted.
- In the Details page, click the More icon and select Mark as Accepted from the dropdown.
Mark a Quote as Declined
If your customer does not approve the quote and you’re certain no further changes are possible, you can mark the quote as declined. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Zoho Books organisation.
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Hover over any quote that has been approved by the customer.
- In the Details page, click the More icon and select Mark as Declined from the dropdown.
Now, the selected quote will be marked as declined.
Convert to Sales Order
Once the customer accepts the quote or you mark it as accepted, you can convert the quote into a sales order. Here’s how:
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Select the quote that you want to convert to a sales order.
- In the Details page, click Convert and select Convert to Sales Order in the dropdown.
- You’ll be redirected to the New Sales Order page, review the details, and update any details if needed.
- Click Save as Draft to save it as a draft, or Save and Send to save and send it to the customer.
Now, once you convert the quote into a sales order, you can either send it to the customer directly or mark it as confirmed if you’ve shared it through other means and received confirmation.
Convert to Invoice
Once the customer accepts the quote or you mark it as accepted and the work is complete, you can convert it to an invoice. Here’s how:
- Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Quotes.
- Select the quote you want to convert to an invoice.
- In the Details page, click Convert and select Convert to Invoice in the dropdown.
- You’ll now be redirected to the New Invoice page. Fill in the following fields:Customer Name: Verify and update, if needed.Invoice#: This will be auto-populated, but you can enter it manually if needed.Invoice Date: Select the creation date of the invoice.
- Review and update other necessary details.
- Click Save as Draft to save it as a draft, or Save and Send to save and send it to the customer.
Now, after converting the quote into an invoice and saving it as a draft or sending it to the customer, the quote will be marked as Invoiced.
Pro Tip:If you’ve enabled Progress Invoice, clicking Convert to Invoice will open a popup. In this popup, click Invoice the entire amount to create an invoice for the entire quote amount.
Warning:If you want to change the customer’s name on an invoice that was converted from a quote, first delete the invoice, edit the quote to update the customer’s name, and then convert a new invoice from the updated quote.
Quote Preferences
Enable Editing of Accepted Quotes
By default, you cannot edit quotes that have been accepted or marked as accepted. However, you can enable the option to edit these quotes. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Quotes under Sales.
- In the General tab, check Allow editing of accepted quotes.
- Scroll down and click Save.
Now, once you enable editing of accepted quotes, you can go to the quote details page, click Edit, and make necessary changes to an accepted quote.
Allow Customers to Accept or Decline Quotes via Public Link
By default, customers cannot accept or decline quotes through a shared link. You can enable this option to allow them to accept or decline quotes via a public link you send in the email. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Quotes under Sales.
- In the General tab, check Allow customers to accept or decline the quotes via a public link.
- Scroll down and click Save.
Now, when you share the link with customers through the Share Quote Link option they accept or decline the quotes through the public link.