Quotes

A quote is the agreement in writing before you touch the bike: this work, these parts, this total. You want one when the job isn't trivial, when the customer needs to think about it, or when you want a ceiling on what gets spent.

It's also the first thing you do in CrankPal, and it's designed to be doable empty-handed: you can write it with no customer and without having filled in your workshop profile. We ask for what's missing later, at the moment it's actually needed. If this is your first day, the whole path is in Your first 15 minutes.

Every quote has a number (P-0001, P-0002, …) and a status. The page lists them all, with filters at the top: All, Draft, Sent, Accepted, Rejected, Converted, plus a no customer filter to find the drafts you opened on the fly and the Active / Archived pair, which keeps the documents you've put away out of the everyday list (how to archive). Clicking a row opens the lines inline, without leaving the page.

When a quote is worth making#

Not every job needs one: for a service booked in advance you just open a work order.

A quote earns its keep when:

• the customer has to decide between repairing and replacing the bike;
• the amount is big enough to deserve a written "yes";
• you want work added later to require their explicit approval. That's the most useful side effect: an order born from a quote treats every subsequent line as an extra to be approved.

Creating the quote#

The New quote button opens the editor.

1. Pick the customer and the bike, or go on without

   The customer is still the first field, and picking one is the recommended route: once chosen, the bike list fills with theirs. But it isn't required — next to it there's Continue without a customer, and the quote is created all the same. What changes is explained in the next section.

   If that bike (or, without a bike, that customer) already has an open work order, the notice There's already an open order appears under the fields, with the order. If the work is for the same visit, go ahead and create the quote: when you convert it you'll be able to add its lines to that order instead of opening another one (see Turning it into a work order).

2. Set the validity

   The Valid until field is the date after which the quote no longer stands. It's optional, but it's what saves you the "the price you gave me six months ago" phone call.

3. Add the lines

   Each line is either Labour or a Part. On labour lines the field suggests entries from your service catalog and, when you pick one, fills the price in for you. On part lines the field searches your stock by name or code and shows quantity on hand and price.

   If you type a labour line that isn't in your service catalog, the field looks for entries that resemble it (even with different words: “chain repl.” finds “Chain replacement”) and, once you leave the field, suggests the closest one under the line. A quote saves only with entries from your catalog: when you save, for each hand-typed labour line you choose whether to use a similar entry, quote the time with the generic hourly entries (the description goes into the notes for the customer) or, if you're allowed to edit the catalog, create a new entry, for which you're asked the duration. The price you typed on the line stays as it is.

   If the part isn't in stock (or isn't the right one for this customer), below your own items the dropdown shows parts from the universal catalogue carried by distributors operating in your country: pick one and the line arrives with brand, name and list price, labelled with where it came from. Prices and availability are still to be checked with the distributor before you confirm to the customer: the catalogue says the distributor carries the item, not that they have it on the shelf today.

   If it's nowhere to be found, Register this part records it once and from then on you find it by searching — and with a brand and a code it merges with what other workshops have registered. If you don't have the code with the customer in front of you, Not sure yet: leave it like this puts the line on the quote without losing the part. With the Inventory module, registering also asks what becomes of the part — you have it, or it needs ordering — and from there it enters the To order list.

   If the customer brings the part themselves, tick Customer-supplied on the part line: the description becomes free text (no stock lookup) and the price is locked at zero — you quote the labour only. Declaring it here pays off: by the time the quote becomes a work order the part is already known, so the customer-supplied parts waiver comes up automatically at check-in. If you add the line after work has started, check-in has already been signed and the waiver has to be collected separately.

   Under each line, Note for the customer opens a field for why that line is needed: "the chain skips on the worn sprockets, they need replacing together". The customer reads it under the line, in the customer area, in the app and on the quote PDF, and when the quote becomes a work order the note moves to the order line. It never goes on the invoice or the receipt.

4. Apply a discount, if needed

   The discount applies to the whole quote: as a percentage or as a fixed amount.

5. Write the notes

   Notes for the customer appear on the quote and in their app. Internal notes stay inside the workshop: the customer never sees them, they're for you and your colleagues ("part to be ordered", "non-standard spokes").

The 👁 button next to the lines shows or hides the purchase cost and margin on parts. It's a single switch for the whole app: keep it off when the screen is facing the customer.

The jobs the field offers come from your service catalog, which every workshop finds already preloaded with the most common work. Names, prices and durations are a starting point: personalising them once saves time on every quote after that.

Prices excluding VAT for customers with a VAT number#

Private customers always get prices including VAT: the number on the line is what they pay. With a customer who has a VAT number you can work the way businesses usually do with each other: the lines are the taxable amount and VAT is added on top.

When the customer has a VAT number, a Prices exclude VAT checkbox appears above the lines. It starts ticked or not according to the Prices for customers with a VAT number setting in the workshop's fiscal data, and while the quote is a draft you can change it whenever you like: the prices already entered are rewritten for you, taking off or putting back the VAT of their rate.

With the box ticked:

• entries from the service catalog, stock and the universal catalogue are proposed already without VAT: the service catalog stays your public price list and CrankPal takes the VAT off;
• the discount on the total applies to the taxable amount;
• the summary shows the lines total, the discount, the taxable amount, the VAT and the total to pay, VAT included;
• the PDF carries the note Prices exclude VAT and, at the bottom, taxable amount, VAT and total including VAT.

