Quotation

The quotation page shows one quotation: the prices you offer a customer for a job, and the costs you expect. It shows the quotation’s header and status, the buttons that move it from draft to approval, and tabs for its accounts, data, documents, linked jobs, comments and audit log. Once a quotation is approved, you can generate it as a PDF, email it, and create the job from it. For the whole path from the quotation to the job’s invoices and payments, see From quotation to payment.

To open a quotation, select it on the Quotations page, or select its link on a job, a work order or a job’s finance page. ◄ Quotation List takes you back to the list.

A quotation is either Normal, the quotation you send, or a Template, a starting point you copy to make new quotations. See Templates.

Create a quotation

1. On the Quotations page, choose the company and select New Quote. The Create New Quotation page opens.
2. In Type, choose Normal or Template. Type appears only if your role can create both.
3. Fill in the quotation fields. Title and Currency are required. Depending on your company’s setup, a workflow may be required too.
4. Select Create.

TrakIT numbers the quotation from the company’s code and a sequence, for example ABC-Q0042. The quotation starts as Draft, at revision 1, and the users in Notify Users receive an email. Cancel goes back without creating anything.

You can also start a quotation from a customer: on the customer’s entity page, open the Quotations tab and select New Quote. The customer is then filled in and cannot be changed. To make a quotation from an existing job, see Create a quotation from a job.

Quotation fields

Field	Notes
Title	Required, up to 300 characters. It cannot contain any of ! # $ % * ; < = > @ ^ { } ~ (Title has invalid characters).
Customer, Transporter, Shipper, Receiver, Carrier	The parties, chosen from the entities of each type for the company. They are used when you create a job, and the print form can show them.
Currency	Required. It starts with the company’s default currency. All the rates are in this currency.
Validity	The number of days the quotation is valid for, counted from the quotation date.
Workflow	The workflow of the job the quotation is for. You need one to create a job from the quotation, to fill in its workflow data and to initialize its accounts from the workflow.
Job Type, Services	Appear when the workflow has job types or services. Choose those that apply: they decide the workflow data fields and, if the workflow allows only its own accounts, the accounts you can add. Job types and services that have since been disabled are shown in red.
Hide Total	Leaves the total out of the generated PDF.
Restricted	Only the user who created the quotation, the users in Notify Users and system administrators can see it.
Notify Users	The users who receive an email when the quotation is created and each time its status changes. The list offers the active users of the company and the system administrators.
Internal Remarks	Remarks for your company only. They are never printed.
External Remarks, Terms & Conditions	Text the print form can show on the quotation.

The top of the page

The header shows the quotation’s number and title. On the right, a normal quotation shows its ID, its Revision and its status; a template shows Template.

If your company has set up actions for quotations, Actions next to ◄ Quotation List runs one of them. TrakIT asks you to confirm first; actions cannot be undone.

Header

The Header box shows the quotation’s details. Select its title to fold it away or open it again.

• Company, Currency, Validity, Created By, Hide Total and Restricted.
• Date: the day the quotation was last generated, or created if it never was. It shows - until the quotation is Generated, Finalised, Rejected, Cancelled or Ops Assigned, or at revision 2 or later, and always for a template.
• The parties that are filled in: Customer, Transporter, Shipper, Receiver and Carrier.
• Workflow, Services and Job Type, if the quotation has a workflow.
• Job ID: the job the quotation was made from, if it was created from a job or its accounts were initialized from one. Select it to open the job’s finance page.
• Notify Users, Internal Remarks, External Remarks and Terms & Conditions.
• Account Summary: the totals of the income and expense accounts, before taxes, and the Gross Profit. Point to the information icon to see the gross profit as a percentage of the income. Disbursements are not counted.
• The quotation data fields set up to show here, if any. See Data tab.

The icons at the bottom right of the header let you duplicate, change and delete the quotation. The buttons at the bottom left change its status and create a job.

Change a quotation

You can change a quotation while it is Draft or Under Revision.

1. Select the pencil icon (Modify) at the bottom right of the header, or the pencil next to the title.
2. Change the quotation fields. The company and the type cannot be changed.
3. Select Update.

The parties can be changed only while the quotation is a draft, or under revision at revision 1. Changing the currency does not convert the rates.

If you change the workflow, the services or the job types, TrakIT asks you to confirm: the workflow data fields are added or removed to match. Values are kept for the fields that still apply. If the workflow allows only its own accounts, the change is refused while the quotation has accounts that no longer apply; the message lists their codes, and you need to remove them first.

