The quote lifecycle

Every quote walks a defined path, and knowing the stations explains everything the Quotes page shows you.

The path

Draft → (optional review) → Sent → Approved → In progress → Completed → Invoiced → Paid

• Draft: editable freely. Techs can create quotes in the field ("your heater is on its way out"); depending on your settings those arrive as pending review so the office prices them before anything reaches the customer.
• Sent: the customer gets a branded link (text or email) where they approve or decline online, with your logo and colors. You can also approve on their behalf for the handshake deals.
• Approved: work is authorized. You can require a deposit at approval; the customer pays it right on the approval page. Approval also reaches the field automatically: the next time anyone works that pool, a green Approved quote card sits at the top of the stop screen with the job title and total and a button to start the work. Nobody has to remember to tell the tech.
• Completed → Invoiced: finished work becomes an invoice with its own payment link. The invoice page always shows the true remaining balance, net of deposits and partial payments.
• Paid: money received, and if QuickBooks is connected, the invoice, payment, and fees sync over automatically.

The automatic follow-ups

• Reminders: an unanswered sent quote gets polite nudges on the schedule you set (how many days between, how many total). Configure on the Quotes page settings.
• Expiry: a quote past its valid-until date flips to Expired and its approval link stops honoring. Re-quote by reverting it to draft, which resets its reminder counters too.

Declines and cancellations

A declined quote keeps its history (the reason matters; it is pricing feedback). Cancelling is possible even after invoicing when you need to void a bill, and a refund that reopens an invoice can end in cancellation the same way. Nothing numbered ever hard-deletes, so your quote numbering never has holes an accountant will ask about.

Who sees what

Techs see their own quotes plus quotes on pools they service, and internal notes are hidden from them everywhere. Customers only ever see the approval and invoice pages; there is no login, just secure links.

From approval to the work getting done

The handoff is the part most software drops. Here it is automatic:

An approved quote appears on the stop screen until the work is finished. The tech taps Start work when they begin and Mark work complete when they are done, which moves the quote to Completed and puts it in line for invoicing. If the quote required a deposit that has not landed yet, the card says so and holds the start button, so nobody does the work before the money is committed.

This is why the Pool field on a quote matters. A quote tied to a specific pool surfaces on that pool's stops. A quote left as "whole account" falls back to matching the customer, so it appears at any of their stops. Tie it to the pool when the work happens at one pool and you want the right tech to see it at the right address.

The two settings worth deciding early

1. Tech quotes require review (on or off): off means faster, on means priced by you. It is not all or nothing. On the Team page, each member carries an Auto-approve quotes switch, so a senior tech you trust on pricing can send quotes straight to customers while everyone else still routes through the office.
2. Deposit at approval: for jobs with real material costs, this is the difference between scheduling work and scheduling hope.