Create and convert a Quote

TSM provides the user with the ability to create a quote for a TSM job and print it so that it can be delivered to a customer. Quoted amounts are stored separately from actual TSM amounts. This means that the difference between amounts quoted and actually billed can be reported on.

There are two ways to create a quote in TSM – using the Quoted Parts and Labour fields on the invoicing tab or using the Quoted parts feature on the Job Details.

Tip: You can use the “Status Code on Creating a Quote” setting found on Job Cards Setup Page 4 to specify the Job Status to automatically apply to the quote. This feature may be useful for reporting purposes as well as for use in the Job Centre. The Job Status can be set at any time during the following workflows. If it gets over-written after the card is saved, this is most likely to due to one of the trigger settings on Job Cards Setup Page 4.

1. Open the Job Cards Module and press “New”.<
2. Enter the Customer ID.<
3. Tick the “Quote” box at the bottom of the job card and press “Save”. A quote number will be allocated at this point. The quote number will be the same as the job number should the quote be converted.

Note: Depending on settings located in the Job Card Setup, several more fields may need to be filled in at this point. A warning will pop up if this is the case.<

1. On the Job Logging tab, enter the Service Requested – this text will be displayed on the quote report indicating what the quote is for.<
2. On the Invoicing tab enter the Parts and labour component of the quote into the fields at the top left of the screen.

Note: The Estimated Cost field can be used for noting expected costs – it is for reporting purposes only.<

1. Press “Save” – the quote amount including and excluding tax will appear in the bottom right of the Invoicing tab in red.<
2. Check the quote amount and make any necessary adjustments to the quote amounts and the service requested.<
3. Review the layout of quote before sending it to the customer. To do this press Print at the top of the screen. There are 4 different Quote report layouts available:

<

1. If the quote report’s layout is correct, it can now be sent to the customer. To do this press Print at the top of the job card and if you have already done so, select the desired report layout from the dropdown menu underneath.<
2. Select the method of delivery i.e. email, printer, etc. See delivering a job card to an employee as the principle is basically the same.<

The quote is now complete and sent to the customer. When the customer replies, they can refer to it using the number at the top of the form.

A slightly different process for quoting takes advantage of the Quoted Parts feature on the Job Card’s Job Details tab. It allows for a more detailed breakdown should the customer require it. The first 4 steps here are the same as in the previous workflow. Following this procedure over the first one may be beneficial where a large number of items may need to be entered for the resulting job – a process that can be performed at the quoting stage saving time in data entry later, when the quote is accepted.

1. Open the Job Cards Module and press “New”.<
2. Enter the Customer ID.<
3. Tick the “Quote” box at the bottom of the job card and press “Save”. A quote number will be allocated at this point. The quote number will be the same as the job number should the quote be converted.

Note: Depending on settings located in the Job Card Setup, several more fields may need to be filled in at this point. A warning will pop up if this is the case.<

1. Enter the Service Requested – this text will be displayed on the quote report indicating what the quote is for.<
2. Go to the Job Details tab to enter the items the customer is being quoted for.
   
   Remember that the parts used detail can be used for entering services as well as parts. Naturally there is no better way to log physical parts or services to be used on the job. With subcontractor labour, it is better to quote them using the parts used screen, but later use the timesheets detail to enter the labour hours actually worked against the job. The main reasons for this is that a cost field on a parts used record is the actual cost to the company, whereas the Employee Hourly Cost (specified on the Employee module and used for calculating timesheet costs) is merely an estimate of the employee’s labour cost to the business, useful for reporting only. Also a timesheet record is meant to denote when the labour has actually been performed as opposed to when it is estimated to be performed. For these reasons it is better to use the Parts Used feature on the Job Details tab or the Quoted Labour field on the Invoicing tab to quote labour.

Note: The “Show” drop down at the bottom of the Job Details tab is automatically set to “Quoted Parts” when the “Quote” box is ticked and you are not able to select “Actual Parts” from this dropdown.

Note 2: The total sum of sell values of any parts and labour added to the quote will appear in the Quoted Labour and Quoted Parts on the Invoicing tab.<

1. Enter the quoted labour using either the Parts Used or the Quoted Labour feature.<
2. Press “Save” – the quote amount including and excluding tax will appear in the bottom right of the Invoicing tab in red.<
3. Check the quote amount and make any necessary adjustments to the quote amounts and the service requested.<
4. Review the layout of quote before sending it to the customer. To do this press Print at the top of the screen. See the table above for the 4 different Quote report layouts available.<
5. If the quote report’s layout is correct, it can now be sent to the customer. To do this press Print at the top of the job card and if you have already done so, select the desired report layout from the dropdown menu underneath.<
6. Select the method of delivery i.e. email, printer, etc. See delivering a job card to an employee as the principle is basically the same.<

When the customer replies, the quote can now proceed towards being “converted” into a job or be closed off.

1. Untick the “Quote” box at the bottom of the Job Card module and press “Save”. If the Job Cards Setup 3 option for archiving quotes is enabled a .pdf version of the quote in its final form will be stored against the job at this point. This can be useful for reference purposes in the future.<
2. If parts have been added to the job, now will be the time to review the quoted parts list and allocate them to the job. To do this go to the Job Details tab and press “Alloc.QParts”. All the quoted parts will become actual parts.<
3. Add and/or remove any parts to the list as necessary. See How To Add Parts.<
4. Check the Quoted Parts and labour settings on the invoicing tab. Non-zero Quoted Labour and Parts figures will result in individual sell values for parts and labour to not be displayed on the invoice when it is created. This may be useful if you want to conceal the actual prices of parts and timesheets form the customer, having agreed on the final price at the point of quote’s acceptance.<
5. If you used the Parts Used to quote contractor labour but intend to also log timesheets for it, it is best to remove the sell values from the parts denoting subcontractor labour, leaving behind only the costs. The sell values will turn up on the timesheet entries when they are created or will be in the Quoted Labour field on the Invoicing tab. Leaving these values as they are may affect reporting as the sell values for labour may potentially become represented twice, inflating their true value.<

If a customer does not accept a quote or if for some reason it needs to be re-created, the old quote needs to be closed. To do this, go to the Invoicing tab and press “Complete”. You will notice that the Completed Date at the bottom of the screen will be populated with the current date and time, also the Job Status on the Job Logging tab may be populated with a code if a trigger for it is set on the Job Cards Setup 4. You may wish to create a special code for unaccepted quotes and change the Job Status to that value at this point.

This concludes the workflow for creating and converting a quote to a job. The rest of the process is covered in How to Create a Job. The archived quote .pdf can be viewed by going to the Documents tab, selecting the appropriate file and pressing “Launch Document” on the right-hand side. Additionally, the quoted parts can be viewed on the Job Details tab by selecting “Quoted Parts” in the Show dropdown at the bottom of the screen.