The catalogue and quotes

The CRM lets you price a deal: you keep a catalogue of products and services, write a quote from that catalogue, have it approved when the discount is high, then send it, have it signed and track the answer. This article covers the whole journey, from draft to acceptance. It is intended for sales representatives, their managers and CRM administrators.

Before you start #

• The CRM module must be enabled for your workspace and opened for you (see Enabling and administering the CRM module).
• Permissions in the role matrix, CRM menu: “Quotes — View” to see quotes, “Quotes — Create” for the New quote button, “Quotes — Edit” to write a draft and make a new version, “Quotes — Delete” to delete a draft. Submitting for approval, sending, requesting a signature and marking a quote accepted or declined require “Quotes — Edit” at the Execute level; the Sales representative and Sales manager roles have it by default.
• Each permission applies within its scope: Mine, My team or All (see CRM settings). A quote outside your scope does not open.
• The catalogue is managed with the “CRM product catalogue — View”, “Create”, “Edit” and “Delete” permissions, reserved by default for the Administrator role. Sales representatives pick from it in their quotes without needing these permissions.
• Numbering, the discount threshold requiring approval, validity, default texts and tax rates are set in Settings › CRM › Quotes and taxes.

The product and service catalogue #

Open Settings › CRM › Catalogue, or click Catalogue at the top of the quotes page. The list shows each item’s code, label, type, unit, prices, tax and state. The Search an item field searches by code or label.

1. Click New item.
2. Enter the Code: letters, digits, full stop, hyphen or underscore, unique in the catalogue.
3. Choose the Type (Product or Service) and the Unit: piece, hour, day, month, year, user, flat fee or km.
4. Choose the Default tax, or leave The country’s.
5. Enter the Label in at least one language (French, English, German, Italian) and, if you wish, the Description (optional).
6. Under Price per currency, click Add a price for each currency you sell the item in.
7. Leave Active: offered in new quotes ticked, then click Save.

A quote takes the label in its language and the price in its currency; everything stays editable on the quote line. An item already used on a quote cannot be deleted: untick Active to stop offering it. Quotes that carry it keep it.

Finding a quote #

Open CRM › Quotes. The list shows every quote within your scope: number, account, opportunity, status, date, validity, total excluding tax, total including tax and owner. Search by number or account, and filter by status, by owner (Me, No owner or a person) or by period with From and To. Only the current version of each quote is shown; tick All versions to see earlier ones too.

A quote goes through the following statuses: Draft, Awaiting approval, Sent, then Accepted, Declined or Expired. A version replaced by the next one is Superseded.

Account and opportunity records also have a Quotes tab, filterable by status.

Creating a quote #

1. Click New quote in CRM › Quotes, or in the Quotes tab of an account or an opportunity: the account, and the opportunity where relevant, are then already set.
2. From the list, search for the Account (at least two characters). An archived account cannot be quoted: reactivate it first.
3. If needed, choose an Opportunity (optional) among the account’s open opportunities, and a Recipient (optional) among its contacts.
4. Click Create the draft. The quote receives its number and opens.

The draft takes the account’s language, currency and billing address, the default validity, and the terms and closing text in the quote language. Without a currency on the account, it takes the CRM’s default currency.

Writing the draft #

At the top of the draft, check the Recipient, the Opportunity, the Issuing company (your company, or one of your sub-companies), the Language, the Currency, the Quote date, the Valid until date and the Billing address.

1. Click Add a line.
2. In the Item column, choose a catalogue item: description, unit, price and tax are filled in. Leave Free line for a service outside the catalogue, and enter its description and price.
3. Adjust the Quantity, the Unit price, the line’s Discount % and the Tax (No tax is a valid choice). The line’s Amount excl. tax is calculated as you type.
4. To change the order of the lines, drag a line by its handle. With the keyboard: Space to pick it up, up and down arrows to move it, Space to drop it, Escape to cancel.
5. In the totals panel, enter the Overall discount (%) if needed. The panel shows the Subtotal, the Overall discount, the Total excl. tax, each tax with its base and the Total incl. tax.
6. Fill in the Terms and the Closing text, then click Save.

