Quote Generator
I think it would be possibly the most revolutionary feature you have
added yet, for web designers in quote tools, if you created an Instant
Quote Generator...
User clicks get started
User selects the type of product/service they want a quote for (like web design)
User selects addons and upgrades (like event calendar, blog section, slideshow, number of pages, theme, etc.)
User see ajax instant updates to Pricing/cart, including itemized list,
full price, and payment schedule (example Initial deposit 50%, Final
payment 50%, total price)
User then continues to Checkout to pay initial deposit (like 50%).
User then has a balance pending due of remaining 50% that has no due
date that can be converted by an admin to an active invoice for the
balance once the project is completed.
This would possibly be done with standard ordering, but needs a few
additional features in whmcs. The forum is littered with people asking
for partial payment on orders and I think this would satisfy several
requests. Products would need an added setting called payment schedule
that allows 2+ payments, so you could pick how many payments, set a
title for each payment (ie deposit, 2nd phase, final payment), and set a
percentage or set fee for each. On the payment schedule, if each are
set as percentage, it would have to add up to 100%, or at least a popup
warning when saving would warn it does not equal 100% for the math
challenged, unless one of the payments is a set deposit and then it asks
for remaining balance on the last payment.
This payment schedule would be applied to the total of all addons and such purchased with the root product.
Maybe at checkout the itemized list could be created as a quote (User
clicks "Let Me Think It Over" button) or could choose to do the initial
deposit (User clicks "Alright! Let's Do It!")
check out quoteroller - if we could duplicate that level of functionality - WOW would be an understatement.
This is just the feature that I was about to recommend. A++++++
This is an excelent request, client quote generator.
Arnulfo Roiz
http://www.digitalserver.la
This isnt a quote related feature, what your looking for is configurable options or addons. All of those items would have a fixed price attached to them which you can use in the above two areas.
The quotes are meant for bespoke invoicing where it is impossible to give a price for the services you are offering probably because of hourly billing or some other variable costs that you cannot factor into the normal ordering process. In that case it is not something that should be done client side at all. Clients dont set the pricing, you do.
This is from my ticket to WHMCS regarding the quoting system:
"The point of the quotes system is to be able to provide bespoke one-time items to clients that you don't usually sell en-mass via the order form.As example of something the quote system is particularly adept is website design or coding development - that's what it was designed for"
I agree,
So when you want to sell a bespoke one-time items (lets say a VPS with special features or price or even a website design project),
you send the client a quote, and then what?
The customer should be able to pay for the quote after he accepted it - right? how can he do it?
as far as i know the only way for the customer to pay the quote is if you send him an Invoice - so if we want the customer to pay for his quote, we have to manually convert the quote to an Invoice.
The question is why this is a manual process?
If we offered the customer a bespoke one-time item and the customer agree to the terms and so on - why do we have to manually continue the process by manually converting the quote to an invoice?
The invoice should be sent to the customer automatically after he accepted the quote.
I cannot find any reason that the conversion from accepted quote to an invoice (so the customer can pay for the quote) will be a manually process, if there is such a relevant reason please explain.
So no matter if it's a website design or coding development project or special offer of onetime VPS - we can send the customer a quote he can accept it and hopefully get an invoice and pay automatically.
What now?
Now there should be an order opened with the relevant information from the accepted quote.
It can be an order for one time product or sale (lets say a coding development project or domain name registration or even adding RAM to an existing VPS) without any recurring payment or service, or it can be an order for a recurring product or service (VPS, shared hosting, monthly coding maintenance fee or any other recurring product or service whether if its sold in the regular shopping cart system or not).
Again, the question is why this is a manual process?
If we offered the customer a bespoke one-time item and the customer agree to the terms and so on, hopefully get an invoice and pay automatically - why do we need to open an order manually?
what does it matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system?
I cannot find any reason that the conversion from accepted quote to an invoice (so the customer can pay for the quote) and then to be converted to an order will be a manually process, if there is such a relevant reason please explain.
So no matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system an order should be opened.
What now?
Now if it's a automatically provisioned product - it should be provisioned, if not the order should wait for an admin to manually provision the product or service and conclude the process.
To sum it all up,
The quoting system is used for bespoke one-time items to clients that you don't usually sell en-mass via the order form. it could be an website design project or special one time offer for VPS for one customer only, it can be for one time payment or a product or for a recurring product or service.
The process should be fully automatically no matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system.
Guys let's not complicate things. An order form that allows customers to add or subtract services from an order form such as: shopping cart functionalityt, banner ad design, social media buttons, etc is what web designers want.
Dell always had the best website to purchase and customize your PC to your hearts delight and it shuld be the same way for ordering a custom website through WHMCS.
Cheers
RE: Ramf response, I agree with you on the aspect of quote acceptance they should offer a method to pay when the quote it should be converted immediately to an order, with an invoice so the client can make payment when they accept.
Thumbs down because this looks like 2 different features, order form options and quotes (with unknowns requiring manual creation).
