CRM/Sales

Quotations

Quotation and proforma invoice structure, approval flow, and how they convert into orders.

What it is

A quotation is an Export or Import price offer to a counterparty: a quote number, a counterparty company/contact/email/phone/country, a currency, one or more product line items, and a set of trade clauses. Once the buyer accepts it, a quotation can generate a Proforma Invoice — a separate document with its own status lifecycle that is what actually turns into an order.

9

Quotation statuses

5

Proforma Invoice statuses

13

Trade clause types

Quotation status lifecycle

  1. 1

    Draft

    Created directly, or pre-filled from a lead or sales opportunity.
  2. 2

    Pending Approval → Approved

    Approval can happen straight from Draft — Pending Approval is available as an intermediate step where your process wants one.
  3. 3

    Sent → Viewed

    Sent delivers the quotation to the buyer’s portal; Viewed is set once they open it.
  4. 4

    Negotiation

    Entered when the buyer requests changes from their portal; the seller can respond with revised terms.
  5. 5

    Accepted, Rejected, or Expired

    Terminal outcomes. Accepted unlocks generating the Proforma Invoice.

Quotation vs. Proforma Invoice

Quotation
Proforma Invoice
Purpose
The negotiable offer
The document the buyer formally accepts
Created
Directly, or from a lead/opportunity
Generated from an Accepted quotation
Terminal status
Accepted / Rejected / Expired
Converted to Order

Note

"Converted to Order" isn’t part of the visual Draft → Sent → Accepted pipeline — it’s treated as every step already complete, since the order already exists by the time you’d see it.

Trade clauses

Terms are modeled as a list of clauses rather than fixed columns, so the same structure covers Incoterm, Payment term, Payment days, Shipping terms, Inspection, Packing, Certification, Quality, Bank details, Special instructions, Terms & conditions, Line item, and Custom. Every clause carries a precedence, and can be marked negotiable or locked.

The buyer’s portal

A sent quotation or PI is reachable through a tokenized portal link, with no account required. From there the buyer can accept, reject, or request a negotiation, and accepting can capture a signed name, designation, a signature image and a company stamp image as part of the response.

Screenshot pending — Quotation negotiation tab showing a seller round with proposed term changes
Responding to a buyer's negotiation request.

How a quotation becomes an order

  1. 1

    Quotation Accepted

    The buyer (or you, on their behalf) accepts the quotation.
  2. 2

    Generate Proforma Invoice

    A PI is created in Draft status from the accepted quotation.
  3. 3

    Send and accept the PI

    The PI goes through its own Draft → Sent → Accepted (or Rejected) lifecycle on the buyer’s portal, including its own signature capture.
  4. 4

    Order created automatically

    The moment a PI is marked Accepted, the order is created and linked back to it — there’s no separate "create order" step to remember.

Related

New to quotations? Start with the Quotations guide, or continue on to Orders.