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1. What are quotes in Scoro?
Quotes have a two-fold benefit in Scoro – they help to set clear expectations for the project both externally and internally. So even if you don’t send out quotes to your clients, we still strongly recommend incorporating quotes into your workflows in Scoro for internal purposes as it unlocks additional insights into your projects. You can leverage quotes for budgeting and cost estimations as well as project planning.
For the client, the quote is the price proposal – a document that clearly states what they will get and how much they will have to pay for it. It helps to ensure that you and the client are on the same page about the scope of the project.
For the internal team, the quote is the budget – it outlines how much you will earn for the project, how much you will have to invest into it, and how much you can expect to profit from it. It encourages you to think through the high-level deliverables and predict the quantity, cost, and price of the resources required to complete the project with the desired margins. In other words, you can estimate right off the bat whether you’re taking on a profitable project.
2. How to maximize the benefits of quotes?
To make quoting as smooth as possible, you should first standardize your products and services. While you have the flexibility to modify product/service data and price for each project or document, establishing a standard cost and price for your services helps to ensure that everyone sells services at a profitable price and that no one deviates too far from the expected profit margin. Additionally, it helps to automate document creation later on and lets you generate reports with comparable data. For example, you can easily analyze which services/products are most profitable using the detailed financial report. You can read more about the benefits of standardized services and how to set them up here.
In addition to setting up products and services, you should also set up labor cost for your internal team. This way, you can take full advantage of automated cost estimations on quotes and ensure healthy margins for your services. We’ll take a closer look at how that works in the next paragraphs.
3. How to compile a quote?
We recommend starting every project with a quote. This way, you can agree on the scope and price with the client, estimate the delivery cost, and set clear expectations for the internal team. The data on the quote feeds into project reports, enabling you to compare your quoted estimates with the actual results in real time.
There are several ways to create a new quote in Scoro. The easiest option is to use the quick actions menu in the top right corner, which you can access from any view.
Alternatively, you can navigate to the Quotes module or the Pipeline module and click the +New button there.
You can also add a new quote directly from any project, company, or person view.
3.1. Fill in general details
The top part of your quote holds general information about the quote. You have the client-facing data, such as client details, quote creation date, and due date, which indicates how long the quote is valid. Additionally, you have fields meant solely for the internal team, such as the estimated closing date, currency, status, price list, and pricing method. Mandatory fields are indicated by a small orange dot.
First link your quote with a client. If the client is already in your database, you can simply select them from the dropdown list. To add a new client, enter the company name and click the [+] icon to fill in additional details without leaving the quote view.
Once you link a client to the quote, Scoro will prefill the quote name field with “Company name + quote” to automate the naming process. However, you can overwrite it with any custom title.
Quote names are shown in the quote list and the Pipeline view, so it’s easier to tell them apart. You can also search for quotes by their name via the search bar.
If you want to link the quote with an already existing project, you can choose the respective project from the dropdown menu. If there's no project yet, leave that field empty or add a new from the same view.
Fields such as currency, status and price list are automatically filled in based on the site’s default settings or the client profile, but you can easily modify them in this view.
If you have enabled roles for your site, you also have to decide on the pricing method – whether you want to price your services based on service prices or role prices. If you don’t have roles enabled, service prices are applied by default and you don’t see the pricing method option in your quote view at all.
- Role prices – unit price of the product/service is determined by the selling price of the role. You can assign the role in the Cost and provider info column.
- Service prices – unit price is determined by the default selling price of the product/service itself.
We’ll dive further into both options in the next paragraph.
3.2. Define services, price, and scope
The middle part of the quote is divided into two:
- Left side is the client-facing side that outlines services and holds price and scope related information.
- Right side is meant for internal cost estimation and margin calculations. Your client will not see the cost, margin, and provider info on the quote, as these columns are meant solely for internal purposes to help you assess profitability and ensure desired margins for each service.
Let’s look at the client-facing part first – how to add products and services to the price proposal.
If you’ve standardized your products and services (= your deliverables) and entered them into your product database, compiling the quote is easy as everything is half-automated. Simply select the suitable deliverable from the dropdown menu.
If you want to quote a completely new service, you can simply type in the service name manually. By default, Scoro will also add the new service to your database. If you want to fill out the whole product card for the new service, you can easily do it without leaving the quote view. Simply click on the [+] icon and fill in the details. However, be aware that this also means any user can add services to your database. Every time someone renames a standard service, it’s added to your database as another new service. This can easily result in duplicates and inaccurate reporting. So, if you want to keep your service list clean, we recommend disabling the option Add new products/services on sales documents to the product database under Settings > Sales and finance > General.
3.2.1. Service prices
If you chose service prices as your pricing method:
As soon as you select a deliverable from the dropdown, Scoro will automatically apply the selling price you’ve set for this product/service in your product database. You can modify the preset price as needed. The quoted unit price will also be used for revenue tracking later when the project is in progress.
