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Quote History
Quote History

How to view previously sent quotes, restore quotes, view when quotes are loaded into carts, see messages, orders, and attachment history.

Kenzie avatar
Written by Kenzie
Updated over a week ago

☞ Note: Not all features discussed are available on all plans.
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The history modal is designed to provide ongoing context as to what has transpired over the course of time. It's not meant to log each and every detail that happens on a quote. It's meant to be helpful in seeing progress on a quote from origination to completion. It's also a great place to identify where something has gone wrong. 

Within the history modal, we provide a means for the sales staff to add timestamped messages. When viewed in chronological order with the other events on the quote, this can paint a clear picture of what has transpired. There is of course additional context that we don't capture here that happens outside the quote. i.e.: emails, phone calls, offline orders, etc., but messages can be an effective way of including some of that summarized details within the quote history if it's helpful to your quoting process. 

We don't log addition/removal of products, price changes, customer changes, or many of the other fields. We find that these actions when displayed in the history only add noise and clutter to the useful information. 

To view a quotes History

  • Open a quote

  • Click on the History Button (Icon on mobile) in the top right of the quote. 

Across the top of the modal that opens, there will be a series of tabs

All

  • This tab will display a log of all events in chronological order. 

  • The most recent events are shown at the top of the list of cards. 

  • Each card represents an event. 

  • Some cards have additional details which can be viewed by clicking the open arrow on the right of the card. 

Messages

  • While we realize staff messaging is somewhat redundant as we have a staff notes section on each quote, we've found that staff notes can get messy quick when there are many staff members involved, and are less permanent. Staff notes can be overwritten / deleted, and no trace remains of them. We also found that most staff notes were entered in this type of format: This is my note, 4/15/20 - JRM (note, date, initials). We include the username, and the date and timestamp, as well as now show this note in order of the other history events. This makes this information easy to update, and much more useful in the future. 

  • Clicking on the Messages tab will display only staff messages in chronological order.

To add a staff message: 

  • Open History Modal

  • Enter note at bottom of modal window, and either click send icon or press tab then enter. 

Revisions

  • This will show each version of a quote that is sent, as well as links to any attachments sent along with it. 

  • The revision card will also include details on who the quote was sent to, which rep sent it, as well as the date and time.

Clicking on the expand card arrow will show a rendered copy of the quote that was sent. 

How to restore a previously sent quote

  • In the details of each revision card, there is a Restore link in parenthesis. 

  • Clicking this link will restore the essential data from that quote at the point at which is was sent.

☞ Note: A restored quote does not create a new revision.  A new revision is only generated if a quote is actually drafted AND sent. 

Restored data includes: 

  • Customer information fields (name, email, company, address)

  • Products (quantities, options, pricing)

Restored data does NOT include: 

  • Customer / Staff Notes

  • Status, Rep, Tags, Expiration Date, Payment Terms, Lead time, Attachments

  • Shipping selections / Values.

Using quote revisions for troubleshooting

  • Often times a quote will get sent, and for some reason it won't load, etc. 

  • Generally we'll compare the last sent revision to the current state of the quote. 

  • If the data on the quote doesn't match the last revision, the quote was most likely modified, and not resent, which is preventing the customer from loading the quote. 

Attachments

  • Every time a user uploads an attachment to a quote, we create a time-stamped event with a copy of that attachment stored in the history.

  • This can be extremely useful for custom product companies where you may be sending various versions of proofs, and need to reference a specific version / revision.

  • Click the expand card arrow to show a preview of most file attachment types (.png, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, etc.) The preview will not show a preview for more advanced file types (.pds, .ai, etc.)

Events

  • The events tab captures a variety of actions/events that happen over the history of a quote. 

These events include 

  • Quote Creation (Details origin of quote. ie: Rep created, or Customer requested. These sometimes includes additional source information, location, ip, etc.) 

  • This will always be the first event in a quotes history.

Rep created quote event (Signified by QN icon or Rep profile image)

Customer requested / created quote event (Signified by Desktop or Phone icon depending on device customer used)

Email events (processed, delivered, opened, bounced, etc.) 

Tag History (Shows tag that was added or removed, and by which user)

Quote Load events (Shows when quote checkout links are used to load items into a user/customer's cart.)

  • Additional details like the time, location, Browser and OS are provided if available.

☞ Note: These events will show for anyone who uses a quotes checkout link. This includes if someone on your team tests a link. In general we recommend to not test the checkout links. We've done this for you already, and will show you a warning if it's not going to work. (More details regarding testing checkout links here.)

If you're unsure who tested the link; the location data can be helpful. If the location is closer to your customer, it's probably the customer who loaded the quote into the cart. If it's showing it was loaded in the same state/region as you/your rep, then it was probably someone on your team who used the link. 

Orders

  • We will show order created events tied to a quote under the Order history tab. 

  • The event card will indicate whether the order was created by a rep using the B2B Ninja Create Order function, or whether it was created via your storefront.

  • The Order # links to the order in BigCommerce

  • If there is a pre-existing BigCommerce customer associated with the order, we will also link to the BigCommerce customer record. When clicking on these links, you will be directed to login to BigCommerce if you're not already logged in. 

Multiple Order events showing

Scenario 1 - The quote was ordered more than once, and is typically a positive event ;-) 

  • We can force purchase limits on quotes if necessary, but in practice we find it's best to use an expiration date instead. Contact us if limits are needed and you are on a Black Belt or higher plan.

Scenario 2 - (Most common) - Multiple incomplete orders shown.
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  • The quote itself will typically not have a status of ordered when you see this. 

  • It is almost always indicative of an issue at checkout with payment (out of our control ;-)

  • Each time the customer attempts to checkout, and after they've input payment data and clicked the submit/complete order button, BC creates an order. The status does not update past incomplete unless the payment succeeds, yet they send out notice of that order. When the customer tries again, a new order number is created. Depending on the sequence of events following, we may or may not ever update that quote as ordered. 

  • You can always manually change the status of the quote to ordered. 

  • The status we show is the initial status that we get from BC. It is NOT the current status of the order. We do not sync that data. You can click order link to open the order if that data is needed. 

BigCommerce resources Concerning Incomplete Orders

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