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Quotes

Finances7 min read

Quotes & Contracts is the job baseline: a SiteHut quote, or an external contract with an agreed sum. After the client agrees, Quote setup walks you to a schedule and the first invoice.

When to use this​

Use this when you are offering a price, or recording a contract that already exists outside SiteHut.

Do not use it to bill. That is Invoices. After the original agreement, extras go on Change Orders.

Before you start​

  • Company details, logo, sales tax, and numbering are set under Settings → Details and Settings → Quotes & invoices.
  • Optional: a layout under Library → Templates → Quote templates.
  • A customer on the job is useful for send and PDFs.

Add quote / contract

Job finances → Quotes & Contracts → Add quote / contract. The dialog is Create New Baseline.

  • Standard Quote: build in SiteHut. Start from quote template, then Quick Quote or Linked Estimate (when estimating is on).
  • External Contract: agreed net sum, optional tax, optional PDF. Becomes the main baseline.

Blank quote is fine for drafting. PDF and send need a template or document sections.

Price and send

Add sections and lines (from the Library where you have them). Check sales tax. Statuses: Draft, Sent, Approved, Rejected, Superseded.

On a Quick Quote, drag lines to reorder, insert a line between existing ones, or Sort by heading. Assign a heading on a line so the printed quote can show it as a section title.

VAT: the quote uses the workspace default rate, which you can override on the quote summary (and in Document layout totals). New lines inherit that default. Open Line options on a line to set a different rate — useful on a new build at 0% where a few items still attract the standard rate. Mixed rates print as separate VAT lines, each showing the net amount at that rate (for example VAT at 0% on £2,129.98).

Payment stages: create and assign them on the quote summary. Document layout only controls whether the schedule appears on the PDF.

Quote summary is the source of truth for lines, payment stages, protections (assumptions and exclusions), scope notes, and terms. Document layout edits those same values and only owns presentation (column visibility, headings, optional document overrides). If you add details the current template cannot show — for example protections with no Assumptions section — a card on the quote summary offers Add to document.

Client-facing table options live in Document layout → Items table (show headings, hide quantity / unit / rate, headings only, resources as names or with rates for every line that has a price build-up). Preview, download, and send share one collapsed Quote table options control that can override those settings for that document only.

Send a PDF or the customer approval link. Approving in the builder or via that link both mark the quote Approved.

Quote setup

On Finance actions, Commercial journey offers Quote setup after the main quote is approved:

  1. Generate schedule (also Generate Schedule / Tasks on the quote): tasks from lines, milestones from payment stages.
  2. Create the first invoice.

Mark the contract quote as the main quote so Job Costs can use it as the cost budget.

What done looks like​

  • The quote is Approved (or the external contract is recorded as approved outside SiteHut).
  • Finance actions shows the next billing step.
  • Job Costs can show a budget from that quote number.

Common mistakes​

  • PDFs with a missing logo or address. Fix workspace Details, not the quote line.
  • Linked Estimate (coming soon with estimating). Price quotes from library resources instead. See Estimates.
  • Expecting this quote to appear in the Approvals queue. Client approval is the public link or in-quote sign-off.
Payment schedule on a Quick Quote

On the quote summary, add payment stages (for example Deposit, Completion) with an optional % of contract, then assign each line to a stage. Linked lines set the stage amount; otherwise the percentage of the quote subtotal is used. New quotes copy Workspace defaults. If you delete a stage, Restore defaults puts missing template stages back without removing custom stages or changing existing percentages.

Document layout only controls whether the schedule prints on the PDF. You do not need a Payment schedule block to create or assign stages. If stages exist and the layout has no Payment schedule section, the quote summary offers to add one.

When you invoice, choose Milestone / Stage Payment and pick the stage. See Invoices.