Quote workflows

Information is courtesy from IQ Retail training division. 

Version:

2024.3.0.0 and higher

Systems:

Enterprise, Business, POS

Overview:

Managing quotes has become easier, you now have the option to assign statuses to open Quotes.

Not only can users configure up to 5 statuses, each with its own colour palette for visual and filtering purposes, but Auto Generating a Sales Order from a Quote and(or) Invoicing Quotes can also be linked to a status (In other words, unless a Quote is on a certain status it cannot be converted).

Assigning of Quote statuses is a manual function i.e., Quote status will not update automatically after certain actions.

This module is ideal for users that want a visual representation of activity, information to manage their process workflows.

To enable the feature follow the steps below:

Navigate by clicking on Utilities --> Setup --> Module Parameters --> Processing Tab --> Quote Status Setup (there is no default settings 1 tick box).

1. Select the statuses you want to use (only ticked statuses will show and be available for selection).
2. Select which status will allow Auto Generating of a Sales Orders from Quotes (if the quote is not on this status, you will receive an “error pop up” when trying to auto generate a Sales Order – we will show you this pop-up later).
3. Select which status will allow the Invoicing of a Quote (if the quote is not on this status, you will receive an “error pop up” when trying to Invoice a quote – we will show you this pop-up later).
4. Select which status will not allow right click delete in Workflow view (if ticked for a certain status and you are in Workflow view and you right click on a quote with such a status, the Delete option will be greyed out).
5. Select the colours you would like to represent the various statuses. Standard Font is the font colour used in the Quote Maintenance grid when the quote is not selected. Highlight Font is the font colour used in the Quote Maintenance grid screen when the quote is selected.
6. Here you can label the statuses using your own terms instead of the default terms listed in area 1.
7. Tick to enable Workflow View (we will discuss this view later).

Once configured, a new Quote Statuses button will be visible at the bottom of Quote Maintenance screen as well as a Status legend at the top of screen.

Security Codes to enable:

Please note before commencing trade on the new version, that you do enable the following security settings.

31113 Quotes ‘Allow Changing of Quote Status’; 

60417 ‘Quote Status Setup’

604171 ‘Allow Changing of Quote Status label’ 

604172 ‘Allow Changing of Quote Status Colours’

How do I  use quote statuses?

When you create quote after you have setup Quote Statuses, the new quote will populate the quote maintenance grid screen in the same colour as the “Pending Acceptance” status but without having a set status.

Once the quote has been created you can select it and select on the Quote Status button at the bottom of the Quote Maintenance screen and select which status you want to assign to that quote.

To assign QTE10 the Pending Acceptance status, its colour will remain the same but it will now have an actual status associated with it.

You can, at any time, select a quote and click on the Quote Status button change the status of a quote. 

Once you have a few quotes with statuses set, your Quote Maintenance screen should look like the screenshot below:

If you change the status of a quote to a status which was selected for Sales Order (in our setup it was the Accepted status), the system will ask you if you want to create the Sales Order.

Exception pop ups:

If you try to Auto Generate a Sales Order from a Quote, and that quote is not on the correct status (as you set it up in module parameters), you will receive the following error pop-up:

If you try to convert a Quote to an Invoice, and that quote is not on the correct status (as you set it up in module parameters), you will receive the following error pop-up:

Workflow view configuration:

To configure the workflow follow the steps below. 

Utilities --> Setup --> Module Parameters --> Processing Tab --> Quote Status Setup

If you select the Workflow View box in the Quote Status Setup screen in Module Parameters, you will have the following functionality:

If you right click in the Quote Maintenance Screen, you will now have the option to Switch View.

If you select the switch view option the Quote Maintenance screen will change and look as follows:

You are now able to change the status of a Quote by left click and dragging it to any of the status columns, and the quote will then have the status of whichever column you dragged it to.

In our example we will drag QTE8 from the Pending Acceptance column to the Accepted column.

Since we had the Sales Order tick box selected for the Accepted status, the system asks us if we want to auto generate a Sales Order for the Quote we just dragged to the Accepted column.

If you click Yes and then Generate Document, you will be able to edit the Sales Order if you choose.

The Sales Order is now ready in Sales Order Maintenance.

If you right-click on a Quote in Workflow View you will see a new context menu. In the below screenshot we right clicked on QTE10.

1. Here you can create a new quote, edit the quote you right clicked on, preview the quote, email the quote, print the quote as well as Invoice the quote if it has the right status (if you try to invoice a quote which does not have the right status you will receive the same error pop up you did in the Normal View).
2. If No Delete was ticked for a specific status then Delete will be greyed out in the Right Click menu. If you try to delete the quote from the Processing button at the bottom of the screen you will end up with the following pop up:

3. You can revert to Normal View.

If you use the Collapse All and Expand All options (Expand All is the default when switching to Workflow View) the view will change as follows:

Expanded – you can see more quote details.

Collapsed – you can only see the quote number and the Debtor account number.

You can also delete quotes with the correct statuses by dragging them onto the bin icon on the left of the screen. 

If the status does not allow deletion, you will receive the same pop-up as earlier.