Creating a quotation

A quotation is a priced offer for a specific movement. It records who the customer is, what is moving, where it is going, and what you will charge — and once accepted it becomes the basis for the shipment and the invoice.

Raising one

Quotations → New.

The customer

Field	Notes
Company	The customer. See Companies.
Customer profile	Where the company trades under more than one arrangement. Determines which contract rates apply — see Customer profiles.
Contacts	The people this quotation is addressed to. Used when the quotation is emailed.
Salesperson	The owner of the quotation.

The movement

Field	Notes
Shipping type	Import or Export.
Load type	FCL, LCL or air. Drives which specification block you fill in.
Source and Destination ports	Origin and discharge.
Transit ports	Any intermediate calls.
Transit time	Expected duration.
Quotation type	The template governing this quotation — see Quotation types and roles.
Valid from / Valid to	The offer's shelf life. A quotation with no end date is an open-ended commitment; set one.
Terms and conditions	Text carried onto the printed quotation.

Describing the cargo

Which block you fill in depends on the load type.

Loose cargo (LCL, air) — one or more specs, each describing a set of pieces:

Number of pieces, and dimensions (length, width, height) in cm, m, mm, inch, ft or yard.
Weight in kg, g, lb, ton or oz.
Volumetric weight, CBM, commercial weight — each of which can be auto-generated from the dimensions and weight you entered, or overridden by hand.
Stackable and Dangerous flags.

Containerised cargo (FCL) — one or more load specs: a container type, a number of containers, a weight, and the same stackable and dangerous flags.

On the auto-generate switches. Leave them on unless you have a reason. Volumetric weight, CBM and commercial weight are exactly the figures that get mistyped, and they are what the price is calculated from. Turning auto-generate off and entering a value by hand is a deliberate override — use it when the carrier has given you a figure that differs from the arithmetic, and note why in the comment.

Status

Status	Meaning
Pending	Being prepared. Not yet with the customer.
Pending creation exception approval	Blocked at creation pending an approval — usually a credit exception.
Waiting for customer	Sent; awaiting their answer.
Pending accepting exception approval	The customer accepted, but acceptance needs an approval first.
Accepted	The customer has agreed.
Rejected	The customer declined.
Cancelled	Withdrawn by you.
Processed	Converted onward into operational work.

The two exception approval states are the ones people get stuck on. They are not errors: the quotation is parked waiting for someone with the authority to approve it. See Exceptions.

The credit check

For customers on credit terms, a balance check runs when the quotation is created or approved. Its outcome decides what you can do:

Outcome	Effect
Not required	The customer is not on credit terms. Nothing to check.
Checking	Creation and approval are disabled until it completes.
Sufficient	Proceed normally.
Insufficient	You see a warning and the quotation routes into exception approval. You are not hard-blocked — the decision goes to someone who can take it.
Check failed	Creation and approval are blocked, and a warning is shown. This is a system problem, not a customer problem; retry, and escalate if it persists.

The distinction worth remembering: insufficient balance is a commercial decision routed for approval, while check failed means the answer is unknown and the system will not let you guess.

Actions on a quotation

Action	What it does
Approve / Reject	Internal decision on a quotation awaiting approval.
Confirm	Locks the pricing and sends the quotation to the customer's contacts.
Export PDF	Renders the quotation as a document, optionally emailing it.
Process	Moves the accepted quotation onward into operations.
Rollback	Steps the quotation back from a state it should not have reached.
Remove / Restore	Soft-removes a quotation and puts it back. Prefer this to deletion.
Delete	Permanent.

My quotations filters the list to those you own — the usual starting point for a salesperson.

Status guards on those actions

Actions check the current status and refuse plainly rather than doing nothing:

Refusal	Meaning
Quotation is already cancelled / is not cancelled	Cancel and restore each apply once.
Quotation is already processed / is in processed status	A processed quotation has moved into operations and is no longer editable here.
Quotation is in pending creation exception approval status	It is parked awaiting approval — see Working the exceptions queue.
Quotation cannot be rolled back from … status	Rollback is not available from every state.

Processed is the one to watch. Once a quotation has been processed, treat it as closed: changes belong on the shipment or the invoice that came from it, not back on the quotation.

Pricing is a separate screen with its own concepts. See Pricing a quotation.