Use client quotes

Learn how to streamline your billing process in Smartcat by setting up client information, net rate schemes, and services for automatic quote generation and invoice creation.

Quotes, cost calculations, and billing overall are rather complicated tasks that often require loads of effort and time from the team. The good news is that Smartcat now allows generating quotes in projects and issuing invoices incorporating these quotes, so let's take a look at how it works.

What should we begin with? The first thing to do is to add information about clients to Smartcat and set net rate schemes for them. This will facilitate the quote creation process since a net rate scheme clipped for a particular client is applied automatically for calculating statistics(the Statistics tab in the project) in a project where this client is set. Even better would be to add a few services and rates.

Every project created in your corporate account has the Quote tab where you can calculate the cost of work for the client applying one of the snapshots statistics calculated in the project. Even if you have calculated the cost outside Smartcat, you can attach the file with calculations while forming a quote. Still, the better option is to utilize statistics calculations generated in Smartcat.

Well, let's say we have already done all preliminary preparation like filling out the client's card and setting a project. Now it's time to start calculating the quote.

In the first step, the system takes the client from the project and the contact person from the client card, so all that remains is to choose the currency and set the approval deadline(if necessary).

After hitting the Insert button in the second step of forming a quote, the calculations from the Statistics tab of a project will be pulled into the form. The system takes the last calculated snapshot by default, but you can select previously formed if any. It is not a big deal to forget calculating statistics before forming a quote since the system will calculate statistics at this moment.

Let's take a closer look at the parameters that you can specify at the second stage:

  • Service: if there are no suitable services yet,  you can add a new service in the field right from the form. Services and rates can be specified in the Clients section;

  • Language: allows selecting one of the language pairs that a project has;

  • Unit count with a breakdown: it's possible to hide the breakdown and only set the unit type and unit count without pulling Smartcat statistics from a project;

  • Unit type: allows you to choose one of 6 preset units — characters, words, hours, minutes, documents and pages;

  • Rate: price for 100% of the rate in detail rows for a unit. Added automatically if the service and rate are specified in the corporate account;

  • Statistics at {date}: snapshots from the Statistics tab of a project. Check this article to learn more about how Smartcat calculates statistics;

  • Breakdown: detalization rows with calculations. You can add your own row or remove one of preset;

  • Cost of work.

In the last step, you can specify the project deadline, whether the cost is agreed upon, and whether the project has already been paid.

Important! If you mark a project as paid, the quote cannot be used for invoicing the client or edited later.

When a quote is formed, you may download or send it for approval and, if necessary, make corrections to the calculation later or add a new service, for example, project management.

That's it. Now you can use the quote for invoicing the client. It's worth noting that the quote included in an invoice cannot be edited; thus, you have to delete the invoice first before making any changes.

Last but not least, it's possible to make your own custom template or even each per client, including other data. It would be especially valuable if you want to quote clients in their native language. With the Smartcat subscription, new templates can be added to the corporate account settings. To find out more about the data on which you can carry out operations in templates, check this article about Smartcat Template Engine.