Modify the title

If the quotation can no longer be changed, the pencil next to the title opens Modify Title instead, so you can still correct the title at any status.

1. Select the pencil next to the title.
2. In Enter New Title, type the new title.
3. Select Save.

The new title follows the same rules as the Title field: see Quotation fields.

Duplicate a quotation

1. Select the copy icon (Duplicate Quotation) at the bottom right of the header.
2. Confirm.

TrakIT creates a new quotation and opens it. The copy is a normal quotation, even when you copy a template. It is a Draft at revision 1, with the next number, the title Copy followed by the original title, and you as its creator. It gets the original’s header, accounts, taxes and Data tab values, and the shipment saved with Get Rates. It does not get the workflow data, documents or comments.

Delete a quotation

You can delete a quotation while it is a draft.

1. Select the trash icon (Delete) at the bottom right of the header. The quotation’s details appear, with a Delete button.
2. Select Delete.

TrakIT deletes the quotation and its accounts and takes you back to the Quotations page. This cannot be undone.

Statuses

Status	What it means	Buttons
Draft	New, or restored after it was cancelled. It can be changed.	Request Approval, Approve, Cancel
Request for Approval	Waiting for approval. The list counts it under Appr. Requested.	Approve, Revise, Cancel
Under Revision	Sent back for changes. It can be changed.	Request Approval, Approve, Cancel
Approved	Approved: it can be generated and used for a job.	Generate, Revise, Finalise, Ops Assigned, Cancel, Create Job
Generated	The PDF has been generated.	Finalise, Ops Assigned, Reject, Cancel, Create Job
Finalised	Final.	Ops Assigned, Un-Finalise, Create Job
Rejected	Turned down after it was generated.	Revise, Cancel
Cancelled	Cancelled. The header is greyed out.	Restore
Ops Assigned	Handed over to operations.	Un-Finalise, Create Job

You see only the buttons your role allows. Create Job also needs a workflow on the quotation. Accounts, data and workflow data can be changed only while the quotation is Draft or Under Revision.

Change the status

1. Select the button for the new status, for example Request Approval or Approve.
2. For Revise, Reject and Cancel, choose the Reason. An administrator sets up the list of reasons.
3. In Enter Remark, explain the change. A remark is required for Revise, Reject, Cancel, Un-Finalise and Restore.
4. For Revise, keep or clear Increment Revision Number to n.
5. Select Update.

What each button does:

• Request Approval and Approve check that the required fields on the Data tab are filled in. If one is empty, TrakIT names it and the status does not change.
• Revise sends the quotation back for changes. When you revise a rejected quotation, its revision number goes up by one, unless you clear the checkbox. Revising a quotation that is waiting for approval or approved keeps its revision number.
• Generate opens Generate Quotation.
• Reject records that the generated quotation was turned down.
• Un-Finalise takes a finalised or ops-assigned quotation back to Approved, and a template back to Draft.
• Restore takes a cancelled quotation back to Draft.

Your company can also set up its own checks for these steps; if one fails, TrakIT shows its message and the status does not change.

Each change of status emails the users in Notify Users, with a copy to you. Users who have subscribed to quotation notifications under System > Notifications are told too, for the events they chose: Created, Approval Requested, Approved, Generated, Revised, Finalised, Rejected, Cancelled, Un-Finalised and Ops Assigned.

Templates

A template is a quotation you keep as a starting point, for example a standard price list for a type of job. You create it like a quotation, with Type set to Template.

• A template’s header shows no ID, revision, status or date, and a template cannot be sent for approval, approved or generated.
• Finalise locks it, and Un-Finalise opens it for changes again. Cancel and Restore work as for quotations.
• To use it, open the template and duplicate it. The copy is a normal draft quotation with the template’s accounts.

Generate the quotation

Generate creates the quotation’s PDF from a print form, and can email it. It appears when the quotation is Approved.

1. Select Generate. The Generate Quotation window opens.
2. In Select Template, choose the print form. The list shows the quotation forms set up for the quotation’s company.
3. Check the Quotation Preview. Some forms have fields you can type in on the preview. Select Final Preview to see the result as it will print, and Edit Again to go back.
4. If the form has a signature box, sign in it on the preview and select Confirm under it. Some forms require a signature.
5. Choose who to email, if anyone:
   • Myself: tick your own address.
   • The customer: tick its General, Finance or Management addresses. None is ticked at first, and the customer is emailed only if you tick one.
   • Email to other address(es): select it and enter other addresses, separated by commas or semicolons.
6. Under Attach Supporting Docs, tick the documents of the Documents tab to send with the PDF. Selected shows how many you chose and their size, which can be up to 20 MB together. If you attach documents, choose at least one recipient.
7. Select Generate.

