Manage quotes

Partners and Admins only. Requires Finance. A quote is the fee proposal you send a client before work starts. It lists your services in stages with pricing and terms, and when the client accepts, Arkata turns it into a project with the billing stages already filled in.

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Create a quote

1. Go to Finance > Quotes, or open a client and find their Quotes section.
2. Click New Quote.
3. Select the client and, if any fees are percentage based, enter the property value.
4. Add stages and line items.

The quote starts in Draft.

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Build the stages and line items

A quote is split into stages, the natural chunks of the job, such as “Design & PA Submission” or “Construction Supervision”. If the client accepts, these become your billing stages. Each stage holds line items. A line item has a service name, a pricing method of fixed price, hourly rate or a percentage of the property value, a rate, a quantity and a total. Pull line items from your firm’s service catalogue to save typing, or type your own. Mark a line item as a pass-through cost when you are only passing on someone else’s charge, such as a PA application fee. These are billed at cost and carry no VAT.

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Send a quote

1. Click Send.
2. Choose who it goes to: the client, the client plus other addresses, or other addresses only.
3. Check the preview of recipients and the email.
4. Send.

Arkata attaches the PDF and the quote moves to Sent. CC and BCC come from your firm’s defaults in Settings > Billing, not from this window.

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Accept a quote

1. Open the quote and click Accept.
2. Optionally create a project from it there and then.

A project created this way arrives with its billing stages pre-filled from the quote. Only one version of a quote can be accepted, and accepting finalises it.

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Revise a quote

When a client wants changes, make a new version rather than starting again.

1. Open the quote.
2. Click New Version at the top of the versions list. Declined quotes show a Supersede button instead.
3. Edit the fresh draft Arkata copies out for you, and send it.

The old version becomes Superseded and stays readable, so you can always see what you first proposed.

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Quote statuses

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Validity and expiry

Each quote is valid for a set period, 30 days from the quotation date by default. After that it still opens but shows an Expired marker, and you can still accept or supersede it. The validity period appears on the PDF.

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Property value

Some fees are worked out as a percentage of the property value, so you set that value on the quote. It drives any percentage pricing, appears on the PDF, and locks the moment you send the version, so changing it later does not alter a quote the client already has.

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Download the PDF

Click Download PDF on any version at any time. The PDF carries your firm’s branding, the stages and line items, terms, exclusions and the validity period. While a draft has unsaved changes, the buttons read Save and Download and Save and Send, so the PDF matches what is on your screen.

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Quote numbering

Arkata numbers quotes as prefix, year, then a running number, giving QUO-2025-001. Numbers run in order and are never reused. Change the prefix in Settings > Billing > Quotes.

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Delete a quote

Click the bin icon on a quote’s row in the Quotes list.

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Next steps