Quotes

A quote is what you send a client before the work starts: a priced proposal for a job. Coffer lets you prepare one, email it as a PDF, track where it stands, and turn an accepted quote into an invoice in one step, without retyping the line items.

A quote is money you might earn, not money you have. So quotes never touch your ringfenced totals or anything on the dashboard. Only the invoice a quote becomes, once it's paid, counts toward what you've set aside for IRD.

Turning on quotes

Not everyone sends quotes, so the Quotes section is off to start with. You can turn it on in two places:

• During the welcome setup, on the invoicing step, when Coffer asks whether you send quotes.
• Any time afterwards under Settings → Invoicing, with the Enable quotes switch.

Once it's on, Quotesappears in the sidebar, just before Invoices, since a quote usually comes before the invoice. Turning it back off hides the section but keeps every quote you've already made; switch it on again and they're all still there.

Creating a quote

Open Quotes and choose New quote. The dialog has these fields:

• Client. Pick one of your saved clients, or choose One-off clientto quote someone who isn't saved yet.
• Client name and email. The email is required, because that's where the quote is sent. For a saved client the name comes from their record; the email you can still set per quote, so you can address it to a specific contact.
• Issued and Valid until. The valid-until date starts 30 days after the issue date; change it to whatever deadline you want to give the client.
• Title / summary. Optional, a short line for what the quote is for (“Bathroom renovation”).
• Line items. A description, quantity, and unit price per row. Coffer totals them as you go, and adds GST if you're registered.
• Notes / terms. Optional, for anything you want on the quote, like what the price includes or how long it holds.

Each quote gets its own number, Q-0001, Q-0002, and so on, separate from your invoice numbers.

Saved clients and one-off clients

Quotes often go to people who aren't clients yet, so you don't have to save someone to quote them. Choose One-off client and just type their name and email. The details stay on the quote itself.

If you already have the client saved, pick them from the list and Coffer fills in their name for you. Either way, when you later turn an accepted quote into an invoice, a one-off client is added to your Clients list automatically, so the invoice has a proper client to sit under.

Sending a quote

Use the Sendaction on a quote's row. Coffer opens an email ready to go: the client's address is filled in, along with a subject and a short message you can edit. You can add a Cc, and Preview PDF shows exactly what the client will receive before you send.

The quote goes out from Coffer under your business name, with the quote PDF attached. The PDF is clearly a quote, not a tax invoice, and shows your line items, the valid-until date, and any notes. Sending a draft quote moves it to Sent.

Quote statuses

Each quote carries a status you control from a dropdown on its row, so your list reflects where every proposal actually stands:

• Draft. Still being worked on. New quotes start here.
• Sent. Emailed to the client. Coffer sets this for you when you send.
• Accepted. The client said yes. Converting a quote to an invoice also marks it accepted.
• Declined. The client passed.
• Changes requested. They want something adjusted; edit the quote and send it again.
• Expired. Past its valid-until date and no longer on offer.

You set these yourself as you hear back. A quote you re-send after a client has already accepted or declined keeps that status, so sending again never quietly rewinds where things stand.

Turning a quote into an invoice

When a client accepts, use Converton the quote's row. Coffer creates an invoice from the same line items, so there's nothing to retype, and marks the quote accepted and invoiced. If the quote was for a one-off client, that client is added to your Clients list as part of the conversion.

From there it's an ordinary invoice: send it, and mark it paid when the money lands. That's the point where the work finally counts toward your ringfence, the same as any other invoice.

Editing and deleting

Edit a quote from its row and the dialog opens pre-filled; change the price or the line items and save. If a client asks for changes, this is where you make them before sending an updated version.

Delete a quote from its row when it's no longer relevant. Since quotes never affect your ringfence, deleting one changes nothing on the dashboard; it just tidies your list.