Quotes and estimates

What a quote is

A quote is a priced offer with mock-ups that your customer approves before anything is made. Every line is priced by the same engine your storefront uses, so a quote and a cart for the same job cost the same. Total Print Hub never takes the money: an approved quote becomes an order in your own Shopify or WooCommerce store, paid at that store's checkout.

Set up quotes

1. 2.1

   In Settings, open Quotes.

2. 2.2

   Choose how long a quote stays valid (1 to 90 days) and how long the customer has to pay after approving.

3. 2.3

   Choose the payment plans you offer: pay in full, a deposit with the balance later, or payment terms.

4. 2.4

   Set the reminders and the look of the quote email and PDF: your greeting, your signature and your logo.

Make a quote

1. 3.1

   In Production, open Quotes and choose New quote, or choose New quote on a customer's page. A quote request from the Studio, or an email or photo you give Inky AI, opens as a draft with its design, product and sizes in.

2. 3.2

   Add each line: the product, its colour, sizes and quantities, and the decoration on each side. Pick a saved design, make one in the Studio, upload art, or mark it Art to follow.

3. 3.3

   Add shipping, a discount with its reason, a note for the customer and an internal note.

4. 3.4

   Check the margin panel: cost, margin and your margin floor for each line and the total. The customer never sees it.

Send it

Send locks the version: its prices, lines, mock-ups, terms and valid-until date. The customer gets one link in an email from your shop's name, and their reply comes straight back to you. Copy link gives you the same link for your own email or a text message, and Download PDF makes the quote document schools and companies ask for, with your quote and PO numbers.

What the customer sees

• The page opens on your own store, with your name and logo
• Each line's mock-up on the ordered colour, every side, the sizes and counts, and the line price
• The total, with the tax your store calculates for their address
• Ask for changes (a comment, with pins on the mock-up if they want), Decline with a reason, or Approve and pay with their typed name
• After approval, your store's payment page: Shopify's invoice checkout or WooCommerce's pay page

Approval, payment and production

1. 6.1

   The approval is saved first, with the version, the typed name and the time.

2. 6.2

   Your store order is made from the locked version: a Shopify draft order, or a WooCommerce order waiting for payment. Quote lines are custom lines with no stock link.

3. 6.3

   The customer pays at your checkout. The paid order arrives like any other order, and each line's charged price is checked against the quote.

4. 6.4

   Jobs land on the production board with the approved art, so no second proof is needed. Lines marked Art to follow go through the normal proof on the Order page.

Deposits, balances and terms

With a deposit, the customer pays a first store order for the deposit at once. When it is paid, a second order for the balance is made with the deposit credited, so the two orders add up to the quote and its tax. Production can start when the deposit is paid. With payment terms, the order is due later. A quote paid by phone, cash, cheque or bank transfer is recorded with Mark paid outside the store, and its order still goes into your store so production, packing and your books stay in one place.

Changes, versions and expiry

• Editing a sent quote starts the next version; the link always opens the latest
• An older link says the quote has a newer version
• After the valid-until date the customer cannot approve and can ask you for an updated quote
• An unpaid store order is removed when the payment window ends
• Every send, view, answer, payment and refund is kept in the quote's activity

Reorder

Reorder on any order or quote makes a new draft with the same customer, lines and art, priced today. The page shows today's price beside last time's.

Inky AI and quotes

• Turns an email, message or photo into a draft quote, and marks what it could not tell
• Writes the one question missing from a request, for you to send
• Drafts the quote email and its reminders for you to approve once
• Never sends, prices or approves on its own