Quotes are proposals that supply pricing information to customers and record a potential sale. Every quote has its own window, which can display two different kinds of information.
Click the Quote tab to enter or view basic information about the customer and items in the quote. This is the information you see when you open a quote.
Click the Profitability tab to see how the terms of the quote affect your bottom line. You can adjust prices and profit levels to ensure that both your needs and the cus- tomer?s are met.
Because a quote doesn't represent an actual sale, dollar amounts and item quantities don't affect your finances or inventory. When the customer is ready to commit to a sale, however, you can convert the quote to a sales order or invoice. See "Carrying Information Forward" in Chapter 2 for information about converting the quote.
When you open a new quote, it's blank except for the quote number, the current date, and the expiration date. The quote number is assigned automatically based on the next number specified in the Customer Preferences window. The expiration date is calculated from the Quotes Expire In field in the Customer Preferences window. You can change either of these dates if necessary.
Creating a new quote comprises two groups of tasks--entering customer information and entering item information. You can add printed and internal comments to the quote, if desired. See "Adding Comments" in Chapter 2 for more information.
If you enter a bundle item, a line for the bundle itself appears along with lines for each of the items in the bundle. Depending on how the bundle is set up, prices may appear in the bundle line or in the lines for the component items. See "Working with Builds and Bundles" in Chapter 5 for more information.
To enter quote information:
1. Click the Quote tool in the Customer toolbar.
2. In the blank Quote window that appears, enter or choose the customer.
3. In the Line Items list, enter the item code or description and quantity for
each item.
Adjusting Quote Prices and Profits
Adjusting Quote Prices and Profits (6428)
You can click the Profitability tab to see how a quote affects your bottom line. It lists the cost of each line item and the profit you make on it in both percentage and dollar amounts.
You can adjust the profit percentage, profit amount, and extended profit amounts. For example, you may need to reduce a price for a customer but still make sure that you achieve a certain level of profit. When you change one entry, all related entries are also changed. If you change a profit percentage for an item, the price is adjusted automatically.
To adjust prices and profits:
1. Click the Profitability tab in the Quote window.
2. Change price or profit entries as needed.
Automatic Notes on Customer Quotes
Use the new Quote Preferences found in the Cust Prefs tool to automatically add any or all of the following Automatic Notes when printing built-in Quote forms:
Customer Code
Customer Listing
Total Quantity (total count of all Items on the Quote)
Boilerplate Text
Read the instructions below for maximizing the benefit of these options. (3178)
Big Business 2.5 includes the option to automatically fill in the Notes on a Customer Quote. All of these items are added during printing and work only with Built-In forms (not Custom Forms).
The following can be automatically added:
• Customer Code
• Customer Listing
• Total Quantity (total count of all Items on the Quote)
• Boilerplate Text
To enable this feature:
1. Open the Customer Prefs.
2. Click on the Quote Preferences button.
3. Click the checkbox for each item you wish to add.
4. Fill in any Boilerplate text you wish to add.
5. Click the OK button.
Batch Delete of Quotes
The ability to delete old Quotes en masse has long been requested by Big Business Users who generate numerous Quotes. Many companies have a high Quote to Sales Order ratio. In the end, they may only convert a few Quotes to Sales Orders.
The Items that are sold contain historical transaction information and can not be deleted. The Items that have only been used in Quotes can be deleted by first deleting the expired Quotes, then the Item Card.
Quote Batch Delete (and Item Batch Delete, link below) facilitate this process. (3132)
Big Business 2.5 adds the ability to Batch Delete Quotes. Because this Delete is permanent, you should exercise proper caution in its use. Refer to the section on Employee Access Privileges for restricting Access to the Batch Delete tool. You may also want to Back Up your Company data file, or export the selection of Quotes you are attempting to Delete, prior to deleting them.
To Batch Delete Quotes, from the Quote QuickSearch:
1. Find those Quotes whose "Expiration Date Is on or before Today," for example.
2. Click the Batch Delete tool to Delete all Quotes in the current Quote List.
Big Business will display a confirmation dialogue offering to Continue or Cancel.
3. Select Continue to permanently Delete all Quotes in the list.
If you select one Quote in the List and click Batch Delete, Big Business will display a dialogue with a choice of Deleting the selected Quote, Deleting all Quotes in the List, or Canceling.
Quote Batch Delete is particularly useful if you produce a large number of Quotes. Customers and Items contained in a Quote are linked to the Quote and cannot be deleted until the Quote is deleted. By cleaning up old or expired Quotes, you will then be able to delete Customers and Items that were entered only for quotation purposes.
Ship Date
Ship Date is being added to Quotes. This will allow it to carry onto Orders.
Ship Date on Orders has been updated to automatically fill in today's date. (6665)