Simple Quotes are an efficient way for your Sales team to manage the quoting process, providing improved data visibility on the record. With simple Quotes, it's not necessary to switch between Opportunity and Quote records to see data - it's all there in one place.

In this article, understand the key differences between the two - from how you can tell them apart, to what knock-on effects they can have on reporting. If you've been using the CRM for a while, it's likely you've already been using simple Quotes without knowing!

Both sub-Quote and simple Quotes can be confirmed into your Inventory Management/ERP/Accounting system as normal and will be created the same!

A simple Quote is a combination of the Opportunity record and the Quote record. This means you have access to both the Opportunity data and Quote data in one record, on one screen. This will give you access to adding a Task to the Quote, adding Activity Notes to the Quote and much more. This is because while a Quote record doesn't have these features, an Opportunity does - and a simple Quote is both records in one.

A simple Quote is best used when you're only expecting to produce one Quote from the Opportunity. You might still need to negotiate pricing/costs with the customer and build a relationship with them, as you would do on the Opportunity. A simple Quote allows you to do this all in one place, so you can review all customer communication in the same location as where you change aspects of the Quote.

You're also able to raise Problems under a simple Quote. So, if you need to process any returns or issues, you can easily do so!

If you're looking for having an even quicker, instant option for quoting, check out how Sales Orders work in the CRM here.

The great thing about simple Quotes is that it won't have any impact on your reporting! Within the database, a simple Quote has an Opportunity record and a Quote record which means it'll show if reporting on Opportunities or Quotes. Meaning you can use simple Quotes without having to make any changes to pre-existing Reports.

Reporting on Opportunity will display any simple Quotes but if you wish to only see pure Opportunity records and not ones converted to a Quote then you can simply add the 'Combined Entity' filter. Setting the Combined Entity filter to 'Is Empty', will display only Opportunity records.

If you wish to only see simple Quotes within an Opportunity report, then you can filter the Combined Entity to be 'LeadQuote'.

A sub-Quote is a Quote created under an Opportunity. So, you can have many sub-Quotes under the same Opportunity as you like.

This is the more traditional way of Quoting, and is designed for large Opportunities that will yield multiple Quotes. For example, it's great if you have a project with a customer where you think it'll be open for multiple weeks and will need multiple Quotes. The Opportunity will act as the central hub.

Reporting for sub-Quotes only happens on the Quote entity. They won't show in an Opportunity Report. If you want to look at all Quotes under any Opportunity for a Company, you'd need to start the Quote Report.

Learn more about the CRM hierarchy here!

The best way to check what kind of Quote record you have is by checking two things. If a Quote is under an Opportunity record, which you can tell by checking the breadcrumbs, then it's a sub-Quote.

If the Quote is not under an Opportunity and has the option to set a Task, it's a simple Quote.

You can configure whether a Simple Quote or a sub-Quote is used as the default action when converting an Opportunity to a Quote. Simply navigate here or search System Settings for "Default Action for Opportunities" to select which option works best for you.

We recommend having Simple Quotes selected as these provide a faster and easier user interface for users to send quotes, but can also be converted to a Sub-Quote and multiple Quotes later if required.