Quote a job and record the answer

1Open Quotes

Open Tools, then Quotes. The list shows every quote with its customer, title, status, valid until date and total.

Filter it with All, Draft, Finalised, Accepted, Declined and Expired, or type in Search number or title. Click a quote to open it beside the list, where everything below is done. Click another row to switch quotes, the cross to close it, or the arrows to open it on a page of its own.

To delete a quote, click the bin at the end of its row and confirm. Its number is not given out again.

2Fill your price book

Click Price book. Under Add item, type a Name, an optional Code and Unit, and the Unit price. Untick Taxable for anything tax does not apply to, then click Add.

Click Edit to change an item, or Switch off to keep it out of quotes without deleting it.

3Load a supplier's price list

On Price book, click Import price list and choose the spreadsheet or CSV your supplier sent. Type the Supplier, and a Markup on cost (%).

Under Which column is which, check the Description, Product code, Unit, Cost price and Sell price columns. Each is matched from the file's own headings. Choose Not in this file for a column the file does not have.

Every row is listed as New, Price changed, Unchanged or No price, with the old price struck through beside the new one. New and changed rows start ticked. Filter, search or sort the list, tick or untick rows, then click Bring in with the number of items. Nothing is added before that.

Next month, load that supplier's new file the same way. Items match by their product code, or by description when the file has no codes, so their prices change rather than doubling up.

4Start a quote

Click New quote. It opens beside the list, and its dates, tax and currency start from your settings. Choose the Customer and the Site, and give it a Title.

Nothing is kept until you click Save, and that is when the quote gets its number. Leave without saving and no draft is left in your list. New quote on the phone app and on the Quotes card works the same way.

A customer or site that is not in the list yet can be added without leaving. Click Customer or Site, then Add new at the top of the list, fill it in and save. On the phone app it is New customer or New site, in the same place. Whatever you had typed in the search starts the form. Either way it is chosen for you, and nothing you already typed is lost.

On the site form, type the first few letters of the street address and pick the real address from the list under it. The suburb, state, postcode and country arrive with it. Standing at the site, click Use my current location above the address instead, and your browser asks before it shares anything. The site form on the phone app searches the same way. If the address is already one of your sites, the web offers Use this site and the phone app chooses it for you.

Each site in the Site list shows its suburb, state and postcode under its street. Typing a suburb finds every site in it.

Choosing the customer fills in the Intro with a greeting: Hi and their first name, or a business's whole name, then Please see your quote below. Choosing another customer changes the greeting. Once you type your own intro, it stays as you wrote it.

Check the Tax label and Tax rate (%). They start from the tax settings in Admin, Company. Tick Prices include tax when your unit prices already include it.

5Add the lines

Click Add line, or Add from price book and pick an item. For each line, type the Qty (the hours or the number of units), the Unit, such as hr or each, and the Price of one unit. Untick Taxable where tax does not apply. Use the arrows to reorder lines. For a discount, type a negative price.

For an item that is not in the price book yet, click Add from price book, then New item. Type its Name, Unit and Price, untick Taxable if tax does not apply, and click Add item. It is saved to the price book and added to the quote as a line.

The totals under the lines update as you type. Click Save, and the totals are worked out again from what was saved.

6Offer choices and extras

Click Add optional extra for work you want to offer without charging for it yet. The line arrives already marked, so it stays out of the total until your customer accepts it.

Your customer reads the extras under their own heading, each with a tick box. Their total goes up as they tick. Tick Included yourself to quote one as part of the job instead.

The total under the lines is what your customer owes before they choose anything, so a quote whose only line is an extra totals nothing. Optional extras, if chosen beneath it is what the extras would add.

To offer alternatives, give each of them the same Option group name, such as Hot water system, then pick the one that counts with Chosen. Only one line in a group is ever in the total.

7Send the customer a link

Click Save, then Email quote under Customer link. Check the address in To, type a Message or leave it empty to use your usual one, and click Send. The customer gets a button to open the quote, with the PDF attached, and their reply comes to you. A draft quote is marked Finalised.

To send the link another way, click Share link, which copies it. Copy link copies it again. The box shows Not opened yet until the customer opens it, and lists every email sent about the quote.

The customer needs no account. They pick one option from each choice, tick the extras they want, type their Full name and either their email or their mobile in Email or mobile, click Sign here to sign, and click Accept quote. Or they click Decline instead and can say why.

