Last updated July 27, 2026
Section 5.6: Quotes
Before work begins, you often need to give a client a formal estimate — or receive one from someone you're hiring. ABRAM's Quotes area lets you build, send, and track these estimates, and turn an accepted quote directly into an invoice once the client signs off.
1. Where to Find Quotes
Quotes live in the Financials area, in their own Quotes tab alongside your Invoices tab. The Quotes tab is split into two lists:
- Sent: Quotes you've created and sent out to clients.
- Received: Quotes that have been sent to you.
For more on invoices themselves, see Section 5.2: Invoicing and Payouts.
2. The Quote Lifecycle
A quote moves through a simple set of stages as it's worked through:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | You've started building the quote but haven't sent it yet. |
| Sent | The quote has been delivered to the client. |
| Viewed | The client has opened and reviewed the quote. |
| Accepted | The client has approved the quote. |
| Declined | The client has turned the quote down. |
| Expired | The quote's window passed without a response. |
| Converted | An accepted quote has been turned into an invoice. |
You can open any quote at any stage to review its detail — line items, status, and history — from the Quotes tab.
3. Building and Sending a Quote
To create a new quote, open the Quotes tab in Financials and start a new quote in the Sent list. From there you:
- Add your line items — describing the work or goods being quoted, with quantities and pricing as needed.
- Review the quote before sending.
- Send it to the client, which moves the quote from Draft to Sent status.
Once sent, you can track whether the client has opened it (Viewed) and what they decide (Accepted or Declined).
4. Converting an Accepted Quote to an Invoice
Once a client accepts a quote, you don't need to rebuild the invoice from scratch. Open the accepted quote from your Sent list and convert it — this carries the quote's details over into a new invoice, which then follows the normal invoicing flow described in Section 5.2: Invoicing and Payouts. The original quote's status updates to Converted so you can always trace an invoice back to the quote it came from.
5. How Clients Respond to Quotes
If you've given a client a Client Portal, they can review and respond to quotes right from their portal — no separate login or account needed. From their portal, a client can:
- Open and review a quote's line items.
- Accept or Decline the quote directly.
Their response updates the quote's status on your side immediately. For more on setting up and managing client portals, see Section 6.4: Client Portal.
6. Related Guides
- Section 5.2: Invoicing and Payouts — what happens after a quote converts to an invoice
- Section 6.4: Client Portal — how clients view and act on shared quotes