Sales Quotation

The Sales Quotation is the offer: the same lines, prices, discounts and tax as a sales order, written before the customer says yes. It can be addressed to a known customer or to a prospect, carries a status of its own, can be revised into numbered versions, and turns into one or more Sales Orders when accepted.

Where

Sales and Distribution › Sales › Sales Quotation (SDSQ)

Who uses it

Sales staff; the approver of quotations where an approval is set up

When

Before the order, when the customer asks for a price

Needs first

Customers and items released in the company, prices, and the Sales and Distribution Setting

What it is for

A quotation records what you offered, to whom, until when. When the customer accepts, the quotation generates the Sales Order, or a sales order copies its lines, and the quotation then shows how much of it has been ordered.

The one rule people get wrong: only a released quotation, to a customer, can become an order. A quotation still in Draft, or one whose approval is pending, is refused with "Sales Quotation has not been approved". A quotation to a prospect is refused until the prospect is made a customer.

Every field in plain words

The header, the Basic Data tabs, the lines and the totals are the same as on the Sales Order, and mean the same. The quotation adds or differs in these:

Field	What it means	What to put
Sales Quotation	The quotation number	Given on Create. With versions switched on, the version is added to the end of the number
Status	Where the quotation stands	Open on a new quotation. Changed with the Change Status button only, see below. Won is set by itself once every line has been ordered
Account Type	Customer or Prospect	Customer: pick the Customer and Customer for Invoice from the released customers. Prospect: type the prospect's name in Name instead. Fixed once created, unless it is a prospect
Date of Expiry	Until when the offer stands	Required. With Quotation Validity ticked on the setting, the Posting Date plus Quotation Validity in Days fills it
Probability, Prognosis, Rating	How likely the deal is	Free classification; a Rating comes from its list
Opportunity	The Opportunity it came from	Lines can be copied from it. Ordering more than the opportunity has left is refused
Prevent Partial Delivery	The quoted quantity must be ordered in full	A sales order line that orders less than what the quotation line has left is refused
Prepayment, Percentage, Fixed, Prepayment Percentage, Prepayment Amount	The advance you ask for	As on the order

The lines grid is Sales Quotation Lines. Its columns and buttons are the order's: item, unit, quantity, price, discounts, tax, cost elements, combo, reservation, on-hand stock and the last sales prices.

Status and versions

Change Status. The button opens Current Status, Status, Status Date, Responsible and Reason, with the status history below. The statuses you may move to, from the current one, are the lines of the Quotation Status grid on the Sales and Distribution Setting:

• a move not allowed there is refused;
• a move with Reason Required needs a reason;
• a move Based On Approval is not made at once: it creates a Request For Quotation Status Change that goes to the approvers, and the status changes when it is approved;
• any other allowed move changes the status at once and adds a line to the history. The Status Date cannot be before the Posting Date.

A quotation with status Cancel opens with every button disabled. A quotation that is Cancel or Lost cannot generate a Sales Order.

Versions. With Required Version ticked on the setting, a saved quotation that is the latest version shows New Version. It opens a copy as a new document, numbered with the version made from the setting's Prefix, Digit and Suffix. Saving it marks every earlier version of that quotation as no longer latest and blocks it; an earlier version shows a Previous Version tag and every button disabled.

Turning it into a Sales Order

From a released quotation, the next action generates the Sales Order. It:

• refuses if you have no right to create sales orders;
• takes every line with a price, or a free line, and only the quantity not ordered yet. With nothing left it says "This quotation has already been converted to a Sales Order.";
• makes one Sales Order per site and project among the lines;
• saves the new orders as drafts, to be released on the Sales Order.

With Allow Multiple Sales Order of Sales Quotation ticked on the setting, a sales order can also copy the quotation's lines itself (Copy From Sales Quotation on the order). Without it, once every line has been ordered the quotation can no longer be edited.

The quotation's status then follows the orders: Open while nothing is ordered, Won once every line is ordered in full.

Reservation

As on the order, a line can reserve stock or open purchase order quantity. When a sales order is made from the quotation, the quotation's reservations on those lines are released and the order reserves again. An approver rejecting the quotation releases its reservations.

How to configure it

• On the Sales and Distribution Setting: Quotation Validity and days, Required Version with Prefix, Digit and Suffix, the Quotation Status grid, and the columns that show on the lines.
• Lines can be copied from an Opportunity or another quotation; what Copy From lists is set on Sales Origin.

Scenarios

• A contractor asks for a price before an account exists. Choose Account Type Prospect and type the name. When the deal is won, create the customer, change the quotation to that customer, and generate the order.
• The customer negotiates. Use New Version. The earlier version stays readable and blocked, so you can show what changed.
• A lost deal needs a manager's sign-off. Mark the move to Lost as Based On Approval in the Quotation Status grid. The salesman's Change Status then raises a request for the manager.

What it is connected to

• Order to cash - the quotation is the first step.
• Opportunity - lines can come from it.
• Sales Order - what the quotation becomes.
• Request For Quotation Status Change - status changes that need approval.

If something looks wrong

• "Sales Quotation has not been approved. Sales Order creation is not allowed." - release the quotation, or wait for its approval.
• "Sales Order cannot be created for Account Type 'Prospect'. ..." - make the prospect a customer and put the customer on the quotation.
• "This quotation has already been converted to a Sales Order." - every line has been ordered.
• "To Covert Sales Quotation to Sales order Required data is not complete." - no line has a price.
• "You have no rights to create Sales Order." - ask for the right to create sales orders.
• "This Sales Quotation is canceled. You cannot generate a Sales Order." / "This Sales Quotation is lost. ..." - change the status first, if that is allowed.
• "Please enter Status Reason." - the move needs a reason.
• "This stage transition is not permitted by system policy. ..." - that move is not in the Quotation Status grid.
• "Sales Quotation: ... cannot be deleted. Its Already Refered in Sales Order" - a sales order uses it.
• "Sales Quotation Lines cannot be empty", "... Gross Price cannot be zero", "... Quantity cannot be Empty", "... Site cannot be empty", "... Warehouse cannot be empty", "... Required Season Code" - as on the order.
• "... cannot exceed Balance Quantity ... in Item Request ..." - more than the opportunity line has left.
• "Line ID - ... Item - ... Quantity is not available enough for reservation" - not enough free stock to reserve.
• "The reservation quantity (...) exceeds the sales quantity (...)." - cancel or change the reservation before lowering the quantity.
• "Default Aging Period is not defined" on the customer aging button - set the aging period on the Receivables setting (Account Receivable Setting).