Quotes
Send an offer to a buyer, track whether it was accepted, and convert it into a proforma or a tax invoice.
A quotation is an offer to a buyer. It is not a tax document and is never reported to the FTA. Once the buyer accepts, you convert it into a proforma (to ask for an advance payment) or straight into a tax invoice.
Create a quote
- Go to Documents → Quotes → New quotation.
- The editor is the same paper-style page as for invoices: pick the recipient, check the number (pre-filled from the quote series), set the date and Valid until (30 days by default), add lines with quantity, unit, price and VAT, and fill in the text blocks.
- Click Save. The quote appears in the list with the status Draft.
- Use Preview to check the document and Send by email to deliver it. Without an HTML-to-PDF service on your environment, Preview shows the printable version and the email goes without a PDF. The Delivery log under the document records each send.
Track the answer
From the row menu on the list, or from the buttons in the editor:
- Mark accepted or Mark declined records the buyer's answer.
- Convert to proforma creates a draft proforma with the same recipient, lines, currency and payment terms and opens it. Use it when you want an advance payment first; you then invoice from the proforma, in one go or in parts. The button is hidden when the Proformas section is hidden.
- Convert to tax invoice creates a draft tax invoice with the same recipient and lines and opens it in the invoice editor.
A quote is converted once, into either a proforma or a tax invoice. It then becomes Converted and read-only, with a link to what it became. If two people convert the same quote at the same moment, only the first succeeds.
Document trail
Every quote, proforma and invoice has a Document trail card. It shows the whole chain, for example quote QT-0012 → proforma PRO-0005 → tax invoices INV-0040 (30 %) and INV-0041 (70 %) → a credit note, each with its status and a link. Below it, the history lists what happened to all of them in order: created, sent by email, accepted, converted, submitted to Taxilla, reported, paid, with the date and who did it. The history is recorded by the database, so changes made through the API or by Alya Books itself appear too. Documents created before this feature show one "Created" entry.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved, not sent |
| Sent | Emailed to the buyer |
| Accepted | Buyer agreed |
| Declined | Buyer refused |
| Converted | A proforma or tax invoice was created from it |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn; read-only |
Quotes whose Valid until date has passed are marked "(expired)" in the list while they are still draft or sent.
Good to know
- Filter the list with the status chips and search by number or recipient.
- Numbers come from the quote series under Settings → Outgoing invoices → Numbering.
- Custom fields, design templates and saved templates (the Templates menu) work as in the invoice editor.
- Sent quotes are better cancelled than deleted; converted quotes cannot be deleted.