Quote and invoice builder

The quote and invoice builder in Combdex is a full-screen editor that walks you from the contact to the published quote or invoice in five steps. The paper prints in one of three designs that you refine into your own, numbers are assigned at publish, and the customer reads, signs or pays on a link that also gives them the PDF.

How does the builder work?

Press New quote or New invoice. The builder opens full screen, with no menu around it; Exit is the only way out, and the work is saved as you go. The bar shows Saved with the time, or Not saved. Retrying. when the signal drops.

The builder does not let you skip the two things a quote cannot be without: Next waits with "Select a contact to continue." and "Add an item to continue." On the last step, press Publish quote, or Publish and send to open the email at once. A published quote shows Save changes instead. The fields of each step are in Writing a quote.

Why are numbers assigned at publish?

A draft is a working copy that only your company sees, so it has no number. It shows Q- Draft or INV- Draft. The number is assigned when you publish. A quote you started and deleted never leaves a gap in your sequence, and a customer never sees a number that was skipped.

In the moment between publish and the number arriving from the server, the quote shows Number pending.

Discounts, fees and taxes

A quote or an invoice takes as many named adjustment lines as the job needs. Each one has a name you choose, and an amount or a percentage:

• Discounts, for example "Returning customer" at 5 percent.
• Fees, for example "Permit fee" as a fixed amount.
• Taxes, for example a county rate and a state rate as two lines.

Combdex applies discounts first, then fees, then taxes, and prints each line by its name above the total. Each line item can also take its own discount, as a percentage or an amount.

Which designs are there?

Three: Ledger, Letter and Signal. Ledger is a gridded table you can read against another bid, with the total at the foot; it is the default. Letter reads from you to the customer and says the total last. Signal puts the price in the first inch. The quote templates page describes each design.

Can I design my own?

Yes. An admin opens Settings, then Design your own. Pick a base design, then set:

• The accent colour and the logo size.
• The letterhead lines: tagline, Business address, phone, email, website and licence number.
• The order of the sections, by drag, and which sections and fields print.
• The line-item columns, including your own custom fields.
• An intro line above the items and a footer note.

The designer shows a demo quote on your letterhead as you change it. The steps are in Designs. The company details on a quote or invoice are frozen when it leaves draft, so a signed quote or a paid invoice keeps the letterhead it carried that day.

What does the customer get?

A link. The customer opens it on any phone, reads the scope, and signs a quote if you chose E-signature required, or pays an invoice if you connected your payment account. Download PDF on the same page gives them the file. The PDF is printed from that page in a headless browser on the server, so the file and the screen are the same layout. See Sending, acceptance and signature.

What Combdex does not do yet

There is no font choice; each design carries its own type. A block-by-block editor, where you place each section freely and colour its background, is designed and not built. Line items have no tax input of their own; tax is an adjustment line on the whole quote or invoice. The customer cannot edit a public quote; a change is a new version from you.

Related

• Quotes: what goes on a quote and how it is accepted.
• Invoices and payments: what the paid invoice records.
• Quoting software for contractors: the builder from the job's side.
• Invoice templates: the invoice in each design.