When they answer, the quote changes to Accepted or Declined, and Customer link shows who answered, when, their signature and any reason. A customer who gives an email gets a copy with the PDF by email. A customer who gives a mobile gets a text linking to the accepted quote, when your plan includes texting. Without texting, the page tells them to download the PDF once they accept.

You get an email when a customer accepts. It names the job and its status. Its button opens the job, or the quote when it has no job yet.

8Text the quote

Click Save, then Text quote under Customer link. To holds the customer's mobile number, and Message starts with Hi, their name, the quote number and your company name. Change either if you need to, then click Send text.

A link to the quote is added at the end of the text, and a draft quote is marked Finalised. Quote texted to and the number show beside the quote number.

If the customer has no mobile number yet, the form says so. Type it in To and leave Save this number to ticked to keep it on the customer for next time. Untick it to use the number for this text only. Changing a number they already have shows the same box, unticked.

9Follow up automatically

An admin clicks Quote settings on the Quotes list. In Follow up after (days), type the days after the quote was sent that a follow-up goes, such as 3, 7, 14 for three follow-ups. Type a number in Remind before expiry (days) to remind the customer once when the quote is that close to its valid until date. Leave a box empty to send none.

Choose Email, Text or Email and text in Send follow-ups by, then click Save settings. A text goes to the customer's mobile with the link to the quote, and needs a plan that includes texting.

Each quote shows a Follow-ups box under Customer link. It says when the next follow-up goes and how, and lists every email and text already sent, with the reason beside any that did not go.

Click Send follow-up now to send the next one straight away. It counts as that follow-up, so the next automatic one is the one after. Click Stop follow-ups to send this quote no more, and Resume follow-ups to start them again.

Email message is what a quote email says when whoever sends it leaves the message empty.

10Take a deposit

Type a Deposit (%) on the quote before you share it. Once the customer accepts, their page shows a button to pay the deposit by card, and the money goes to your own Stripe account. Customer link then shows whether the deposit is paid.

Card payments have to be set up first: click Admin, then Billing, and click Set up card payments under Getting paid, fill in the form and click Continue to Stripe. Without it, the customer is told you will be in touch about the deposit.

11Send a service agreement

An admin clicks Quote settings on the Quotes list. Under Default terms, click Add another set of terms to keep a second set. Add a service agreement gives you general wording that you change to suit your business. Name each set, tick Default for the set new quotes use, and click Save settings.

With more than one set, each quote shows Start from a set of terms above its Terms. Pick one to copy its words into the quote. You can still change them for this customer.

To send an agreement on its own, start a quote and tick Agreement only, with no prices before you add any lines. The quote then hides its lines and totals, and Terms of the agreement holds what your customer signs. Send it with Email quote, Text quote or Share link, as you would a quote.

Your customer reads the agreement, types their Full name and their email or mobile, signs, and clicks Sign agreement. Download PDF on the quote then gives you the signed copy, and your customer has the same button on their page.

The signed copy shows the terms as signed and your customer's name, email or mobile. It also shows the date and time, the internet address they used and their signature. An accepted quote's PDF ends the same way.

12Record an answer yourself

For a customer who answers by phone or email, click Download PDF to send the quote as a file, then Mark as finalised. When they answer, click Mark as accepted or Mark as declined. Back to draft undoes a status set by mistake, until the quote is accepted.

A quote downloaded while it is still a Draft carries DRAFT across every page. Finalise it first, then download, and the watermark is gone.

13Create the job

Once a quote is Accepted, click Book job, on the quote or beside it in the Quotes list. A job is added to your jobs table with the customer, the site, the quote number and title, who it is assigned to and its starting status, and each line in the quote's total becomes a line on the job with its description, quantity and unit price. The job's totals work themselves out as they do when you add a job by hand.

From the list, the job opens straight away so you can set its day and who is doing it. On the quote, click Open job to go to it. On the phone app, Book job is on an accepted quote too, and Edit job then opens the job over the quote with every field it has. Each change saves as you leave the field, or as you pick it. Tap Done to close, or Archive to take the job away.

For work that comes round again, such as a monthly pool service, click Repeat this job instead. It starts a recurring job with the quote's customer, site and lines, and books each visit as a job. See Recurring jobs.

14Raise a quote from a job instead

You can still quote work you have already booked. On the form that books a job, tick Raise one under Also raise a quote. The quote takes that job's customer, site and lines, and stays attached to it.

Setting the job's Status to your quoted-work status ticks it for you, and the form says so. Untick it to book the work without a quote.

It stays off otherwise. A quote uses up a number from your quote sequence, and numbers are never reused. A draft nobody meant to raise costs you a number and leaves a row to tidy.

