# What quotes are

The estimate a customer approves before a technician starts work, and why this list is shorter than Finance's.

A quote is the price you put to a customer before anybody picks up a spanner. It lists the work you propose and what it will cost, it carries a date after which the price no longer stands, and it waits for an answer. Nothing in the workshop should start on a job worth quoting until one has come back accepted.

**Video coming soon:** Quotes in Repairs, from estimate to acceptance

## Highlights

- **This list holds repair quotes only.** Estimates raised elsewhere in the business are not here.
- **Every quote points back at its ticket** through the reference number.
- **Four states**: draft, sent, accepted and expired.
- **A quote can become an invoice or a ticket**, and the choice is yours.
- **The valid-until date is a real deadline**, and the list marks a quote expired once it passes.

## The list

![The Quotes list under a tab reading Quotes, headed Quotes with the subtitle Manage and track all quotes across your organization. Columns read Quote Date, Quote Number, Customer, Total Amount, Salesperson and Created At. Rows include QT-00045 for Severn Valley Plant Hire at 12,074.52 pounds, QT-00048 for Dartmoor Aggregates plc at 11,160.00 pounds, QT-00037 for Crewe Rail Components Ltd at 29,400.00 pounds and QT-00039 for Caldwell Marine Systems at 26,492.97 pounds. The foot reads showing 1 to 24 of 24 results.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/sales/quotes-list.png)

*Twenty-four quotes, and twenty-four is the whole list. Every one of them came from a repair ticket.*

> **Note:**
>
> **You are looking at a filtered view of one shared list**
>
> Quotes are not a Repairs-only record. The same estimates live in Finance, and what you see here is that list narrowed to the ones a repair ticket produced. A quote your sales team raised for something other than a repair is a real quote in a real list, and it will not appear on this screen.

## What a quote holds

![Quote QT-00039 open in a three column layout, badged Accepted beside a Convert button. A Quick Actions banner reads Perform the next step in this process, with a Convert to Invoice button. Customer Details names Caldwell Marine Systems. Quote Details lists Quote Number QT-00039, Quote Date 29/07/2026, Created At 30/07/2026, Salesperson Ironvale Admin, Reference Number RPT-00014 with an IRONVALE-UK tag, Valid Until 28/08/2026, Terms of Payment Net 30 Days and Subject Breakdown cover renewal. A Line Items table lists a Wedge Belt SPB 2500 Wrapped at 33.20 each for 10, and a Pressure Gauge 0-16 bar, both at Reduced Rate. The left column lists other quotes badged Draft, Sent, Expired and Accepted.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/sales/quote-detail.png)

*An accepted quote. The reference number is the ticket it came from, and Quick Actions offers the obvious next step.*

- **Reference Number**: The repair ticket this estimate was raised from. It is the thread back to the equipment and the fault.
- **Valid Until**: The date the price stops standing. Past it the quote shows as expired, which is a prompt to requote rather than an error.
- **Subject**: A short description of what is being quoted for, so a customer with several open estimates can tell them apart.
- **Line Items**: The services and parts carried over from the ticket, each with its own quantity, rate and tax.
- **Quick Actions**: A banner offering the step that usually comes next for a quote in this state.

## The four states

*Quote states and what each one is asking of you*

| State | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Draft | Written but not sent. The customer has never seen it | Check it, then send it |
| Sent | With the customer, awaiting an answer | Chase it if it has been sitting |
| Accepted | They have agreed the price | Convert it, and let the workshop start |
| Expired | The valid-until date has passed with no answer | Requote at today's prices rather than honouring an old figure |

> **Tip:**
>
> **Set a valid-until date you can live with**
>
> Parts prices move. A quote left open-ended is a price you have promised indefinitely, and the expired state exists so that promise runs out on a date you chose rather than on the day somebody notices.