TrakIT then:

• adds the PDF to the Documents tab, titled with the form name, the quotation number and the revision, for example Quotation - ABC-Q0042-R1. This document cannot be deleted;
• sets the quotation date to today, and the status to Generated;
• emails the PDF and the supporting documents to the recipients you chose, with the subject Quotation - and the quotation number. The message comes from the message template set on the print form, or is a standard message with the number, the amount and the validity.

Your company can set up its own checks for generating; if one fails, TrakIT shows its message and nothing is generated.

The PDF lists the income and disbursement accounts, never the expense accounts. Each line shows its rate, quantity, total and taxes, with its external remarks. Accounts in an account group are printed as one line for the group. The total appears at the bottom unless Hide Total is set.

Create a job

Create Job creates a job and its work orders from the quotation. It appears when the quotation has a workflow and is Approved, Generated, Finalised or Ops Assigned.

1. Select Create Job. The Create New Job window shows the quotation’s Workflow, Job Type and Services.
2. Enter the job reference. Its label is set up for your company, for example Transport Document.
3. In Work Order Count, enter the number of work orders, from 1 to 100.
4. Select Create Job.

TrakIT creates the job in the quotation’s workflow, with the quotation’s customer, shipper, receiver and job types. Each work order gets the quotation’s carrier, transporter and services. If the workflow requires one of these and the quotation does not have it, TrakIT says which is missing and creates nothing. The values on the Workflow Data tab are recorded on the job.

The quotation’s accounts become the job’s estimates for the quotation’s company. The quantity of each line is worked out from the job, according to its Applies: see Applies. If the quotation’s currency is not the job’s, the rates are kept in the quotation’s currency. The job is linked to the quotation; if the quotation has accounts, the job also appears on the Jobs tab.

TrakIT shows the new job ID, with a link to the job’s finance page. See Finance job.

Tabs

Below the header, the tabs show the quotation’s Accounts, Data, Workflow Data, Documents, Jobs, Comments and Audit Log. Workflow Data appears only when the quotation has a workflow. TrakIT opens the tab you used last.

Accounts tab

The Accounts tab lists the quotation’s lines, grouped under Income Accounts, Expense Accounts and Disbursement Accounts:

• income accounts are what you charge the customer;
• expense accounts are the costs you expect to pay; they are never printed;
• disbursement accounts are costs you pay and pass on: they are invoiced to one entity and billed by another.

Column	Shows
Account Name	The account, its detail or both, as set up for your company, with its code. An account group’s name is shown in red above it, and the internal (Int:) and external (Ext:) remarks below it.
Code	The account’s code.
Applies	What the line is charged per. See Applies.
Rate, Quantity, Total	The rate, the quantity, and the rate times the quantity. A line without a rate shows -.
Tax Name, Tax Amount, Total + Tax	Appear when any line has a tax.
Entity	Who the line is invoiced to or billed by. A disbursement shows both, as Inv and Bill.
Updated By	Who last changed the line, and when.

Subtotal at the bottom is the income minus the expenses, with their taxes. Disbursements are not counted. If your role cannot see income accounts, they are not listed.

While the quotation can be changed, the tab also offers:

• Initialize Accounts, while the quotation has no accounts: see Initialize accounts.
• Add…: see Add or change an account.
• Get Rates: see Get Rates.
• Quick Edit: see Quick Edit.
• Tasks, for the accounts you select: see Work on several accounts.

To change the order of the lines, drag a line by its arrows icon (Re-Order). Lines in an account group cannot be moved.

Add or change an account

1. Select Add…. The Add New Account window opens.
2. In Account Type, choose Income, Expense or Disbursement.
3. In Account Master, choose the account. The list shows the active accounts of the company. If the workflow allows only its own accounts, it shows those that fit the quotation’s services and job types.
4. In Account Detail, enter a description if needed, up to 50 characters. The same account can be added more than once with different details.
5. Fill in the rest of the line:
   • Account Group, if your company uses account groups.
   • Applies: required. See Applies.
   • The entity: Invoice Entity Type and Invoice To for income, Billing Entity Type and Billed By for expenses, and both for disbursements. If the account is set up for one type of entity, that type is fixed.
   • Rate: you can leave it empty and fill it in later.
   • Quantity: required. It starts at 1.
   • Internal Remarks, up to 500 characters, and External Remarks, up to 300 characters. External remarks are printed under the line.
6. Select Add.

