Introduction - Create a sales quote

  • 8 minutes

Contacts, potential customers, or existing customers can request a sales quote before agreeing to a sales order. This can be caused by the nature of the product, because they haven't traded with the company before, or because they want to negotiate a better price.

As you can see in the following diagram, a sales quote is often the first step in a sales process.

Diagram of the sales process in Business Central.

A sales quote can be used as a preliminary draft of a sales order that specifies item descriptions, the price, and other terms of the sale. The sales quote document in Dynamics 365 Business Central is a flexible tool. It doesn't require existing customer information and it can be converted into a sales order or archived for future transactions.

Screenshot of a Sales Quote document in Business Central.

Create a new sales quote

While you negotiate with the customer, you can change and resend the sales quote as much as needed. When the customer accepts the quote, you convert the sales quote to a sales invoice or a sales order where you can process the sale.

The video in this unit demonstrates how to create a sales quote, but first let's find out a bit more about converting a sales quote to a sales order or a sales invoice.

Create sales lines with Copilot

You can use Copilot to create sales lines and minimize time spent on repetitive tasks and lookups.

Copilot can suggest and assist with creating sales lines on sales documents like Sales Quote, Sales Order, and Sales Invoice based on structured input or natural language. This drastically relieves the user of manual input and drives operational efficiency.

Screenshot of creating sales lines with copilot.

To create sales lines with Copilot, select the Copilot action on the Lines FastTab. There are several ways to have Copilot suggest sales lines:

  • You can manually enter free text, based on which Copilot will suggest lines. For example, "10 black chairs and 2 tables".

  • You can use the Prompt Guide action to prepare the prompt. With the Copy line items option, you can copy existing lines from the last invoice or from a document you specify yourself.

With the Add line items option, you can add items based on description or other references.

Screenshot of copilot prompt guide.

When the suggested items are okay, you can select Insert to create the sales lines.

Convert a sales quote to a sales order or an invoice

As mentioned, a quote is just a preliminary draft of a sales order or an invoice and has no impact on the available inventory. This means that once the customer approves the quote, you need to convert the quote to an order or an invoice to process the transaction. The following video also demonstrates how to convert a sales quote to an order or invoice.

Watch the following demonstration video which shows you how to create a quote and turn it in to a sales order.