Building a quote your client can approve online
The builder is where most of the day goes, so it is the part worth learning properly. The short version: build it from your inventory, send a link, and let the approval carry through to the invoice without anything being retyped.
About fifteen minutes to get the shape of it
-
1. Start from a job you are actually working on
A real job beats a test one. How you group things, what your client expects to see: those questions surface in the first ten minutes instead of the first week.
-
2. Group lines into sections
Sections are how a quote becomes readable: lighting, audio, crew, transport. They also give you somewhere to apply a discount, because a discount can sit on a single line or across a whole group. Ten percent off the lighting package without touching anything else.
-
3. Send it and let the client read it in a browser
Sending creates a link. No account for them to make, no PDF attachment to lose in a thread, and no wondering whether they opened the right version. They approve it there.
-
4. Turn the yes into an invoice
An approved quote becomes an invoice with the numbers intact. That is the step where figures usually start drifting apart between documents, and it is the reason to let the approval do the work rather than rebuilding it by hand.
Worth knowing
- Quoting the same shape of job repeatedly? Save one as a template and start from that instead of a blank page.
- Need money up front? Raise a deposit invoice against the quote and bill the balance later. The deposit is credited against the final invoice rather than tracked on a separate sheet.