To change a line, select it. The Update Account window opens with the same fields except the account type and master. Change them and select Save.

To add a tax to a line, open it and select Add Tax…, choose the tax and select Add. The list shows the taxes of the company’s country; a tax that applies only to income or only to expense accounts cannot go on the other type. To remove a tax, select the cross next to it. Taxes are not added by themselves to the lines you add.

To delete a line, open it, select the cross at the bottom left (Delete Account), then Yes. If the quotation was made from a job and you delete its last line this way, the link to that job is removed.

Applies

Applies	On the job, the quantity is
per TD	1, for the whole job. On the quotation, the quantity must be 1.
per WO	The number of work orders.
per m3, per Kg, per Ton	The total volume, weight or weight in tonnes of the work orders.
per TEU, per 20’, per 40’	The number of TEU, of 20-foot containers, or of 40-foot and 45-foot containers.
For WO	1 for each work order: the line is added once per work order.
Manual	The quantity on the quotation.

On the quotation itself, the total of every line is its rate times the quantity you enter.

Initialize accounts

Initialize Accounts fills an empty quotation with accounts.

1. Select Initialize Accounts.
2. Choose an option:
   • Initialize From Workflow Default Accounts: available when the quotation has a workflow.
   • Initialize from followed by your company’s short label for the job reference: enter the Job ID of a job.
3. Select Initialize.

From the workflow, TrakIT adds the workflow’s active default accounts for the quotation’s company: those for all services, and those for the quotation’s services. Each line gets its default rate if that rate is in the quotation’s currency; otherwise the rate is left empty. The workflow’s default taxes are added too. If the quotation already has a shipment saved with Get Rates, and your role can use it, TrakIT also prices the new lines from the published rates.

From a job, TrakIT copies the job’s job-level lines, with their taxes: its actuals if it has any, otherwise its estimates. It takes only the lines in the job’s own currency that are invoiced to or billed by the quotation’s customer. The job must have the same customer and currency as the quotation, must not be cancelled, and must be in one of your workflows. The quotation’s header then shows the job in Job ID.

Quick Edit

Quick Edit changes the rates of many lines at once.

1. Select Quick Edit. The Quick Edit Accounts window lists all the lines.
2. Change the Rate of the lines you want. Leave a rate empty to clear it. The Quantity can be changed here only for Manual and For WO lines.
3. Select Save.

Lines that were saved turn green. A line that could not be saved turns amber and shows why, and TrakIT says that one or more accounts were not updated. Close asks you to confirm if you have changes that are not saved.

Work on several accounts

1. Select the checkbox of each line, or the check icon in the heading to select all or none.
2. Open Tasks and choose Assign Entity, Set Amount/Tax, Duplicate Accounts or Delete Accounts.

Delete Accounts asks you to confirm, then deletes the selected lines.

After Assign Entity or Set Amount/Tax, a line that could not be changed is shown in red: point to it to see why.

Assign an entity

1. Select the lines, then Tasks > Assign Entity.
2. Under Invoice To, for income and disbursement lines, choose the Type and the Entity.
3. Under Billed By, for expense and disbursement lines, choose the Type and the Entity.
4. Under Options, keep Assign accounts without entity to fill in only the lines that have no entity yet, or select Replace entity on accounts to replace the entity on all the selected lines.
5. Select Assign.

TrakIT says how many lines were assigned and how many were not changed. The entity must be set up for the quotation’s company.

Set the amount or tax

1. Select the lines, then Tasks > Set Amount/Tax.
2. To set the rate, select Set Amount and enter it. Leave it empty to clear the rates.
3. To add a tax, select Set Tax and choose it, or choose – Remove Taxes – to remove all the taxes from the lines. A tax is added only to the lines it can apply to.
4. Select Save.

Duplicate accounts

1. Select the lines, then Tasks > Duplicate Accounts.
2. In Number of copies, enter a number from 1 to 10.
3. Select Duplicate.

Each copy gets the same account, rate, quantity, entities, remarks and taxes, and its detail with a number added, for example (2). If one copy cannot be made, none are.

Get Rates

Get Rates prices the quotation from your company’s published rate cards. It appears on quotations, not templates, while the lines can be changed, if your role can use it. See Get Rates.

Data tab

The Data tab lists the quotation data fields: extra information an administrator sets up for the quotations of your company, under Admin > Masters > Data Fields. A star marks a required field: it must be filled in before you can request approval or approve the quotation.

