Proposals & Estimates

Overview

Proposals & Estimates are priced quotes you send a customer before the sale. Each one has line items, optional tax and discount, and a shareable public link where the customer can accept or decline it themselves. When they accept, you convert it into an invoice in one click. It's the bridge between a deal and getting paid.

“Estimate” and “proposal” are the same underlying document — a priced quote — so everything here applies to both. You can create them by hand, or by asking the AI CRM Copilot: “create an estimate for Priya: 2 hours consulting at 80”.

Where: the CRM area of the sidebar. Requires a plan that includes the CRM/quotes feature.

Creating a Quote

  1. New estimate/proposal. Pick the customer (an existing contact or company) and give it a title.
  2. Add line items. Each line has a description, quantity and unit price. The line total and running subtotal calculate as you type.
  3. Apply tax & discount. Set a tax rate (percentage) and an optional discount; the grand total updates live.
  4. Set the currency. The quote carries its own currency, formatted consistently everywhere it appears.
  5. Add notes & terms. Optional notes/terms for the customer (scope, validity, payment terms).
  6. Set an expiry. Optionally a valid-until date so the quote lapses if not accepted in time.
  7. Save. The quote gets a sequential number and a status of Draft.
Money is exact. Amounts are stored in minor units (e.g. paise/cents) and rounded only for display, so totals never drift by a rounding error — what the customer sees is what converts to the invoice.

Every quote has a public link the customer opens with no login. Step by step, from their side:

  1. They open the unique link (a secure, unguessable token — only someone with the link can view it).
  2. They see a clean page: your branding, the line items, tax/discount, the total, and your notes/terms.
  3. They click Accept or Decline.
  4. You're notified, and the quote's status updates instantly.
  • Accept — marks the quote Accepted and flags it ready to convert to an invoice.
  • Decline — marks it Declined so you know to follow up or revise.
  • Once accepted or declined, the action is recorded against that quote for your audit trail.

Sending a Quote

Share the public link wherever the customer is:

  • In a chat. Drop the link into the WhatsApp (or other channel) thread — the customer opens it on their phone and responds.
  • Via the copilot. “Send Priya the estimate” — the AI CRM Copilot sends the link after you confirm.
  • Copy the link to paste into an email or anywhere else.

Status Lifecycle

StatusMeaning
DraftCreated, not yet sent. Freely editable.
SentShared with the customer; awaiting their decision.
AcceptedThe customer accepted — ready to convert to an invoice.
DeclinedThe customer declined — follow up or revise and re-send.
ExpiredPassed its valid-until date without a decision.

Convert to Invoice

Once a quote is Accepted, click Convert to invoice. WaDesk creates an invoice with the same line items, tax and total, linked back to the quote and the customer. From there you can send the invoice, attach a payment link, and record the payment against it.

Clean paper trail: the deal, the accepted quote, and the resulting invoice all link to the same customer — so you can trace any sale end to end.

Tips & Edge Cases

  • Revise instead of editing a sent quote when terms change materially — duplicate it, adjust, and send the new version so the record of what the customer saw stays intact.
  • Expiry drives urgency — a valid-until date nudges a decision and auto-marks stale quotes Expired so your list stays clean.
  • Link a quote to a deal so your pipeline value reflects real, quoted numbers.
  • The copilot can report on quotes too — ask “which estimates are still open?”.
WaDesk Documentation