3.2.2. Role prices
If you chose role prices as your pricing method:
When you select a deliverable from the dropdown, the unit price will remain 0 at first. To populate the correct role-based selling price, you also need to assign a role or a specific doer for it in the Cost and provider info column. Scoro will then use this info to fill out the unit price accordingly – based on the role selling price. For example:
- If you assign a Senior Designer as the preliminary service provider, Scoro will apply the selling price of a Senior Designer to that service.
- If you assign Peter Kane as the preliminary service provider and Peter Kane is a Senior Designer, Scoro will apply the selling price of a Senior Designer to that service.
Role prices will also be used for revenue tracking later when the project is in progress.
If you want to use role prices for the project that are different from the default ones, you can easily modify role prices on a quote level. To do this, click the Modify role prices button next to the pricing method field. You can then adjust the selling price of each role for this particular project.
Note! If you want to modify role prices for the project it’s important to do it before you start adding services and roles to the quote. This way, Scoro will automatically use the updated role price(s) when you start adding services. If you modify role prices after you’ve added services to the quote, the unit price on the quote line will not be updated retrospectively. The updated role prices would then affect only revenue calculation later on in the project.
3.3. Estimate the costs
The cost estimation on the right-hand side is where you can predict your internal costs. Filling out the cost section with preliminary provider info will help you estimate the profit margin for each service.
You can use either in-house or outsourced resources to estimate costs. If you have previously set up labor costs for in-house resources or the buying price for outsourced resources, the estimate will be populated with respective data automatically.
You can modify the hourly labor rate directly on the quote by clicking on its value.
3.4. Structure the quote
Use subheadings to provide a nice structure for your quotes by:
- Grouping your quote lines - for example, if your project has several phases, subheadings can help highlight what you offer in each phase.
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Hiding certain details in your quote PDF - if your quote contains detailed service information that is more relevant for internal rather than external use, you can use subheadings to hide the quote line details from the PDF and show only the subheadings to your customer. Use the relevant checkboxes to control what's shown on the quote PDF:
- Group prices – PDF displays the total price for all the services under this subheading
- Hide prices on rows – PDF hides row prices and displays just the deliverable name and the total group price
- Hide rows – PDF hides deliverable rows and shows only subheadings
To add a subheading, click the [+] icon on the left-hand side of a quote line to add a subheading above it. Alternatively, click the Add subheading button below all quote lines.
Read more on using subheadings in documents in Scoro.
You can also easily reorder, duplicate, and delete your quote lines one by one or in groups by using the icons on the left side of the quote rows.
To reorder the quote lines, use the single or group drag-and-drop button on the left side of the line. When reordering a group, the related rows will collapse while dragging and will expand once release into the new place.
To duplicate the quote lines, click the [+] icon and select either Duplicate or Duplicate the whole subsection.
To delete quote lines, click the trash can icon. When deleting a subheading, you can choose to delete all related rows along with the subheading.
Once you've filled out all the necessary data, save your quote. After saving, you're taken to the quote detailed view, where you can preview the quote.
3.5. Request approval for the quote
If your site has an approval flow enabled for quotes and the total sum of your quote exceeds the threshold, you'll need to click the Request approval button to request approval from the designated approvers in your company. You cannot send the quote to the client before it's approved.
See the Approvals for quotes, invoices, and purchase orders article to learn how the approval process works.
3.6. Send out the quote
Click on the PDF button to preview the document before sending it to the client. You can also easily switch between PDF templates and customize them according to your needs.
You can attach the quote either as a separate document or share it via a link that allows the client to open the quote in a collaborative view in the browser. Check the How to share the quote via a link section below for more details on how the share links work.
Use the Send button to send the quote out to the client directly from Scoro. The recipient’s field is automatically filled in based on the information on the contact card. If you’ve also filled in invoice e-mail templates in Scoro, the e-mail body will be prefilled as well – yet another tedious step automated!
If you want to modify your quote at any point, simply open the quote and click the Modify button in the top right corner. You can also delete the quote from the Modify view.
You can keep track of all your active quotes in the Pipeline. It shows you the number of quotes you have issued and are actively working on, as well as how many deals are in each stage of the sales process.
3.7. Turn the quote into a project
Once the client confirms the quote, set its status to Confirmed and use the data on the quote to automate the next steps in your workflow. Start by turning the quote into a project with the help of the Create project button. This way, all data will be automatically interlinked, and subheadings will be turned into project phases.
Once you've created a project, you can use the Create tasks from quote button to create tasks from your quoted deliverables into tasks as well – if that’s all the granularity you need.
Tasks can be created from the quote detailed view as well by using the Create tasks button.
Creating the project and tasks out of a quote lays a successful foundation for the Quoted vs Actual table, which lets you track your project progress and financial success in real-time. You can compare the actual results to your initial estimates so that you can course correct in time if you seem to be burning your budget too quickly. Furthermore, once the project is completed, you can draw conclusions about which services you under- or overquoted and use that knowledge to improve your estimates for the next project.
3.8. Use the quote for further automations
You can also automate several steps in your workflows with the help of quotes.
