Quotes
Create and send quotes and estimates to customers.
Quotes (also called estimates) let you provide pricing to customers before creating an invoice. Navigate to Sales > Quotes.
Creating a Quote
- Click New Quote
- Select the customer contact. Line tax defaults from that contact’s default tax rate (Contacts → Bookkeeping). Tax-exempt contacts get No tax. Changing tax on a line — including No tax — is kept if you later change the customer. New lines pick up the current customer’s default. The line Account fills from the customer’s income account (Contacts → Bookkeeping) with that account’s default tax (tax-exempt customers get No tax); an account you pick yourself, or a catalogue item’s income account, is kept if you change the customer.
- Add line items with descriptions, quantities, and prices. Optionally pick a catalogue item — stock or service. That fills the description and sale price when those fields are still empty. Free-text lines without an item are still valid. Catalogue lines do not show an Account picker (the item’s revenue account is stored when it has one). Quotes never reserve stock and never change quantity on hand.
- Set an expiry date
- Save as draft or send to the customer
Editing a Draft
A quote can be edited while it is still a draft (before it is sent).
- Open Sales → Quotes and click the draft
- Click Edit
- Change the customer, dates, currency, reference, notes, or line items
- Click Save Quote
Sent, accepted, declined, expired, and converted quotes cannot be edited. To change a sent quote, create a new one.
Deleting a Quote
You can delete a quote from the quote detail page (Delete) when it is a draft, sent, accepted, declined, or expired quote that has not been turned into an invoice or a sales order yet (billedTotal is zero).
You cannot delete:
- A quote that has been converted to an invoice
- A quote that has been converted to a sales order
- An accepted quote that already has progress invoices (the page shows how much has already been invoiced)
Deleted quotes move to Settings → Trash for 30 days (then they are purged). The quote number is not reused. The customer portal link for that quote returns not found. Emails already sent are not recalled. Customers cannot delete quotes from the portal.
Quote Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Quote Number | Auto-generated unique identifier |
| Customer | Contact receiving the quote |
| Currency | Fills from the customer’s currency (organisation base if the contact has none). Change it to quote in a different currency; that override is kept if you change customer. |
| Date | Quote issue date |
| Expiry Date | When the quote expires |
| Line Items | Products/services being quoted. Optional catalogue item; free-text is allowed. |
| Tax | Defaults from the customer’s default tax rate (or No tax if tax-exempt / unset). Override per line. |
| Total | Calculated total including tax |
| Status | Draft, Sent, Accepted, Declined, Expired |
Status Flow
- Draft - Quote is being prepared
- Sent - Quote has been sent to the customer
- Accepted - Customer has accepted the quote
- Declined - Customer has declined
- Expired - Quote passed its expiry date without response
Sending Quotes
When you click Send on a draft quote, a confirmation dialog lets you:
- Send Email - Enter the recipient email, customize the subject and message, then send. The customer always receives a portal link to view and accept the quote (signed link, 30 days, no password).
- Attach PDF - Optional. Off by default. When checked, the quote PDF is attached to the same email as well as the portal link.
- Mark as Sent - Change the status without emailing
Downloading PDFs
Quotes can be downloaded as PDF from the quote detail page at any status (draft, sent, accepted, declined, expired, converted):
- Click Download PDF
- Via API:
GET /api/v1/quotes/{id}/pdf?format=pdf - Via MCP: use the
get_quote_pdftool
To customize how your PDFs look, see Templates.
Sent emails appear in the Email History section on the quote detail page. You can resend any previous email from there.
Converting an accepted quote
When a customer accepts a quote, pick one commercial path:
- Create an invoice from this quote — copies lines onto a draft tax invoice (progress invoices still allowed on this path)
- Create sales order — copies lines onto a draft sales order so you can reserve stock and deliver. Reservation still happens only when you send the order, not at convert.
You cannot do both. After a sales order exists, the invoice convert button is hidden (View sales order is shown instead). After any invoice from the quote, Create sales order is hidden.
Quotes never reserve or decrement stock. On the invoice path, quantity on hand changes when the resulting invoice is sent. On the sales-order path, stock is reserved on order send and leaves on a delivery note — see Sales Orders.
PDF Download
Quotes can be downloaded as PDFs. The layout matches your configured template, including your branding, accent color, bank details, and notes. To customize the appearance, go to Settings > Templates and create or edit a Quote template. See Templates for all available options.
Invoicing
Create, send, and track invoices in Anchor with VAT, credit notes, and payment matching for South African small businesses on the free hosted core.
Sales Orders and Delivery Notes
Reserve stock on send, ship with a delivery note (GDN), then tax-invoice what was delivered. Reservation is not a sale; a delivery note is not a tax invoice.