Hi there, I’m Nick Roberts, I am an accountant who has been working in public practice for the last 12 years.
I was an early adopter of Xero in 2007, and have been working with this platform (as well as other accounting systems since). I would like to use my expertise to help people with their use of Xero and other accounting software solutions.
In this blog post I am going to cover a powerful feature of Xero its quoting system.
The quoting functionality in Xero can be used either on the web based app or mobile apps (Apple and Android)
Xero has very good instructions on how to use quotes in Xero, as below. What I want to cover here is how to use this to streamline your quotation to invoice process.
Xero Instructions on How to Use Quotes
Create a Quote
Edit a Quote
Email or Print a Quote
Mark a Quote as Accepted or Declined
Create an Invoice From a Quote
Why to use Quoting
It is particularly useful for contractors and other project based business. The process of quotation to invoice is contained within one process, and per this blog post on the filing system in Xero all of your supporting documents can be stored with each quote as well.
Tips to Make it Work Harder for you
Automation of the Terms and Conditions
If quotes are something that your business sends regularly, I strongly suggest that you set up your standard terms and conditions in the Invoice settings, so that this part of the quoting process is automated.
This can be updated in the Invoice settings tab.
Company Name – Settings – Invoice Settings
You then click on options – edit
You then update the Terms of the Quote
Now when you create a new quote, your terms and conditions will already be in there.
Templates for Different Types of Projects
If you have different types of projects that you prepare quotes for.
You can have different templates to use for this process, so you can still take advantage of the automation process of setting up predetermined terms and conditions.
My next blog post will cover how to set up different invoice / quote templates and how to apply them.
Ability to Attach long and Complex Terms and Conditions.
If you are involved in the construction industry, there are statutory requirements for what needs to be included in your quote.
By using a custom invoice template you can include these as part of the quote process, my next blog post will cover how to do this.
Thank you for your time in reading this, if you have any questions or suggestions for future posts please contact me at nick@zero-tohero.com or on 022 405 9312.
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