For example, if you quote similar services frequently, you may want to save yourself the trouble of starting from scratch every time. You can save any quote as a template for future reuse. Simply tick the Save as a template option in the top right corner before saving your quote. Read more about quote templates.
Additionally, you can reuse the data on your quote to automate project, task, invoice, bill, etc creation. This way, all project-related data is automatically interlinked, saving you from having to enter the same data several times into different documents. Learn more about automating task and document creation with quotes.
4. How to share the quote via a link?
You can share a quote with your client via a link. This allows them to open the quote directly in the browser and use the accompanying chat box to give immediate feedback. Sharing quotes this way helps to reduce the number of back-and-forth e-mails and keep any discussions around the quote in a single compact view.
To manually generate a unique link and give your client access to the latest published version of the quote, click the Share button in the quote view.
The client can use the link to open the quote directly in the browser. The shared quote view includes the latest published version of the quote and a chat box which the client can use to conveniently confirm the price proposal or leave feedback. This makes communication more immediate and helps to shorten the quote closing cycle.
As soon as the share link is generated, a separate thread will appear under the Comments section in the quote view. This thread will be synced with the chat in the shared quote view. Whenever the client comments on the quote, you will get notified in Scoro and see their message under this thread. You can track the whole conversation as well as reply to the client via this thread, without leaving Scoro.
Note! Only that specific thread is synced with the chat in the shared quote view. Comments outside of that thread are not visible to the client and can be seen only by relevant team members in Scoro.
Any changes you make to the quote won’t be shared with the client until you decide to update the PDF in the shared view. To do that, click Share and then the Update PDF. The client will see the updates after refreshing their view.
If you no longer wish to share the quote, click the Stop sharing button. Scoro will also stop syncing the comment thread with the chat until you decide to share the quote again.
Automate link sharing
You can also automate the process further by adding the quote link into your e-mail template or the e-mail footer. This way, Scoro will generate the link automatically for you every time and include it in the e-mail accordingly.
Option 1: add the quote link into the e-mail template
- Go to Settings > My settings > E-mail and scroll down to the Quote e-mail template.
- Choose where you want to place the link in the e-mail. Insert a dynamic field: Quote + Public quote link. Scoro will add the respective placeholder into your template.
- Save the changes.
Now, whenever you send out a quote from Scoro, Scoro will automatically generate the share link for you and insert it into your e-mail. The placeholder will be replaced with the hyperlink Open the quote in the browser. This text cannot be customized.
Option 2: include the quote link in the e-mail footer
If you enable the Add the quote link into e-mail footer toggle before sending out the quote, Scoro will generate the share link for you and include it in the e-mail footer. This way, you don’t have to create and copy the link manually, but you can still give the client the option to access and comment the quote from the browser.
5. Set up an approval flow for quotes
You can enable an approval flow to ensure that your quotes exceeding a certain value are reviewed and approved by a manager or any other designated individual in your company before they're finalized and shared with clients. As a result, you can better manage your costs and avoid unnecessary or unauthorized expenditures. Approvals can also be enabled for invoices and purchase orders.
Learn more about setting up an approval flow for quotes.
6. Advanced options
We’ve walked through the basics of creating a quote in Scoro, but there are a number of other settings that you can use to fine-tune your quotes further.
Project on each line
If you’re working on several projects for one client and want to link each deliverable with a different project, use the Project on each line option. This will create a separate Project box for each service line. Note! The ‘Project on each line’ option is available only if you use service prices. It cannot be used with role prices.
Merging service/product lines
In some instances, you may want to plan out your services more granually on the quote for internal budgeting purposes, but merge them into a single service on the PDF you send to the client. For example, let's say you want to estimate the scope and the cost if you split the design task between a junior designer and a senior designer, but you still want to present it as a single design service to the client.
You can do it by creating a separate PDF template for this scenario. Head to Settings > Site settings > PDF templates and duplicate your current quote template to create a new one. Then open the Modify view. Navigate to the Price calculation table tab and scroll down to the Price calculation table settings. Use the option Grouped by products and tick the Summarize by groups box.
This will group the identical services into a single row on your quote.
Standard template – junior and senior services show as separate rows:
Modified template – junior and senior service show as a single row:
Price lists
You can change the price list in the quote modify view at any point. However, please note that it is not recommended to change the price list once the project is in progress as it will affect all linked documents and revenue calculations.
Product codes
If you want to add a product or a service by the product code, simply type the code into the product field.
Multiple descriptions
If you wish to include more than one description for the deliverable, you can activate the setting Use secondary product/service description on lines under Settings > Sales and finance > General. For example, if you need one row to describe the product and the other one to describe the return policy.
Discounts
To apply a discount, just enter the discount percentage into the % box at the bottom of the quote or click on the percentage icon to open the discount calculator.
You can also apply different discounts and tax rates on a line level, i.e. for each deliverable. You can find the default tax rate settings under Settings > Sales and finance > Tax rates and activate line-based discounts under Settings > Sales and finance > Discounts.