From Vendor Quote to Billed Proposal

Applies to: Estimators, account managers, approvers | Web

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Before anything else. A Proposal is a quote that becomes the invoice. Type it once: the Vendor’s quote first, forwarded to the Client with your margin on it. Forward to Client sends nothing. Evaluate is the send. Reject and Duplicate is how you change your mind.

Five moves. The Trip first, the Vendor Proposal, Forward to Client, Evaluate, then Approved. The quote is typed once.

The setup gate.

Part A · For whoever owns items and rates

Blank and $0 lines are the top proposal failure, and none of them are proposal problems. They are item and rate problems, seen first on the quote.

1. Items are simple, unique, and mirror accounting.

Where: Products and Services › Items. One name per category; never the same name under Service and under Labor.

Exception: Repair existed under both Service and Labor. The estimator picked the one with no rate and every labor line came out at $0.

Correction: The item list reads like the chart of accounts, and no name appears twice.

2. Site generic Client rates exist for every Service you quote.

Where: Rates & Assignees › Per Hour and Per Service, Rate Level Site Default or Generic, Client side. See Pricing Setup, step 2.

Exception: Labor rates were loaded only for one named Vendor at the Site. When that Vendor was not on the Trip, the line was $0.

Correction: A test Proposal on a Site with no named Vendor returns a labor rate.

3. The markup or margin default is the one the contracts use.

Where: Company Settings › Workflow › Proposals › Proposal Creation.

Exception: An estimator applied 15% margin to a contract that said 15% markup on parts. Every quote was high by the difference until the Client caught it.

Correction: The setting reads Markup or Margin as the contract says, and the worked example below matches a real quote.

4. The two permissions are on.

Where: The Trip: Enable proposal creation for vendor. The role: the Invoices permission for anyone who adds Proposal lines.

Exception: “Enable proposal creation for vendor” governs your ability to create a Proposal on the Vendor’s behalf. Off, the coordinator cannot key the quote.

Correction: The coordinator role can create a Vendor Proposal on a Trip and add lines to it.

5. Materials carry the right tax flag.

Where: The item catalog, per item.

Exception: Every material was flagged taxable on an account that passes tax through as one line.

Correction: A test Proposal shows tax where the contract puts it.

Result: A test Vendor Proposal on your test Site carries a Trip number, every line has a rate, the forward applies the contract’s markup, and the tax lands where it should.

Run it, end to end.

Part B · For the estimator and the approver

From the trigger to the approved Proposal on the Work Order, then what happens when the Client changes the answer.

Where it starts. All three end at the same place: a dispatched Trip with a Vendor Proposal on it.

P3 · Assignment and Dispatch. The Vendor Proposal comes in.

The Vendor keys the quote on the Vendor Portal or the mobile app, or you key it for them from the PDF. Either way it is created from a dispatched Trip and lands at Received, in the Review Vendor Proposals Action Filter.

[Screen: The + Vendor Proposal dialog from a dispatched Trip, showing the Trip selector.]

Result: A Vendor Proposal tied to a dispatched Trip, itemized, with a rate on every line, approved on your side.

P3 · Assignment and Dispatch. Forward to Client, then read the margin.

Do not build the Client Proposal. Forward the Vendor one. The three-dot menu on the Vendor Proposal carries Forward to Client; it asks for the markup or margin and creates a Draft Client Proposal with the same lines. It sends nothing.

[Screen: Forward to Client on a Vendor Proposal, and the Client Proposal at Evaluate with GPM showing.]

Result: A Draft Client Proposal with the Vendor’s lines, labor repriced, ready for the ladder.

P5 · Validation and Resolution. The ladder: from Draft to Approved.

The one thing to know. On the Client Proposal, Evaluate is the send. It emails the Client a signature page; when they accept, the status becomes Approved on its own. Ready to Review is your internal step before it. Neither exists on the Vendor Proposal.

Inside your company first, then the Client. The account manager sets Ready to Review, the approver sets Evaluate, the Client signs from the email without logging in. Approve by hand only when the yes came by phone.

Under the threshold. A small quote does not need the ladder. Evaluate straight from Draft; the email still goes out and the GPM still shows. Ready to Review exists so that a director sees the big ones before the Client does.

Result: The Client Proposal at Approved, signed from the email or set by you with a name on it.

P5 · Validation and Resolution. Put the approval on the Work Order.

Result: Four edits done. The Vendor rolls with the approved amount on the sheet, and the invoice will read the approved lines.

P5 · Validation and Resolution. Change it after the fact: Reject, Duplicate, again.

When the answer changes. Reject the one on file, Duplicate it, change what changed, and run the ladder again. The original stays as the record. Same three clicks on a Vendor Proposal. The duplicate can go to a different Site or Client if the first one was filed wrong.

Two scenarios, one flow. An Approved quote that needs one more line, and a Rejected quote the Client wants after all.

Result: One live Proposal per side, the old ones Rejected on the record, the Trip count equal to the Vendor count.

P5 · Validation and Resolution. Who gets emailed, and how to change it.

The Client already said yes by phone. Set Approved yourself and the approval notice still goes to the Business Email. If a Client complains about it, the Client record is where it is turned off, not the Proposal.

Then bill it.

Result: The invoice matches the quote, and Profitability on the Work Order reads the margin you saw at Evaluate.

Where this usually goes wrong.

What good looks like.

Questions? Contact your Customer Success team or email support@utilizecore.com.