Summary

This article will summarize the features of the Quotes Tab in your ServiceBox settings. 


Quotes Tab: Settings

As shown in the screenshot below, this subsection offers customizable features to be included and/or removed from your Quotes. 


Here is a list detailing the features and functions of the settings in the Settings subsection of your Quotes Tab:


  1. Copy description when creating Work Order:
    • Checking this box will include the description of your quote on any Work Order created.
  2. Copy materials when creating Work Order:
    • Checking this box will include the description of Item Categories on any Work Order created.
  3. Quote Statuses:
    • This is the section related to the categorical statuses of Quotes. You will be able to add, edit, and delete statuses from this section. You will require these statuses, to keep your quotes organized by avoiding duplication and redundancy errors. By default, the "Draft" status, is that in which you can make changes, and perform edits to the quote. "Submitted" status indicates, that edits and changes to the quote are complete, and have been sent to the customer. "Awarded" means the customer has responded with approval to the quote, while "Not Awarded" shows the reverse.  Should your customer wish to renegotiate a quote, simply change its status back to "Draft" to make the changes, and re-"submit" after sending. You can customize the following fields within this table:
      1. Description:  The text description of a status.
      2. No Recalculations:  Setting this to "Yes" will prevent the quote from being edited once it is assigned to this status.
      3. Show as Expired: This allow for a status to become expired after a certain period of time. If you set this to "Yes", then the corresponding status will move the assigned quote into the "expired" category. NOTE: This is not typically used.
      4. Restricted: Selecting this to "Yes" will mean only admin employees will have access to Quotes with the corresponding status. 
      5. Expired After Months: This will take a Quote that was set to a specific Status and move it into the “Expired” section of the Quote section.  For example you could put the “Submitted” status to expire after 1 month.
      6. Viewable in Portal: This will allow you to view quote status in portal
      7. Can Approve in Portal: This feature will allow you to approve quote in Portal
      8. Reorder List: This button allows you to reorder your status list, to make the order in which quotes assigned to statuses appear in a way that accommodates the workflow of your business.
  4. Item Categories: 
    • Each quote may have a series of groups, that will contain different values of items which, get billed to the customer. Each category is unique, and the items within a category, are not in other categories (unless specifically added into other groups). By default, Labour, Materials, Sub-Trades, and Other, are listed as item categories.  You can customize the following fields within this table:

      1. Description: The name of the category.
      2. Hide Unit Cost and Quantity & Hide Item Total: By default when printing out a Quote, ServiceBox displays the Item Description, the Unit Cost (Cost x Markup), Quantity and the Total for the Row.  In the case where you want to display the breakdown of the price, you may want to hide some fields.  If you want to Hide Unit Cost and Quantity, you can choose this option for a specific Item Category.  If you want to Hide Item Total, we can choose this option for a specific item Category.  This will need to be selected for each Category. (This feature will also make Cost and Quantity appear blank to basic users within the work order.) 
      3. Restricted Add and Restricted Edit If you select "Yes" in either of these columns, this means that only your ServiceBox administrators will be able to edit and/or add to Quote Items. Other employees will be restricted from editing and/or adding to Quote Items. 


Quotes Tab: Quote Items

This subsection allows you to edit or remove items to be included in your Quotes. In essence, this is the master list of your pricing. In each of your added Quote Items, you must include the name of the Quote Item, the unit cost, and the percentage markup (from the unit cost). Examples of Quote Items added under the "Labour" and "Materials" categories, are shown in the following screenshot:






The gray icon with three dots following the description, are "long descriptions":  When clicked on, extra information regarding that item in your list will appear. 


Should a Tax Level field be left blank, the system assumes it is a non-taxable item.


Note: You can Export your Quote lists to Excel, you can then update your Quote list within the exported spreadsheet, and import it back into ServiceBox. Since ServiceBox depends on specific formatting of a spreadsheet, you can only import a spreadsheet that has been exported from this list. For example, if you export from this screen, you can then externally edit the spreadsheet in excel and then import that document back into ServiceBox on this page. 


Quotes Tab: Quote Item Settings

In this subsection, you are able to manage the settings associated with your quote items. An example of this subsection is shown in the following screenshot.



