Last month I wrote about quote groups. Quote groups is the way you can group together two or more quotes for completely independent, or perhaps related but different, items.
If you are using quote groups, there are a few navigating options you should be aware of.
You can show a list of quote groups for a selected customer by clicking the quote groups button in the list area of the customer form. Remember also that in personal options you can set the option to automatically display the complete list of quote groups for a customer rather than just the first screen.
When the quote group details screen is displayed you can click on any of the quotes in the list of quotes to show the details of these. You can click anywhere on the line except the first column. Clicking in the first column will select or un-select the quote from that group.
Conversely to get to a quote group from a quote – you simply click the “quote groups” button at the top of the screen. Note: if the quote is not part of a quote group then the quote group button is hidden.
You can print a quote (or other form) from a quote group by clicking the Print button. Quote letters for quote groups need to be designed separately from normal quote letters as you need to decide which items from the quote group and from the quotes you want to include.
If you click the print button on a quote that is part of a quote group you will be warned that this is the case and offered the option of showing the quote group details rather than the print selection menu. Clicking “yes” at this warning will take you to the quote group details screen, clicking “no” will take you to the print menu for the quote and clicking cancel will return you to the quote screen.
When you change items such as salesman or customer code in a quote that is part of a quote group, you will be offered the option to update the same details on all quotes within the group. It would be normal to accept this offer. Changes made to items in the quote group, like customer code, will automatically be reflected in all the quotes in the group.
In a quote group you may consider removing some of the common functions (such as wash ups) from some of the individual quotes. If you do this you should consider either only providing a total price for the quote group or placing an override on the letter stating that the prices may only be valid if some of each quoted item is ordered.If you want to comment or suggest a topic for ‘tip of the month’, contact Chris on email cc@printcost.com
