Quotation software

An enquiry arrives by email, by phone, or from someone you met on a job. The quote goes out as a document. The follow-up is a reminder you meant to send. A week later the customer says yes, and nobody can find the version they agreed, or the price is retyped into the job with a digit wrong.

The quote is the start of the job, not a separate pile of files. If it lives in a folder of documents and a sent-mail box, the job starts as a copy, and copies drift.

What gets lost

Two versions of the quote go out. The customer accepts the one you did not file.
The follow-up depends on memory. A keen enquiry goes quiet because nobody came back.
The quote says one scope. The job is raised from a different note.
A change agreed before the work starts never reaches the sheet or the invoice.
Open quotes are a feeling, not a list. You find out which ones died by noticing the silence.

What to keep on the record

The enquiry: who it came from, and what they asked for.
The quote: the scope, the price, what is not included, and the date it goes stale.
Every version. If they accepted the second one, the third should not be the one on the job.
The follow-up: when you said you would come back, and whether you did.
The handoff. When they say yes, the job starts from that quote. It is not typed out again from memory.

From there, the work is a job. How that job is run, from the enquiry through to sign-off, is covered in job management software. What the person doing the work writes down on the day is covered in digital job sheets and customer sign-off.

What to look for

One customer, one enquiry, one quote, and a job that begins from the version they accepted.
Open quotes as a list you can work on Monday, not a search through sent mail.
A follow-up with a date, visible to more than the person who sent the quote.
A change of scope written on the quote before anyone treats the old price as agreed.

How Atlas OS^® helps

Atlas OS^® is a complete business operating system for any business, anywhere, in any sector. The operating system behind your business. It is in development. You cannot switch it on as a finished product today.

From the first enquiry, marketing, sales, customers and service share one record. Nothing is re-keyed. The path runs from lead, to opportunity, to job, to service history. This page is about that path. It is not a catalogue of buttons already switched on.

Run it. Connect it. Control it. Prove it.

Common questions

What should quotation software keep together?

The enquiry, the quote, each version of it, the follow-up, and the job if the customer says yes. The job should start from the quote they accepted, not from a retype.

Why do Word quotes and email follow-ups lose the work?

Two versions go out and the customer accepts the one you did not file. The chase depends on memory. The job is then raised from a different note, so the scope and the price drift.

What should a quote say?

The scope, the price, what is not included, and the date it goes stale. If something changes before they accept, keep the earlier version. The accepted one is the one the job should follow.

How does Atlas OS follow an enquiry through to a job?

Marketing, sales, customers and service share one record, from the first enquiry. The path runs from lead to opportunity to job to service history, without re-keying. Atlas OS is in development.

How do I get early access?

Atlas OS is in development and coming soon. Join the waitlist and we will email you when it opens.

Get early access

If you want the enquiry, the quote and the follow-up on the same record as the job, join the waitlist. We will email you when Atlas OS opens.