1. Enter the Value, and Remarks if needed. Some fields let you choose from a list or a calendar.
2. Select Save.

Use Search to find a field by name or code. Computed fields are worked out by TrakIT and cannot be changed. Fields that are no longer active are shown in red. You can change the values while the quotation can be changed.

Workflow Data tab

The Workflow Data tab lists the data fields of the quotation’s workflow that are recorded once for the whole job, for the quotation’s job types and services. Their values are recorded on the job when you create a job. The tab appears when the quotation has a workflow.

1. Enter the Value, and Remarks if needed. Depending on the field, you type the value, choose a date or choose from a list, a location or an entity.
2. Select Save.

An amber warning icon marks a field that is required to create the job. Show Codes adds the field codes. TrakIT checks each value, for example that a number is a number or that a value comes from its list: a line that was saved turns green, and a line that was not shows why below it.

You can change the values while the quotation is Draft or Under Revision.

Documents tab

The Documents tab lists the quotation’s files: the PDFs generated with Generate, and the files added by users. Cancelled documents are shown in red.

For each document, the list shows its Title, File Name, Type, Status, Expiry date (red once expired), File Size and who uploaded it. Icons let you download, preview and print a document, except a cancelled one.

To add files:

1. Select Add Files.
2. Enter a File Title, or leave it empty to use the file name.
3. Choose the Document Type, Document Status and Document Expiry if needed.
4. Drag the files onto the box, or select Select File(s). The upload starts at once.

Each file can be up to 20 MB, of the types listed in the window.

To change a document, select its pencil icon, change the File Title, Document Type, Document Status or Document Expiry, or turn on Cancel Document, and select Update. System administrators can also delete a document with the cross icon, except a generated PDF.

You can add and change documents unless the quotation is cancelled.

Jobs tab

The Jobs tab lists the jobs whose estimates come from this quotation: the jobs created with Create Job, and the jobs whose estimates were initialized from it. For each job it shows the Job ID, which opens the job’s finance page, the job reference, which opens the job, the Customer, Shipper, Receiver, Job Type, WO Count and when it was Created.

Comments tab

The Comments tab holds comments about the quotation, for your company only.

• Sort shows the newest or the oldest first; Show shows only comments with one status.
• Each comment has a status: Active, Pending, Resolved or Cancelled. Select the status to change it.
• Select the expand icon to read a long comment full screen.

To post a comment:

1. Select Add….
2. Write the comment. You can format it and add links, images and tables.
3. Select Post.

To record a spoken comment instead, select the microphone button, then Start Recording, Stop and Post. A recording can last up to 5 minutes.

You can delete your own comment within 30 minutes of posting it, if it has not been emailed yet.

Comment Recipients lists the users who are told about new comments. You are added when you post a comment. A recipient receives an email only if they have subscribed to quotation comment notifications under System > Notifications. To add a recipient, select Add, choose the user and select Add User: the list offers the active internal users with an email address who have access to the quotation’s company. To remove one, select the red cross next to their name.

Audit Log tab

The Audit Log tab lists what was done to the quotation, newest first: who did it, when and what, such as the quotation created or updated, status changes with their reason and remarks, lines added, changed or deleted, taxes, documents, PDFs generated, emails sent and jobs created. Type in the search box to find entries by user, action or information; the cross icon clears it.

If your role cannot see income accounts, the log shows only the entries about expense and disbursement lines.

Who can use this page

Your role needs Read in the Quotations section to open a quotation. The quotation must be in a company you have access to, and have no workflow or be in one of your workflows. A restricted quotation opens only for the user who created it, the users in Notify Users and system administrators. Everything else needs its own permission in the Quotations section:

For	Permissions
Creating and changing	Create (create quotations, change the header and the title, change the workflow data, duplicate, Request Approval, Actions), Create Template (choose Template as the type), Delete (delete a draft)
Accounts, data and documents	Create or Revise for a quotation, Create Template or UnFinalise Template for a template
Status	Approve, Generate, Revise, Finalise (also Ops Assigned and Un-Finalise), Reject, Cancel (also Restore)
Templates	Finalise Template, UnFinalise Template, Cancel Template (also Restore)

Saving a new quotation or template, or changes to the header, needs Create.

Other sections: Create in Work Orders for Create Job, Get Rates in Rate Management for Get Rates, Access Income Accounts in Job Finance to see the income lines, and Delete Comment in Work Orders to delete your own comments.