You can select the following settings regarding your Quote Items:


  1. Allow update of unit cost and markup from quote: 

    • Selecting this box allows the user to make changes to the cost and markup of an item when in the Quote calculator.  This way, the most recent cost or markup will be saved.

  2. Allow new items to be added on quote: 

    • Selecting this box allows the user to add new items to the quote.  We do recommend selecting this box, as it makes things faster while adapting to a customer's demands. However, some customers may be apprehensive to select items that add to their cost of service.

  3. Populate Unit Cost when selecting Items: 

    • Selecting this box will load up the unit cost for the item into the quote once an existing item is selected.

  4. Populate Markup with selecting items: 

    • Selecting this box will load up the markup for the item into the quote once an existing item is selected.

  5. Use $ Markup instead of Percent:

    •  Selecting this box will display the dollar value of a markup instead of a percentage. Note: Selecting this box will display dollar value of markup prices as a default setting for all future created Quote Items.

  6. Pricebook Settings:

    • You can update pricebook settings by selecting appropriate settings from the dropdown selection.


Quotes Tab: Quote Templates

This subsections provides templates to assist you when creating Quote Items to be added. This allows you to create quotes assigned to specific categories. For example, a quote template screen is shown in the screenshot below.




To adjust the pricing of the template, click on the pencil icon.


Quotes Tab: Signatures

This subsection allows for a customer signature to be added to your Quotes. If the box is selected, you may also add a message that will be communicated to the customer before adding their signature to the quote. An example is shown in the screenshot below.





Quotes Tab: Print Setup

This subsection allows you to customize many of the items included when printing a Quote. As shown in the following screenshot, you can customize the format of your printed Quote, by adjusting the margin size and layout as well as any information you wish to show or hide by default.






Here are some more detailed description of the Print Setup subsection:


  1. Quote Label:
    • The label you input in this field will appear on your printed Quote. 
  2. Additional Contact Info:
    •  In this text box, input any additional info you would like to appear on your Quote (ie. A phone number or email address).
  3. Customer Reference Field Name:
    • If you would like to keep track of POs or Quote numbers from certain customers, then input that associated information into this field (ie. a specific customer's PO number).
  4. Print Checkmarks:
    • Checking off any of the print options at the bottom of this subsection will allow for these items to also be included on printed Quotes.


Quotes Tab: Email Setup

This subsection allows you to define default values for your outgoing emails regarding Quotes. Any values set in this screen will load when a new Quote email is created. An example is shown in the following screenshot.


NOTE: You can select Alternative Email Template. If you have two different types of emails/customers, you can have specific templates targeted for the recipient. For example, you could have an email template for a marketing email, and a separate template for existing customers. 






NOTE: We have inputs that can be inserted into the subject line or the body of Quote emails. You can insert these inputs by clicking "Insert" and selecting from the dropdown menu (shown in the screenshot above). An example of this is {{quotenumber}}. This will input the current Work Order number into the email, without requiring you to input the Work Order number yourself, saving you time! This feature may be used for the following inputs:

  • Company Logo: {{companylogo}} - This will include a small version of the logo in the email from the customer.

  • Company Name: {{companyname}} - This will display the company as defined in the Tenant Tab.

  • Company Address: {{companyaddress}} - This will display the company address as defined in the Tenant Tab.

  • Customer Name: {{customername}} - This is the name of the customer as defined in the Quote.

  • Quote Number: {{quotenumber}} - This will display the current quote number.

  • Job Site Address: {{jobsiteaddress}} - This is the Job Site address from the Quote.

  • Total Before Tax: {{totalbeforetax}} - This is the total amount of the Quote before tax is added.

  • Total Tax: {{totaltax}} - This is the total amount of tax in the Quote.

  • Total After Tax: {{totalaftertax}} - This is the total amount of the Quote with Taxes




Quotes Tab: Quotes Approval Settings

As we continue to make improvements to how ServiceBox customers work with their customers we have included an additional feature to make your workflow more streamlined.  One of the additional features we have added in is the ability to send out a link to a customer with the quote email that they will be able to approve the quote remotely. For more information about this setting, follow this link How to Use Quote Approval