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Quotes — Workflow

Overview

This workflow explains how commercial quotes move through SARA using two main transactions:

  • Quotes – commercial registration, versions, sending, approval/cancellation.
  • Quote Engine – cost and profit definition per budget node, plus notes and Q&A.

It focuses on integration projects. Service projects can be documented later following a similar pattern.

Note

This approval and lifecycle flow follows SARA’s standard record lifecycle model. See: Workflows & Pipelines

Roles involved

  • Sales (Seller)

    • Creates and maintains quotes.
    • Sends quotes to customers.
    • Approves quotes when a customer PO (CPO) is received.
    • Cancels quotes when needed (while pending).

  • Technical owners / Node owners

    • Define and update costs in Quote Engine (per node/budget, e.g. mechanics, materials, labor).
    • Answer questions and provide specifications through notes and Q&A.
    • Receive notifications when a quote is approved and a project is created (or an existing project is increased via a complementary quote).

  • Finance (future linkage)

    • Uses project and CPO information in separate finance/summary transactions.

Status lifecycle (Quotes)

Quotes use the following statuses (as shown in the UI):

  • PEND — Pending (quote is being prepared, can be edited, sent, duplicated, or cancelled).
  • APPR — Approved (customer PO received, project created and linked).
  • CANC — Cancelled (not pursued due to internal reasons or customer decision).

Info

For general guidance on statuses and their meaning across SARA, see:
Status

Warning

Cancellation is only available while the quote is Pending (PEND).
Once a quote is Approved (APPR) and a project exists, any further handling is done through project and finance processes.

Workflow steps

Workflow steps

  1. Create a new quote (PEND)
  2. Define costs in Quote Engine
  3. Send the quote (versions)
  4. Approve with CPO → Project (APPR)
  5. Complementary quotes (optional)
  6. Cancel a quote (CANC)
  7. Duplicate a quote (optional)

Create a new quote (PEND)

  1. A lead or quote request is received.
  2. Sales creates a new quote in Quotes using the “+ New quote” button.
  3. SARA assigns a base quote code such as QUO.0984 (without version suffix at this stage).

  4. The quote starts with:

    • Status: PEND
    • Sent column: Not sent
    • Minimum required commercial fields to be fast and effective.

Result:

  • The quote is in Pending status and can now be refined and linked to Quote Engine.

Define costs in Quote Engine

  1. Technical owners and other responsible users open the associated Quote Engine entry.
  2. Each owner adds costs for their node/budget (e.g. mechanics, materials, labor).

  3. Sales sets profit percentages per cost bucket:

    • Example: 5% on materials, 20% on labor.

  4. Additional context is captured in:

  5. Q&A (questions, clarifications).
  6. Notes / specifications.

Note

Quote Engine does not automatically push text into the quote.
Sales uses this information to manually prepare the customer-facing quote (format and content can vary per client).

Result:

  • Quote Engine always reflects the latest cost and profit data for that quote.
  • There are no internal versions for Quote Engine; changes overwrite previous values.

Send the quote to the customer (versions)

When Sales is ready:

  1. The seller sends the quote from Quotes by email to a selected customer contact.
  2. On send:
    • SARA generates a PDF for that version.
    • A version suffix is applied to the quote code, e.g.:
      • QUO.0984.01
      • QUO.0984.02
    • The Sent column is updated with the date and time of the latest email.
    • Previous versions remain available:
      • Old versions shown in red.
      • The latest version shown in green.
      • Each version has its own downloadable PDF.

Result:

  • The quote remains in PEND but now has versioned PDFs and a clear send history.

Approve with customer PO (CPO) → Project creation (APPR)

When the customer accepts the quote and sends a customer PO (CPO):

  1. The seller approves the quote in Quotes.
  2. A form appears to capture CPO details, such as:
    • CPO number.
    • Amount.
    • Items or other required fields.
  3. After saving:
    • SARA creates a new Project linked to this quote.
    • SARA sends an email notification to:
      • Each person responsible for a node in Quote Engine, informing that:
      • Quote QUO.xxxx was approved.
      • Project YYY was created.

Result:

  • Quote status becomes Approved (APPR).
  • The Project ID is stored/displayed on the quote.
  • Project execution and finance-related follow-up are handled in their respective modules.

Warning

When the separate Customer Purchase Orders / finance summary documentation is added, this step should be cross‑linked to that page.

Complementary quotes (optional)

Sometimes, additional work is needed on an existing project (e.g. scope increase, extra modules).
For that, SARA supports complementary quotes.

Creating a complementary quote

  1. From Quotes, Sales uses the “New complementary quote” button.
  2. SARA shows a list of projects.
  3. The seller must select the existing project to which this complementary quote will be attached.
  4. A new quote is created:
    • With its own code, e.g. QUO.1234.
    • With its own Quote Engine (still 1:1).
    • Status starts as PEND.
  5. Costs and profit are defined in Quote Engine as usual.
  6. Sales sends the complementary quote to the customer (versions behave the same way).

Approving a complementary quote

When the complementary quote is accepted and the corresponding CPO is received:

  1. The seller approves the complementary quote (similar to a normal quote).
  2. CPO details are captured.
  3. Instead of creating a new project:
  4. SARA adds the approved budget to the existing project selected when the complementary quote was created.
  5. Notifications are sent to the relevant stakeholders (node owners) about the updated project budget.

Result:

  • The complementary quote moves to APPR.
  • The existing project’s budget increases, preserving the link to both quotes.

Cancel a quote (CANC)

A quote can be cancelled while it is in Pending status:

  1. From Quotes, Sales selects a Pending (PEND) quote.
  2. Chooses the cancel action.
  3. SARA asks for:
  4. Reason type:
    • Internal (e.g. opportunity no longer viable, strategy change).
    • Customer (e.g. customer rejected, chose another vendor).
  5. A text description of the reason.
  6. After confirmation:
  7. Status changes to Cancelled (CANC).

Result:

  • The quote remains in the system for reference but is no longer part of active sales pipelines.
  • Any further commercial activity should be handled with a new quote if the opportunity is revived.

Duplicate a quote (optional)

To reuse a successful structure or speed up quoting for similar opportunities:

  1. Sales uses the duplicate action on an existing quote.
  2. SARA creates a new quote with:
    • Copied structure, costs, profits, and attached files.
    • No copied PDFs or version history.
  3. The new quote starts:
    • With its own QUO.xxxx code.
    • Status PEND.
    • No versions, Not sent.

Result:

  • Duplicated quotes serve as templates or shortcuts without carrying over customer‑specific PDFs or send history.

Notifications

Throughout the Quotes workflow, SARA sends email notifications at key points, such as:

  • Quote sent to customer.
  • Quote approved, project created (or project budget increased for complementary quotes).
  • (Future) Finance-related events once the Customer Purchase Orders / finance module documentation is linked.

Note

For global notification behavior and configuration, see:
Notifications & Alerts