Quotes on site visits

The best time to write the quote is right after the site visit, while you remember everything. The problem is you're sitting in the van. Tredco solves that with your voice.

From voice to quote

You speak in what you saw:

"Met Hansen today — bathroom, eighty hours plus tiles and plumbing."

The agent writes the quote: work lines with hours and rates, materials, and VAT calculated correctly. You get a finished document with the customer's name and address, a quote number and the total — ready for review.

You review before anything is sent

The quote is a proposal to you, not a message to the customer. Adjust lines and prices if you like, and send when you're happy — as a PDF and email in one click. Nothing leaves the house without your sign-off.

How the total is built up

The total sits at the bottom of the quote. Collapsed, it shows Total with excl. VAT beneath it — tap it to unfold the whole calculation:

• Subtotal — hours and materials added up, quantity times price, before any discount.
• The discount is subtracted as its own amount. If you gave a discount both on a single line and on the quote as a whole, it splits into Discount on line items and Discount on quote, so you see where the cut sits. If there is only one kind, it shows as a single Discount line.
• Total excl. VAT, VAT and Total incl. VAT at the end. If you're not VAT registered, the VAT lines fall away and you just see Total.

A discount you put on a single line — say five percent off the plumbing — counts in the breakdown the same way a discount on the whole quote does, rather than hiding inside the subtotal. The customer sees the same breakdown on the PDF, so the numbers on screen and on the quote match.

See the quote the way the customer gets it

The open quote is split into four tabs at the top:

• Quote — the lines, the hours and the prices.
• Customize — settings such as discount, payment plan and attachments.
• Preview — the document itself, the way the customer gets it.
• Send — recipients and sending.

The header and the customer row scroll away as you move down, while the total and the tabs stay put — so you never lose your place, and switching tabs keeps you where you were.

Under Preview you see the whole quote as a finished document. Tap Generate PDF to build the file; the button moves from Generating PDF… to Show PDF once it's ready. The pages lay themselves out to the width you have, and you can go in close with Zoom in and Zoom out or go back to Fit to width to see the whole page. On the phone that means you can read the fine print yourself before you send — not just trust that it came out right.

When the quote is long — many line items or a full job description — the document runs across several pages. The page number sits at the top of each page, Page 2 of 5, so the customer sees how much is left. If the line items carry onto a new page, the heading Items repeats with No over the number column, so the columns come along; a note block that runs on repeats under Notes. A long description flows on page by page instead of being cut off, and the section headings repeat with nothing added — the page number says the rest. That way a multi-page quote reads tidily at the customer's end, not as loose sheets.

Follow up until the customer answers

A sent quote is rarely finished — the customer needs a reminder, or replies with a question. The quotes list keeps track of whose turn it is, in two tabs:

• Sent — quotes waiting for an answer from the customer. Tap Follow up here once a few days have passed.
• Inbox — customers who have replied and are waiting on you. Tap Reply to customer here.

The All tab shows both. Each row shows the wait — Awaiting reply with the number of days — so you see what has sat the longest.

When the customer replies, the whole conversation gathers under Correspondence on the quote. Write the answer straight in the field, or let the agent do the legwork: tap Draft for me, it reads the reply and puts a proposal in the reply box — you review it and tap Send reply. You also see when the customer has Opened the quote, so you know whether it has been read before you chase.

From approved quote to project

When the customer approves, the agent follows up: it proposes creating the project and setting up time tracking, so everything that happens next — hours, photos, receipts, the work diary — lands on the right job from day one.

Templates and your customer register make the next quote even faster: the agent already knows your prices and your phrasing.

Next in the journey: hours, work diary and documentation.