Keep a supplier's quotes on file

Suppliers send quotes as PDFs, and until you accept one there is nowhere obvious to put it. TALISK_HQ keeps them filed against the supplier, so the next time you are pricing the same job you go to that supplier and read what they quoted last time, instead of digging through old email.

Filing a quote records nothing in your books. No bill, no payable, no journal entry, nothing on any report. A price somebody named is not money you owe, so nothing is posted until you actually receive an invoice.

Where quotes live

Two places, both showing the same documents:

• The supplier's own page (Ledger › Expenses › Vendors, open a supplier) has a Quotes section. This is the one you will use most: you already know who quoted you, so you go to them.
• Ledger › Expenses › Quotes lists every supplier's quotes together, newest first. Use it when you remember roughly when a quote arrived but not who sent it.

Filing one

There are three ways in, and they all end up in the same place.

From the supplier. Open the supplier, find the Quotes section, and choose File a quote. Drop the PDF on the box, click it to browse for a file, or paste a screenshot straight from your clipboard.

From a bill that turned out to be a quote. Suppliers often send quotes that look exactly like invoices, so TALISK_HQ puts them in your review queue rather than risk hiding a real bill. Open the document from Ledger › Expenses and choose This is a quote. It leaves your payables and is filed under the supplier instead. This only works while the document is still waiting for review: once you have approved something it is on your books, and the way back is to discard it.

From an email. Open the attachment in the message and choose File as quote, then pick the supplier.

Name it something you will recognise

TALISK_HQ suggests a name from the file, which is fine when the supplier named the file usefully and useless when they did not. A pasted screenshot in particular is named after the moment you pasted it, which tells you nothing in six months.

Type what the quote is actually for: "Bosch pump, 3in impeller" beats "Quote_4412". This is the text you will be scanning the list for later, and you can change it any time by choosing Rename.

Filing a quote from a supplier you have never bought from

That is normal when you are shopping around, and TALISK_HQ will create the supplier for you. In the filing box, choose New supplier and type their name.

A supplier you have only ever had quotes from shows no spend, because you have not spent anything with them yet. If you decide not to use them, you can delete the supplier and their quotes go with them.

When a quote turns out to be a bill

It happens the other way round too: you file something as a quote and it is actually the invoice. Open the supplier's Quotes section (or the Quotes tab), find it, and choose This is a bill.

It leaves your quotes and lands in Ledger › Expenses waiting for review, exactly where it would have arrived had you uploaded it as a bill in the first place. TALISK_HQ reads it for a supplier, a date and an amount on the way through, so you get the same pre-filled document. Nothing is posted to your books until you approve it.

The classification works in both directions on purpose, because neither TALISK_HQ nor you will get it right every time. The one thing that cannot be undone this way is a bill you have already approved: that is on your books, and the way back is to discard it.

What quotes do not do

They do not turn into bills on their own. When the real invoice arrives you record it the normal way, and the quote stays on file beside it so you can compare the two.

They are not the same as a proforma, which is a supplier asking for money up front so you can pay a deposit. If you are going to pay against the document, see Proformas and supplier deposits.