BTW. Some have expressed thumbs down opinions in this thread, but not actually voted it down? AND a Thumbs down merely increments the "Votes" number in the features summary list, making it look even more popular.
Any vote increments the counter. So going by that logic even a feature with all down votes would appear to be popular when infact it is the opposite, thats why its displayed at the bottom of a post how many for and against.
Is possible that this request a programer do the module addon, if any person can do, quote me the work, and can discuss the price.
Arnulfo
http://www.digitalsever.la
I think that this is a basic part of WAHMS,
the quote should be converted to an invoice automatically after the customer accepted the quote, and after he pays the invoice ad order should be open automatically.No module addon should be needed here!
There is no logic to use the quoting system if its not fully automated.
Fully automated is impossible ramf, you begin by creating a quote manually. However, once that quote is created the system from then on should be automated this i do agree, client accepts -> make an order, generate invoice -> client pays -> send to admin.
Keeping the original quote in place would be beneficial, but an option to move that quote iteself into the project manager (for those that use it) automatically would be a superb idea. In this case, the project manager and the quote system would need to be working on identical field layout to simply move the quote over. although even this could be done in one table that covers both areas, one field would decide where it shows up and the rest would be what exactly shows up.
I think overall the idea is too far off the original request and this should be opened as a new request that comprises all of the ideas that work together.
I agree with the "Customer accepts quote" > "generate order" > "generate invoice" approach described above. It seems odd to me that you can convert a quote to an invoice without going via an order. When a client clicks on "My Orders" they will expect to see a list of everything they've ordered from us - not just the things that happened without going through a quote stage.
I am vehemently against any quote work where there can be NO REAL estimate for the amount of time a service will actually consume until the work begins. The project manager needs better communication structure. See my profile for suggestions I've made toward that endeavor.
No fixed quotes in service jobs
I would like to see this as well
i found this feature in softlayer server quote generate. its good feature
Any thing new regarding this issue?
WHMCS is all about selling services. For service providers, this is very very important feature.
I am surprised to see WHMCS still missing this feature when version 7 is already in market.
This is must have feature for WHMCS.
Any improvement of the quote system would be a huge benefit. I currently need to subscribe to a secondary service (Quote Roller) just for quotes because WHMCS does not provide enough functionality in this regard.
I'd love to see this!
We need more control and more features to the quoting system in WHMCS.
There are 2 major issues here:
1. Automation: we generate a quote -> a customer accept it -> an order will be generated automatically -> an invoice will be generated automatically - > the customer will pay the invoice -> we will deliver the project.
So after the customer accept the quote the order + invoicing should be done automatically.
2. Have the ability to select a contact person that will receive the quote ( a link by email).
Thanks!
Ram
This is an interesting idea, especially as I use WHMCS for my entire invoicing system for non-hosting-related work, which I think many of us do. Some thoughts:
Ultimately this is an interesting idea but unless you're going to do it right the first time and make it awesome from the get-go, I'd rather see WHMCS work on polishing other higher-priority developments.
Hi Greg,
You mentioned some cool ideas - but this is not the way the Quote system is working.
The Quote system is for you to create a Quote for the customer and send it to him for his approval - and not the other way around.
Some of the things you mentioned are related to regular product and addons settings - not to the Quote system.
Now there is no connection between a Quote to an order and no automatic invoicing - And this should be fixed.
The point of the quotes system is to be able to provide bespoke one-time items to clients that you don't usually sell en-mass via the order form. So when you want to sell a bespoke one-time items you send the client a quote, and then what?
The customer should be able to pay for the quote after he accepted it - right? how can he do it?
Now the only way for the customer to pay the quote is if you send him an Invoice - so if we want the customer to pay for his quote, we have to manually convert the quote to an Invoice.
The question is why this is a manual process?
If we offered the customer a bespoke one-time item and the customer agree to the terms and so on - why do we have to manually continue the process by manually converting the quote to an invoice?
The invoice should be sent to the customer automatically after he accepted the quote.
I cannot find any reason that the conversion from accepted quote to an invoice (so the customer can pay for the quote) will be a manually process.
What now?
Now there should be an order opened with the relevant information from the accepted quote.
Again, the question is why this is a manual process?
If we offered the customer a bespoke one-time item and the customer agree to the terms and so on, hopefully get an invoice and pay automatically - why do we need to open an order manually?
what does it matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system?
I cannot find any reason that the conversion from accepted quote to an invoice (so the customer can pay for the quote) and then to be converted to an order will be a manually process.
No matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system an order should be opened.
What now?
Now if it's a automatically provisioned product - it should be provisioned, if not the order should wait for an admin to manually provision the product or service and conclude the process.
To sum it all up,
The process should be fully automatically no matter if the order originated from the shopping cart system or from the quoting system.
We generate a qoute and from there everything should be automatically as possible.
Another major issue - is to have the ability to select the relevant contact that the qoute will be send to - now you can only send it to the master account holder and this is a big problem.
Regards,
Ram
Comments have been locked on this page!