Designed with automation in mind, we've made quoting as easy as navigating through hyperspace by adapting quotes from your job plan. Customise your quotes, send them to clients for approval, and automatically create budgets.
🧑🏽🎨 Create your quote from your job plan
First, create your quote from your job plan like a true space adventurer! Head up to the Create menu and click Quote.
In the first step, select items and expenses from your job plan, tweak the numbers to your liking, and create the quote. And the best part? Inflating your numbers a little won't change your job plan.
Once you're happy with what you want to include, tap Continue to Settings.
⚙️ Setting up your content settings
Here, you'll be able to define exactly what content passes through to your quote from an information hierarchy point of view. We'll use these settings to build your quote, and they'll be saved for every subsequent quote.
On the sidebar on the right, you'll find suggested options to make customising your quote as easy as using the Force. Top level will show only your phases and expenses as a group, plus subtotals. All your items will be listed separately with item level, and with Everything level, you'll see everything: quantity, unit rate, and totals per item.
But wait, there's more! You can further customise exactly what you need to show. Check the Role Summary boxes to pass through a summary of all the hours and sell rates of each individual item, or for groups.
As you turn options on and off, you'll see a preview of your quote content on the left. Once you're happy with the hierarchy of the content on your quote, click Create and edit.
Pro tip: If you don't need to set up your display settings for each quote, skip directly to the editing step from the first step by tapping Create and edit.
📝 Editing a quote
Get ready to put the finishing touches on your quote with Streamtime! Here you can do all the detailed editing and refining of your quote.
Change a quote title, enter or edit a PO number or quote number, and associate a contact and an address like a droid swiping away at a control panel.
Using the checkboxes on the sidebar, decide which fields will be visible to your customer.
Turning these on and off will affect what your customer sees through to your quote. Vitally, you can keep some information to yourself. If the fields are white, that means they're visible. If they're grey, they won't show up on your finished quote to the client.
That means you can set your quote up with internal calculations but only decide to send certain information to your client. For example, if you leave heading groups on, but turn off line items, your customer will see the headings and subtotals without the individual items that make up the group on the quote, but you'll still be able to see and edit those items when you edit a quote.
🌎 Language Settings
Travel to the globe icon on the sidebar and enter the Language Settings. Here, you can customise the wording you use on your quote.
For example, you might call these documents an Estimate rather than a Quote. Change the language settings to personalise your quote.
You're also able to adjust things like the email language sent from Streamtime here, acceptance language, and terms and conditions.
➕ Adding an item or heading
To add more firepower to your quote, click the add button on the left between items. Insert headings to create groups within your quote.
You can also add a blank item, an item or expense from your master list, or lastly from the job plan - it's like having a cargo hold full of options to choose from.
The last option of adding from the job plan is most useful if you're editing a quote to include a new, additional piece of work, rather than recreating the whole quote again.
⛘ Merging and reordering
The black bar across the top of your quote is like your trusty lightsaber - it gives you the power to merge and reorder items.
Tap Merge items to merge items (simple, huh) - it's like using the Force to combine two objects into one. You'll see checkboxes appear for each item on the left. Select the items you want to merge. By default, the first item you select will be the item that 'catches' the rest, indicated by a blue checkbox. Once you click merge, the items will add together: the total will include everything selected, and your quantity and unit rates will merge.
But wait! Why are you merging? Another way of showing different information without losing information is to turn off line items but leave heading groups on. By adding an introduction to your heading group, you'll be able to show a group of items without merging them.
If you want to reorder how items appear on the quote, click Reorder. Then, simply drag and drop your items into the order you want. Once you're happy - save the sort order.
Done! It's like fine-tuning the engines on your starship to get the most out of it. So, use the power of the Force to merge and reorder your quote and create a proposal that's out of this world.
Pro tip: When you're in either of merge or reorder mode, just hit the esc button if you want to cancel it all and return to editing mode without saving your changes.
📤 Sending a quote
Ready to send your quote to the client? Let's do this! Hit the Preview and send button, and voilà! You can see the quote preview on the left.
👨💼 You can customize the template of the quote to suit your client's taste, just click on the cog button and select from our two options (Streamtime and To The Point) along with a range of font options.
📩 Now, enter the address of the recipient and adjust the pre-populated subject line to your liking. Don't forget to add your personal touch to the email message!
💾 Remember, you can download the PDF version of the quote for your records, and if you prefer, you can mark it as sent manually in the 3 dot menu here. But, using Streamtime to send your quote is highly recommended as this process is automated for you. May the automation be with you!
👀 What your customer sees
You've sent your quote to your client and they're eagerly awaiting the response. They'll receive an email with a link to the quote, where they can approve or decline it online.
When your client decides, you'll be notified in your Streamtime account. If they're happy with the quote, your budget becomes the quoted figure for the job. If not, it's time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan.
But wait, there's more! If your client gives you the go-ahead via email or over the phone, you can also manually accept or decline the quote in Streamtime.
Pro tip: When a quote is approved the quoted figure becomes the budget on the job. This way, you'll be working towards the figure that your client expects to pay, and the figure that you expect to be paid by the client at the end of the day.
Add A Purchase Order Number
If a purchase order number hasn't been set for your quote, your client can add one when they approve the quote. They can do this by clicking 'Add PO Number.'
After your client inputs their PO number, Streamtime will automatically update the field, making the information immediately available to you. It's a seamless way to keep all essential details up to date.
🎨 Can I customise my quotes?
Ok, we get it. You're a creative agency with incredible branding! We totally agree, and that's why our team has built the ability to customise your quotes in any way you want them to - just for YOU :).
You can learn how to edit the layout of your quotes here, or if you are a bit of a techie with some code skills, learn how to build your own templates with your own fonts(Comic Sans is still banned) here.