Last updated September 8, 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 from the Quotes tab to review its line items, status, and history.
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. Branded PDFs
Quotes can be generated as PDFs that carry your studio's branding instead of a generic template. Set your logo, accent color, and footer text once in your branding settings, and every quote and invoice PDF picks them up automatically. The settings page shows a live preview before you save.
The branded PDF travels with the quote in two ways: clients can download it from their portal, and quote and invoice emails carry it as an attachment.
Branded PDFs are available on the Pro plan and above.
6. 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, with no separate login or account needed. From their portal, a client can open and review a quote's line items, download the branded PDF, and then accept or decline.
Accepting with a Signature
Accepting a quote is a real signature. The client is shown an explicit consent step, then types their name to sign.
At the moment of signing, ABRAM records the IP address, the browser, and the timestamp on its own side, and locks in a copy of the exact quote content that was on screen. If the quote is edited afterwards, what was signed is still recoverable, so both sides can see precisely what was agreed.
Declining works the same way from the portal, without the signature step. Either 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.
7. 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