Quoting from a measure and converting the quote to an invoice
Price the work on your letterhead before anyone agrees to it, then turn the accepted quote into the invoice.
A quote puts a price in front of a client before the work is agreed: the measure's own priced lines, on your letterhead, numbered in their own sequence. It prices the work without billing it — the measure is left exactly as billable as it was. When the client says yes, the quote becomes the invoice.
Quotes need Manage commercial.
Raising a quote
Quotes are raised from a measure, not from an empty form. Record the work you want to price as a measure (see Contracts and measuring work), then open it on Commercial › Measures and choose Quote.
Quote is offered whatever the measure's status: a quote is what you send before the work is agreed, so the measure does not need approving first.
The Create document dialog opens with the type fixed to Quotation. Fill in the client's reference if they gave one, pick a Layout and Tax treatment, and add any Notes — Price held for 30 days, for example. Choose Create draft.
The draft opens straight away. Check it, then Issue it: it takes the next number in the quote sequence (QUO- unless you changed the prefix). Send it the same way as an invoice; the Quote message template is there for it. See Emailing a document and chasing overdue invoices.
A draft quote can be edited like any draft, but it stays a quote: "Issue it, then convert it to an invoice once the client accepts." An issued quote can be corrected in place until it is accepted, keeping its number: see Correcting an issued document in Raising an invoice from approved measures.
A quote is never owed
A quote is a price, not a debt. It cannot be marked paid, it is never chased as overdue, and it cannot be credited. Its statuses are Draft, Issued, Accepted and Void.
Converting an accepted quote
Open the issued quote on Commercial › Invoices and choose Convert to invoice.
This raises a draft invoice for £1,240.00 from QUO-0003. The quote is marked accepted, and the work it priced is billed on the invoice. You can check the draft before issuing it.
Choose Convert. The draft invoice opens; check it and issue it as usual. Nothing is re-keyed.
The two documents point at each other. The invoice says From quote QUO-0003 and the quote says Accepted … converted to INV-0041, each with a button to open the other. In the register, the invoice's row reads From QUO-0003 and the quote's reads Became INV-0041.
To convert several at once, choose Select on the Invoices tab, tick the issued quotes and choose Convert to invoice.
When a quote will not convert
An invoice can only bill approved work that has not been billed yet, so Maliru refuses a conversion when:
- a measure the quote priced is not approved — approve it first; the message names the job;
- the work has already been billed — on another invoice or in a valuation; the message names the document;
- a measure it priced has been deleted — void the quote and raise the invoice from Measures;
- the quote is still a draft — issue it first;
- it was already converted.
Taking it back
If the invoice is discarded while it is still a draft, or voided after it was issued, the quote goes back to being an open, issued quote — its Activity says Its invoice was cancelled, so this went back to issued. Reopen the voided invoice and the quote is accepted again.