The job then takes the status you named for quoted work under Jobs in Quote settings. Your calendar shows it as asked for rather than booked. Without that status the job stays where it is.

A greyed out tick means your quotes have no jobs table yet, or they make jobs somewhere else. Set it under Jobs in Quote settings.

On the phone app, the New job sheet carries the same card. Turn on Raise one when I add the job, then tap Add. Setting Status to your quoted-work status turns it on there too.

15Work from the job's own page

Open a job from Jobs on the dock, from Routes or from Open job on its quote. It opens with a tab for each part of it.

Details has every field the job has. Click a field to change it, and it saves as you go. Under the fields sit Booked time, Travel time and Time on site, the same three the booking form collects. Change them and click Save times.

Time worked, under the times, lists the hours worked on the job. Click Add time for hours worked without checking in on site. See Plan staff routes for how they count.

Changing Arrive from or Arrive by on a booked job brings up Text the customer, with the new window already written into the message. Tick Send this text when I save the times, and the text goes once the times are saved.

The lines tab takes its name from your own lines table, usually Job Items. Add a line on the form at the top, and the grid under it totals the job.

Quote shows the quote this job came from, with its number, status and total. Click it to open the quote. A job booked straight in has no quote, so the tab offers Raise a quote instead.

Invoices lists every invoice on the job. Click Create invoice for the first, or Add another invoice for a stage or a variation. Click an invoice to open it.

16Track the parts on a job

Open the job. Its Dashboard tab shows Parts when the job has a line for something you buy, such as Materials or Parts. A line for labour, a call-out fee or travel has no chip.

Each part carries a chip. Click it to move the part to its next step: To order, Ordered, In transit, On site, then back to Not ordered. While any part is still to come, the card says how many, such as 2 parts on order.

On the phone, open the job and tap the chip under Parts in the same way.

Give the supplier the job's Job Number as your order number when you buy the part. When their bill comes in, Diract links it to the job. A part the bill names word for word moves to On site by itself.

17Check a bill against the job

Once a supplier bill is linked to the job, the Dashboard tab shows Costs. It lists each bill with its lines and what it adds to the job before GST.

Under the bills, What the job charges for its parts lists your own price for each part. Compare it with the bill lines above it.

A subcontractor bills the same way: they email their invoice to your supplier invoices address with the job number on it. Open one of their bills on the web and set Cost category to Subcontractor. Their later bills then count as subcontract work too.

18Create the invoice

Once a quote is Accepted, click Create invoice. A draft invoice opens with the quote's customer, site, title, currency and tax. A deposit the customer paid on the quote is already recorded on it as paid.

When you have already clicked Create job, the invoice is made from the job: its lines are the job's lines, so anything added to the job since the quote is on it, and the job moves along with the invoice. Otherwise its lines are the ones in the quote's total.

Click Open invoice on the quote to go back to it.

19Set the defaults

An admin clicks Quote settings on the Quotes list. Set the Number prefix and Digits, how many days a quote stays valid in Valid for (days), a Default deposit (%), and the Default intro and Default terms, then click Save settings. Leave Default intro empty for each new quote to greet its customer by name.

Under Jobs, choose the Jobs table that Create job adds to, which of its fields get the customer, site, quote number and title, assignee and status, and the Lines table the quote's lines go into. Anything already filled in was found from your tables, and is kept as your choice once you change it and save.

Visit date is the date field a recurring job's visit day goes into. A date field called Scheduled For is found without choosing.

Also under Jobs, Status once invoiced and Status once paid are what a job's status changes to when its invoice is sent and when it is paid, and Invoice date and Payment due are the job's date fields that get the invoice's dates. Choose Leave it as it is or Leave empty for anything an invoice should not change. The two status choices show once a Status field is chosen.

20Watch quotes from Quick Glance

On Quick Glance, click Edit layout, then Add widget, then Quotes. Click Save layout.

The card shows Finalised and Accepted, the quotes accepted this month. Below them are the five quotes waiting for an answer that lapse soonest, with their customer, title, site, total and Valid until.

Click a quote. It opens in a panel on the right, in the same editor as the Quotes list, where you change it, send it, duplicate it or delete it. Click Open full page at the top of the panel for the quote's own page.

Close the panel with the cross, or by clicking the page beside it. If the quote has changes you have not saved, you are asked first.

Click Open Quotes for the whole list, or View all and the count when more than five are waiting.

Click the round + on the card, or on its row in List, to start a new quote in the same panel. With no quotes yet the card reads No quotes yet, and Add does the same.