Quotations & Invoices

Quotations

Navigate to: Dashboard → Quotations

Create professional price quotations for catering orders, events, or large corporate requests. Quotations are printed as a separate PDF with a QUOTATION stamp, validity countdown, Terms & Conditions, and signature blocks.

Creating a Quotation

1. Click New Quotation
2. Choose customer type: Individual or Agency / Ministry
3. Fill in customer name, phone, address, and Valid Until date
4. Add line items with description, quantity, and unit price
5. Adjust tax rate, tax mode, and discount in the settings bar
6. Add Terms & Conditions and Notes (optional — T&Cs pull from your default settings)
7. Enter Prepared By (your name) — appears on the PDF
8. Click Create

Government / Agency Quotations

When the Agency / Ministry tab is selected, additional structured fields appear:

All government fields print in the "Prepared For" section of the PDF. When the quotation is converted to an invoice, all agency fields carry over automatically — no re-entry needed.

Tax & Discount Settings (Form)

The live Totals section shows Subtotal → Discount → VAT → Total as you type.

Quotation Lifecycle

draft → sent → accepted  → converted (to invoice)
                         → (stays accepted)
              → rejected
              → expired   (automatic, past valid-until date)

Quotation Statuses

Workflow Actions

Each quotation row includes a More Actions menu (•••) for common workflow actions:

• Print / Save PDF — opens a professional QUOTATION PDF in a new tab (ready to print or save)
• Edit — modify the quotation
• Mark Sent — moves status from Draft → Sent (only on drafts)
• Accept — marks the quotation as accepted by the customer (also available as a one-click button on sent quotations)
• Reject — marks the quotation as declined (also available as a one-click button on sent quotations)
• Duplicate — creates a new draft copy with a fresh quotation number
• Revise — creates a numbered revision (e.g. -R2, -R3) linked to the original
• Convert to Invoice — converts to an invoice (available when Sent or Accepted)
• Cancel — soft-deletes the quotation

Accept / Reject Workflow

Once a quotation is in Sent status, one-click Accept (green) and Reject (red) buttons appear in the action panel when you open the quotation:

1. Open the quotation detail
2. Click Accept or Reject
3. The status badge and PDF header tag update immediately (ACCEPTED / REJECTED)
4. Accepted quotations can be converted to invoices in one click from the same panel

Revisions

When you revise a quotation, the system creates a new draft linked to the original via parentQuotationId. Revision numbers increment automatically (QUO-0042-R2, QUO-0042-R3, etc.). The revision badge appears on the PDF header so the customer can see which version they are reviewing.

Auto-Expire

Quotations with a Valid Until date that has passed are automatically marked Expired the next time the quotations list is loaded — no manual action required. The PDF shows a clear "EXPIRED" message and the validity countdown reflects this. The status badge on the dashboard list also shows the expired state.

Expired quotations cannot be accepted. To revive an expired quotation: use Duplicate or Revise, update the Valid Until date, and re-send.

Scheduled Sending

Set a Scheduled Send date when creating or editing a quotation. The system will flag the quotation for sending at the specified date and time.

Rich Item Descriptions

Line item descriptions in quotations support basic formatting that renders in the PDF output:

This is useful for catering quotations where items need multi-line specifications (e.g., menu choices, preparation notes, service inclusions).

PDF Output

The PDF includes:

• Brand-aware logo and company details (Foods Inc. or Home Style)
• QUOTATION stamp badge with quotation number and revision tag (if applicable)
• Status tag in the header — ACCEPTED (green), REJECTED (red), EXPIRED, or REVISION, depending on current status
• Validity countdown ("Valid for X more days" or "EXPIRED")
• Bill To section with customer name, agency, contact person, phone, and address
• "Prepared by" attribution
• Itemized line table with quantities, unit cost, and line totals — rich descriptions render with bold/underline/bullets
• Tax column (when per-line tax mode is used)
• Subtotal, discount (shown in red), VAT, and total breakdown in a highlighted box
• Notes section (italic, red text)
• Terms & Conditions section
• Signature blocks for "Received By" and "Authorized By"
• "This is a quotation only — not a tax invoice" footer disclaimer
• Ink Saver toggle — switch the PDF to greyscale for lower printing costs

Invoices

Navigate to: Dashboard → Invoices

Manage formal invoices for catering, corporate orders, or accounts receivable. Invoices support VAT, discounts, payment terms, cheque tracking, and full payment history.

Creating an Invoice

1. Click New Invoice
2. Choose customer type: Individual or Agency / Ministry
3. Fill in customer details (name, phone, address)
4. Set Issued Date and Due Date
5. (Optional) set a custom invoice number
6. Add line items
7. Adjust tax rate, discount, payment terms
8. Add Prepared By name (optional)
9. Click Create

For government invoices, the same Agency / Ministry fields available on quotations are present here (Agency / Ministry Name, Department, Division, Department Details, Order Placed By). These fields print in the "Prepared For" section of the invoice PDF.

Aging Summary Cards

At the top of the page, four cards show:

• Outstanding — total unpaid balance
• Overdue — unpaid past due date (shown in red if > 0)
• Paid This Month — cash collected this month
• Drafts — count of draft invoices

Invoice Statuses

Recording a Payment

1. Click an invoice row to open the detail panel
2. In the Record Payment card at the bottom, enter:
   • Amount Paid — partial or full payment
   • Payment Method — Cash, Cheque, Bank Transfer, or Mobile Money
   • Cheque Number — optional
   • Receipt Number — optional
   • Date Paid — defaults to today
   • Cheque Deposit Date — if applicable
3. Click Record Payment

Payment History & Reversals

Each invoice has a collapsible Payment History section showing every payment recorded, including reversals. Payments are never deleted — a reversal creates a negative entry for a complete audit trail.

Unapplied Payments

If a customer pays without specifying an invoice, record an unapplied payment from the customer's payment ledger. Later, allocate it to specific invoices as needed.

Creating a Credit Note from an Invoice

On any paid or partially-paid invoice, click Create Credit Note to open the credit note form pre-filled with the customer's details.

Converting a Quotation to an Invoice

From the Quotations page, click Convert to Invoice on any Sent or Accepted quotation. The system creates a new invoice pre-filled with the quotation's customer details, line items, tax settings, and discount. For government quotations, all agency fields (Agency / Ministry Name, Department, Division, Department Details, Order Placed By) carry over automatically. The original quotation status changes to "Converted" with a link to the generated invoice.

More Actions Menu (•••)

• Print / Save PDF — professional INVOICE PDF with company letterhead
• Edit Invoice — modify the invoice
• Mark as Sent — moves Draft → Sent
• Duplicate — creates a new draft copy of the invoice
• Copy Reminder — copies a payment reminder message to clipboard
• Delete — permission-gated

PDF Output

The invoice PDF includes:

• Dark header band with logo, INVOICE stamp, number, issued/due dates, payment terms, and status badge
• Bill To section with customer details
• Itemized line table
• Subtotal, discount, VAT breakdown, total, amount paid, and Balance Due
• Payment history table (date, method, reference, amount) if payments have been recorded
• Payment Instructions (bank name, account, reference) — if configured in Settings → Documents
• Notes section
• Footer with generation timestamp

Document Settings

Navigate to: Settings → Documents

Configure invoice and quotation defaults: