Quotes

Finances6 min read

Quotes are formal offers to your customer: scope, pricing, and terms. Build them inside SiteHut, pull lines from your Library costing library, or attach an external PDF when the numbers already live elsewhere.

Before you start

• Set company details, VAT, and letterhead under Settings → Workspace Settings so PDFs look right.
• Optional: configure quote layouts in Library → Templates for consistent sections and wording.
• On the job, confirm financial defaults under Job → Details if you use estimates or a specific variation register.

Create a quote

Open the job → Finances → Quotes → New quote.

1

Choose how to build it

Standard (in SiteHut) — build the quote in the app. Pick Quick for a simple line-based quote, From estimate to promote a draft estimate, or start from a template layout.

External document — upload a PDF and enter a title and total when the customer already has a fixed price document.

2

Add lines and wording

For standard quotes, add sections and line items. Pull from the Library costing library where items are set up. Review descriptions, quantities, and tax treatment before sending.

3

Review totals and tax

Check subtotals, VAT, and any markup rules applied from your estimate or template. External quotes let you set tax on the lump sum when needed.

4

Send or share

Issue the quote to the customer using your usual process (PDF export or share link, depending on how you work). Track status as it moves from draft to sent and accepted.

Tip

If Estimates are enabled for the job, rough-cost in an estimate first, then create the customer quote from estimate when the scope is stable.

Quick quote with payment stages

For simple fixed-price jobs billed in stages (deposit, first fix, completion):

1

Add a payment schedule block

In the quote builder, add a Payment schedule section. Define milestones — e.g. Deposit 30%, Completion 70% — or leave % blank to drive amounts from linked lines.

2

Add lines and link to stages

In the Items table section, add your quick quote lines. Use the Link to payment stage dropdown on each line (visible once a payment schedule block exists).

The readiness banner at the top of the builder shows how many lines are linked and warns if stage % does not total 100%.

3

Approve and run commercial setup

Mark the quote Approved, then follow Commercial setup on the Finances tab:

1. Generate schedule — creates tasks from lines and milestones from payment stages.
2. Create invoice — choose Milestone payment and bill the first stage (recommended when stages exist).

Note

Two ways to set stage amounts: use % of contract total on each stage, or leave % blank and sum the linked line items per stage. Mixing both on different stages works but is harder to explain to clients — pick one approach when you can.

After the customer agrees

Use Commercial setup on the Finances tab (banner appears after you approve the main quote) to walk through:

1. Generate schedule — push quote lines or estimate work items into tasks for progress billing.
2. Create invoice — choose progress valuation (from task completion) or milestone payment (from payment stages).

You can also start these steps from the approved quote:

• Generate schedule in the quote header or row menu.
• Create invoice in the quote header, row menu, or Finances → Invoices.

Mark the contract quote as the main quote and approve it—this becomes the budget baseline for the Job → Reports job cost report.

• Variations — log extras or changes in the variation register (simple or full workflow).
• Invoices — progress/stage claims from the schedule, or a draft from an external PDF contract.

Quotes stay in SiteHut until they become issued invoices (or feed your accounting sync—see Xero sync).

Common issues

• PDF branding looks wrong — upload a high-resolution logo (~600px wide PNG) in workspace company settings.
• No estimates in the dropdown — check that estimating is enabled for the workspace and job, and that the estimate is still in draft.
• Wrong tax — confirm workspace VAT defaults and per-line tax on the quote editor.