When the quote is linked to an opportunity, the The opportunity amount follows the latest quote box copies the total excluding tax of the current version to the opportunity amount, as long as the opportunity is open.

Getting a discount approved #

If the highest discount on the quote, on a line or overall, exceeds the threshold set in the quote settings, the quote cannot be sent without approval. The draft says so as you type, and the Send button gives way to Submit for approval.

1. Save your changes, then click Submit for approval. The quote becomes Awaiting approval and can no longer be changed.
2. The approver receives a notification and an email. They decide in Workflows, Approvals tab; declining requires a reason. On a quote awaiting approval, the Decide in Approvals link takes you there.
3. Once approved, the discount shows Discount approved and the quote becomes a draft again, ready to go. If declined, it becomes a draft marked Discount declined, with the approver’s reason. You are notified either way.

The circuit used is the “Quote discount above the threshold: validation” workflow, in Settings › Manage Employees › Workflows. It is supplied inactive: while it stays so, the line manager of the quote’s owner decides. Changing the lines, the overall discount or the currency of an approved draft cancels the approval.

Previewing and sending #

Click PDF preview to see the quote as saved, then Download if needed. The preview does not show unsaved changes. The PDF is produced from the template for the quote language, one of the four “Quote — CRM template” templates in Settings › Documents › Document Templates, which you can adapt; it carries your company logo.

1. Click Send. The quote must have at least one line.
2. Under How?, choose By e-mail from Illizeo, PDF attached, or Handed over otherwise (mark as sent) if you deliver it another way.
3. For an email, leave the Address empty to write to the quote’s recipient, or enter another address. Add a Message (optional) if you wish.
4. Click Send (or Mark as sent).

The quote becomes Sent: its PDF and issuing company are frozen, and it can no longer be changed. The email goes out in the quote language; its text is customised in Settings › Manage Illizeo › Email, CRM category. If the recipient has asked not to receive emails, sending is refused.

Getting it signed, accepted or declined #

• Request signature: the sent quote goes into the electronic signature module linked to your workspace, to the sending address, otherwise to the recipient’s. One signature is counted against your plan. Once signed, the quote becomes Accepted and you are notified; if the signatory refuses, it becomes Declined. One request at a time per quote.
• Accepted: the client accepted outside electronic signature. The quote can no longer be changed.
• Declined: the client turned it down. You can record a Reason (optional), shown on the quote.

When an accepted quote is linked to an opportunity that is still open, a banner offers Mark the opportunity as won. Nothing changes on the opportunity without this action (see Tracking opportunities in the pipeline).

Making a new version #

A sent, declined or expired quote is not corrected in place: click New version, change it, then click Save the new version. The quote keeps its number followed by V2, V3 and so on; the previous version becomes Superseded and stays available in the Versions panel. Cancel drops the changes without creating anything. An accepted quote can have no new version.

Validity, expiry and deletion #

• When a sent quote comes within three days of its Valid until date, its owner receives a notification, once. During the night after that date, the quote becomes Expired; a new version revives it.
• Only a draft can be deleted (Delete). Its number stays reserved: numbering never has gaps. Deleting the draft of a V2 hands back to the previous version, with its earlier status.

Good to know #

• Amounts are rounded to the cent: first each line and its discount, then the overall discount, then one tax per rate, calculated on that rate’s base after spreading the overall discount.
• A quote has at most 200 lines.
• An item with no price in the quote currency arrives without a price: enter it on the line, otherwise saving is refused.
• Each step of a quote (creation, version, approval, sending, signature, acceptance, decline, expiry, deletion) appears in the timeline of the account and of the opportunity.
• CRM notices about quotes: discount to approve (to the approver, notification and email); discount approved or declined, quote signed, quote expiring soon, quote assigned by someone else (to the owner, notification).
• If your workspace submits the sending of quotes for validation, clicking Send (or Mark as sent) shows “Sent for validation: nothing is written until a person approves it.”, with View the request: the quote only becomes Sent, and the email only goes out, after the decision.

FAQ #

The Send button does not appear. #

The quote may no longer be a draft, its discount may be awaiting approval, or your role may not have “Quotes — Edit” at the Execute level. If you have just changed the draft, save it first.