Creating and sending quotes, then orders, jobs and invoices

Step 1: Create a quote

1. Click New quote.
2. Drop in your files: - FlatQuote: .dxf, .step, .stp, .igs or .zip files, or a whole STEP assembly. No drawing? Use ZipPART to pick a shape and type in its sizes, or try ZipCAD or ZipPhoto. - TubeQuote: one or more STEP files, or a zip. Assemblies are split into parts. You can also design a tube.
3. Choose the Customer and add a Reference and any Notes printed on the quote. In FlatQuote, also choose Delivery: standard lead time or an express option.
4. Check each line's material, thickness and quantity. In FlatQuote, open a line's Details to set each DXF layer to Fold, Cut, Etch or Ignore.
5. Press Save quote.

DWG files aren't read directly. Save them as DXF first.

Step 2: Send it to the customer

Open the quote from Quotes or the Dashboard. You can then:

• press Send to customer to create the customer link
• use Copy link, or Preview the link yourself
• under Email to customer, use Open in email app (mailto), Download .eml draft with PDF, Copy email text or Send via SMTP now
• download the Customer PDF, or the Shop PDF (costing) for your own use

Send via SMTP now only works once you've turned on email sending in Settings > Sales settings > Email sending (SMTP).

A quote moves through these statuses: Draft, Sent, Viewed, Order accepted, Declined, Expired, Invoiced, Lost and Void.

To change a sent quote, use Edit quote. Saving it makes a new revision on the same customer link. Send again (refresh price & validity) updates the price and the valid-until date.

Step 3: Acceptance

• Online: the customer opens the link, enters Your name and presses Accept this quotation. If you've set up card payments, they can press Buy now instead (see the card payments guide in the app).
• By phone or email: open the quote and choose Mark accepted…, then enter who accepted it and their PO number if they gave one.

Step 4: Orders and jobs

Accepted quotes appear in Orders, where you can see which are awaiting invoice and which are invoiced.

From Orders you can:

• open the order's Zip Manager job to track it through production
• choose Return to quote if it was accepted by mistake. This removes the job.

Customers can get status emails as their job moves along, such as Accepted, In production, Ready and Dispatched. Set these up in Settings > Customer notifications.

Step 5: Invoice

1. Open the accepted quote and choose Export invoice.
2. Either download a CSV import file for Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Accounting or Sage 50, or, if you've connected your accounts, choose Or create a draft invoice directly (see the accounting guide in the app).
3. The quote becomes Invoiced, and you can download the Invoice PDF from Orders.

Set the invoice prefix, next invoice number and payment terms in Settings > Sales settings > Invoices.

Finished quotes can be moved to Archive. From there you can duplicate one for a repeat order.