Part 3 — Run Your Operation · Chapter 18

Quoting & Estimating

A quote in BigWave isn’t a separate module bolted to the side. It’s the work order’s own line items, shown to the customer before the work instead of after. That one design choice is why an approved quote turns into a job with no re-keying. The lines are already where the invoice will need them.

The worked example is the manual’s running one: the Okafor panel upgrade.

Where quoting happens

On the work order, the Quote / Invoice panel, internal users only, holds line items and generates documents from them. The same line-entry machinery serves estimates, quotes and invoices. What differs is when you generate which.

  • An estimate is your internal number. Lines entered to see cost and price before committing to anything.
  • A quote is that number dressed for the customer and sent for approval.
  • The invoice, next chapter, is the same lines finalized after the work, plus whatever the job actually consumed.

Line items enter three ways, all from chapter 11’s setup. Picked from the project’s contract rates. Picked from the materials database, preferred materials first. Or typed ad hoc, for the item nobody predicted. Lines carry cost and price separately, so the quote screen shows margin while the customer document shows price.

Building the Okafor quote

  1. Priya creates the work order in Residential Service, “Panel upgrade to 200A”, after Tom’s look at the flickering-lights call from the quick start.
  2. On Quote / Invoice she adds the lines: the 200A panel from materials, labor hours at the standard rate, the permit as an expense line.
  3. Generate produces the quote as a document from the quote template, chapter 12, branded and itemized.
  4. She emails it to the Okafors from BigWave, wrapped in the HTML email template, and moves the status to Quoted.

Minutes, because every price came from setup rather than memory.

Commercial (Harbor Grill): contract work like the annual inspections is priced by the contract and never quoted per job. Quoting shows up on the commercial side for out-of-scope work, like the panel replacement an inspection flags. Same flow as the Okafors, except lines start from contract rates and the email goes to the facilities manager, whose approval requirement is why the next section exists.

The automated approval loop

Chapters 7, 12 and 13 each built a piece of this. Assembled, it runs like this:

  1. The quote email’s template carries an Approve button, a status action button targeting Approved, and, if you like, a Decline button targeting a rejection status.
  2. The Okafors read the quote on their phone and tap Approve.
  3. A confirmation page opens and they confirm. The two-step design keeps email scanners from approving things by pre-opening links.
  4. The work order moves to Approved. No login existed, and none was needed.
  5. The status change fires the chapter 13 alert to Priya: “Okafor quote approved, schedule it.” She puts it on Thursday’s calendar per chapter 16.

The failure mode this kills is the quote verbally approved in a voicemail nobody logged. Approval is now a status transition with a timestamp, visible in the pipeline and the audit trail like any other.

Quotes that neither approve nor decline are a queue like any other. A view on the Quoted status, plus a stale-status timer if quotes tend to age quietly. Follow-up becomes someone working a list rather than remembering.

Habits

  1. Quote from the work order that will do the work. Never park quotes in a separate spreadsheet-shaped world.
  2. Let rates and materials price the quote. Ad hoc lines are for genuine one-offs, and a recurring ad hoc line is a rate you haven’t created yet, chapter 11.
  3. Send quotes with the approval buttons from day one. The loop costs nothing per quote once the template exists.
  4. Put an owner and a timer on the Quoted status, same as any status where money waits.