Quotes in Loc8 support your fast-paced environment by letting you create quotes as you speak to the customer and sending them for approval. All of your estimated tasks, labour hours and inventory can be specified within the quote in just a few clicks. Once the customer is happy with the quote and approves it, you can create a job directly from the quote. The estimated tasks, description, and the job approval limit which is the the quote value itself is automatically copied over to the new job. So all you have to do next is dispatch the job to your workforce and get it done on time.

You can send the quote to the customer and other related recipients through email, who will then access it on their preferred web browser via a web-view link provided in that email. The quote details can be refined even after it is sent, assured that the new changes will be instantly visible to the customer when they refresh the page/web-view link on their browser.
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In this article, we will see how to:

STEP 1 Go to the Quotes workspace.

STEP 2 Open the Quote creation wizard.

STEP 3 Enter the basic details to begin with - the quote subject and the customer name.
You may have added the customer in Loc8 already. Just select the customer from the dropdown list.

Any customer not found in that list can be added now as shown below:

STEP 4 The new quote displays the charge template associated with it. Initially, it is the default charge template as set under Settings -> Admin Settings -> Charge Templates, unless some other charge template has been selected for the quote. Selecting an appropriate charge template for the quote is quite important at this stage as this will determine the rates/costs and charges involved in the estimates.

To learn more about charge templates, see Create a Charge Template and Set as Default.

In this example, the quote was associated with the default Charge for labour + tasks template, but we will select a customised charge templates called 'Gilbert Enterprise - Electrical'.

STEP 5 Specify the estimated tasks, approximate labour hours (both travel and on-site work) and the inventory involved. As you enter the charges, the finances appear under the Charges section on the Quotes inspector.

The charges per task, labour hours and inventory make a line item.

Initially, you'll see that the default charges for the estimated tasks are obtained from Settings -> Admin Settings -> Task Library. But, you can always edit the charges manually as suitable for the quote. To add new tasks in the task template or set new rates for the tasks, see Create Task Templates and Sub-task Templates.

Similarly, the default charges for the labour hours are obtained from Settings -> Admin Settings -> Rates, which you can overwrite as required. To update the default rates of travel and on-site hours of your workforce, please see Define the Default Rates for Labour Hours.

Lastly, add the parts/materials/items estimated to be used in the requested works. As you add the items from the Inventory, their costs are obtained from Settings -> Admin Settings -> Inventory Library, where you can edit these values as required for this quote.

STEP 6 The quote is ready with all the line items and their charges. Now, create the quote and send it to the customer for approval.
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Before sending the quote ensure that:

STEP 1 Expand the Charges section in the Quote inspector.

STEP 2 Compose the email and choose the recipients of this quote.

This will send the quote to the specified recipients.

On sending, the quote status as viewed on the Quote inspector changes from Draft to Pending Approval.

You will read more about how to approve the quote further down in this article.

Once a quote is sent, the entries on the quote are locked from being changed any further. But, you may still edit the quote by clicking REVISE.
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You can revise the quote to make minor refinements even after the quote is sent, and the updated quote is instantly available to the customer on the live web link you have previously shared with them.

If at all the quote was significantly revised, say as an amendment to a quote declined by the customer, you can resend the updated quote to the customer.

Quotes are approved under two scenarios:

If the customer clicks Approve on the quote while viewing it in the web view, the quote status changes to Approved in real time. Likewise, if they Decline the quote, the quote status changes to Not Approved, following which, you can make necessary changes to the quote and resend it again for approval.

Once the quote is approved, you may create a job from the quote, optionally copying over tasks, description, and the quote value as the job approval limit.

If you are approving the quote yourself on Loc8, change the quote status from Pending Approval to Approved status on the quote inspector.

In the following screen, you can add a comment about changing the status and enable job creation from the quote, optionally copying over tasks, description, and the quote value as the job approval limit.

The new job created from the approved quote is available in the Jobs workspace. it is ready to schedule and assign.

Take a look at the following sections in the job that are pre-filled with the values from its quote:

You can switch between the quote and the job using the cross-referencing available on both the Quote and Job inspectors as shown below:

You can also view the quote and its job in a broader perspective by adding a new Job column in the Quotes Workspace and adding a Quote column in the Jobs Workspace.

For example, here is how you will add the Quote column in the Jobs workspace:

The Quote column appears, with the Quote ID displayed against its related Job ID for easy association, creating a personalised view of the Jobs workspace that you might like to use more often.

Such personalised views of an entity workspace can be saved as favorites, commonly referred to as Quickviews in Loc8. To know more, see how to Use Quickviews to Personalise your Views.