Send a quote or estimate
Sending is the step that turns a draft into a live document your customer can see. It assigns the number, locks the document so it can no longer be edited, generates a public link (for quotes and estimates), and optionally emails it. The same Send action is used for quotes, estimates and proforma invoices.
Before you begin
A document can only be sent when it is a Draft and it has:
- a customer,
- at least one line, and
- a Valid Until date that is today or later.
If any of these are missing, the Send… button won't appear, or sending will be refused with a message telling you what to fix.
Steps
- Open the draft from Sales → Quotes (or Estimates, or Proforma Invoices) and select it to view its details.
- In the Actions panel, select Send….
- In the small form that opens:
- Recipient email is a drop-down of the customer's contact people, pre-selected on the contact holding the Quote recipient role (falling back to the primary contact, then the account email). Pick a contact, type any other address, or leave it blank to use the suggestion. An optional CC field takes further recipients.
- Tick Mark as sent without emailing if you're printing it or handing it over in person and don't want Sales Scribe to send an email. This still assigns the number and generates the link — it just doesn't send the email.
- Select Confirm Send.
[Screenshot required: Quote details page with the Actions panel and the expanded Send form showing the Recipient email field and the "Mark as sent without emailing" checkbox]
What happens next
- The document's status changes to Sent and it's given its number (QUO-, EST- or PF-).
- The document is now locked — you can't edit it any more. To change it, create a revision.
- A snapshot (a fixed PDF) is stored, so what the customer sees and downloads later is exactly what you sent.
- For a quote or estimate, a public link is generated. A Public Link panel appears on the details page with the link and a Copy button, so you can share it yourself as well as (or instead of) emailing it.
- If you didn't tick Mark as sent without emailing, the email is queued and delivered shortly afterwards.
Your accounts are still unaffected at this stage — sending a quote, estimate or proforma never posts anything to your ledger.
What the customer receives
The email includes a PDF of the document. For a quote or estimate it also includes the link to view it online and Accept or Decline — see When your customer accepts or declines online. A proforma invoice is send-only and carries your payment instructions instead of an accept/decline link.
Troubleshooting
- The Send… button isn't there. The document is probably already sent, or the draft is missing a line or a valid-until date. Open Edit Draft, add at least one line and set a Valid Until date, then try again.
- "Valid-until date must be today or in the future to send." The valid-until date has already passed. Edit Draft and set a future date.
- The customer has no email address. You'll be told the customer has no email on file. Add an email to one of the customer's contacts or to the customer record, or tick Mark as sent without emailing and share the link or PDF yourself.
- The email didn't arrive. See Emailing a document failed.