The customer always sees the total including VAT, because that's what they pay: in the customer area the quote reads as it is, with taxable amount and VAT, and in the cyclist app with prices including VAT. If the workshop doesn't charge VAT, for example under the Italian flat-rate scheme, the checkbox isn't there.

The quote without a customer#

A quote without a customer is a quote in every respect: it has a number, lines, discount, notes and a total, and it shows in the list labelled no customer. It's for the two cases where you don't have the name yet: day one, when your customer list is empty, and at the counter, when somebody asks "what would it cost me" before telling you who they are.

While the customer is missing, though, there are three things the app won't let you do — and it tells you at creation time, not when you press the button:

• send it, and therefore have it accepted from the customer area, signature included;
• print it;
• convert it into a work order.

Two things that happen by themselves are skipped too: the automatic reminder to a customer who hasn't replied, and the quote's place in their record.

It isn't a dead end. On a quote without a customer the detail page carries an Attach customer button, which links it to an existing customer or creates one on the spot — and from that moment it's a quote like any other. Otherwise we ask you for the customer ourselves, at the first action that needs one: see below.

Sending it, printing it and following up#

A newly created quote is a Draft: it exists only for you.

Send to customer moves it to Sent and makes it appear in the customer's app, with a notification.

Print produces the PDF to hand over at the counter or attach to an email of your own: same lines, same total, with your workshop's letterhead at the top. If the customer has a company name and a VAT number, the quote is addressed to the company, with the person in brackets and the VAT number next to it.

Once it's sent, it goes one of two ways:

• the customer decides, accepting or rejecting from their customer area: the acceptance signature stays recorded on the quote;
• you decide, with the Accepted / Rejected buttons, when the yes came in person or over the phone. In that case your name and the moment of the decision are recorded.

Either way, opening the quote tells you who decided and when.

If the customer doesn't reply, CrankPal sends one reminder: when the quote is about to expire, or three days after sending it if you set no expiry date. It arrives as a notification in the app if the customer uses it with notifications on, otherwise by email. The email carries the quote number, date and total, plus an Open the quote button that takes the customer straight to that quote in their customer area — if their session has expired they're asked to sign in and the quote opens right after. The automatic reminder goes out once per quote and there's nothing to set up. If you want to nudge the customer yourself, the detail of a Sent quote has Send a reminder now: the same message, which you can repeat at least a day after the last reminder. For a message in your own words there's the inbox.

Turning it into a work order#

The Convert to order button is on every draft, not only on accepted quotes: at the counter the yes almost always comes out loud, and forcing everyone through digital acceptance would be play-acting. Clicking it:

1. creates a new work order for that customer and bike;
2. copies every quote line into it, with quantities, prices and any discount, and the order takes the same price basis, VAT included or excluded;
3. moves the quote to Converted and keeps it linked to the order;
4. takes you straight to the order it just created.

On a quote that is not accepted, converting asks for a confirmation first: doing it skips the digital acceptance and any customer signature. If the yes really did happen, you confirm and carry on.

Converting also needs the customer: if the quote hasn't got one, the same guided window as sending opens. The reason is that the order inherits the quote's recipient. If what you want is to work with no customer at all, don't convert: open the order directly, as explained in Work orders.

If the customer already has an open order for that bike — the quote accepted while the work is under way — converting first asks where the lines go: Add to this order or Create a new order. If the quote names a bike, it only offers that bike's orders, so the lines don't end up on the wrong bike; without a bike, the customer's orders. Open, in progress and waiting-for-parts orders all work, and so does a closed one if the bike is still in the workshop and the bill hasn't been settled: with the new items it goes back to In progress. An order with a fiscal document issued is shown, but can't be picked.

Before you confirm, you see the total the order will have afterwards. The items go in already approved, because the customer accepted them on the quote; the discount on the quote's total moves onto its items, and if the order has a percentage discount it applies to them too. The quote becomes Converted, linked to that order, and the order shows a Quote imported entry. If the order has no check-in it takes the quote's; the quote's notes for the customer go onto the order only if the order has none. A Sent quote can't be imported: mark it Accepted first. No new order is created, so on the Free plan it doesn't count towards the monthly order limit. You can do the same from the order, with Import a quote: see Work orders.

The quote and the order must have the same price basis: a quote with prices excluding VAT can't be imported into an order with prices including VAT, or the other way round, because the figures the customer accepted would change. The order appears in the window but can't be chosen: in that case convert the quote into a new order.

A quote that was rejected, has expired or was superseded by a revision can't be converted.

From then on the quote can't be edited, and its row in the list shows a button through to the order. On the order, the activity timeline carries an Order generated from quote entry with the reference and the name of whoever converted it.

Archiving closed quotes#

After a few months the quote list is mostly finished business: rejected, expired, already turned into orders. Archiving gets them out of the way without touching them.

Archiving is not deleting and not a change of status: the document stays exactly as it was — an archived accepted quote is still accepted — and nothing changes for the customer. In the app and in the customer area the quote looks the same as before, and searching by number still finds it.

There are two ways:

• one at a time — open the quote by clicking its row and press Archive at the bottom of the detail (Restore lives in the same place);
• in bulk — the Archive closed ones button at the top of the page puts away, in one go, every rejected, expired, converted and superseded quote you're looking at. It leaves drafts, sent and accepted ones alone: there's still something to do on those.

To see them again, use the Archived filter at the top of the page. From there you can restore them whenever you need to.

Common problems#

An accepted quote becomes an order: the rest of the work is described in Work orders.