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Quote Lifecycle
The quote lifecycle represents the end-to-end journey of a sales Agreement from its creation by the Sales Representative to its final status (won or lost). It ensures transitions between stages, enforces governance rules during the approval process, and prevents unauthorized changes once the quote reaches critical review or customer-facing stages.
This lifecycle structures the internal business workflow and provides visibility to all stakeholders regarding the current state and next steps of any given quote.
Quote Lifecycle Status
The quote progresses through the following key statuses:
Status | Description |
|---|---|
Open | The quote is in draft mode. Sales can freely modify all fields, including products, pricing, customer details, and ownership. |
In Review | The quote has been submitted for approval. It is locked for editing. Only approvers (Pricing Team or Sales Leadership) can approve or reject. |
Approved | The quote has passed all required approvals. It is ready to be sent to the customer. No further changes are allowed. |
Rejected | One or more approvers have rejected the quote. It returns to the Open status for rework by the sales rep. |
Accepted | The customer has accepted the quote. It is now ready to trigger downstream processes such as agreement generation or ERP integration. |
Won | The quote has been accepted and successfully converted into a deal. |
Lost | The quote was not accepted by the customer and is formally closed as lost. |
Status Transition
Each stage transition follows a logic to preserve data integrity and ensure proper validation:
Open → In Review: Triggered when sales submits the quote. The system evaluates whether approvals are required based on pricing rules and margin thresholds (See Approval workflows).
In Review → Approved: All necessary approvals are granted. The quote becomes read-only.
In Review → Rejected: One or more approvers reject the quote. It transitions back to Open for modifications.
Approved → Accepted: The customer explicitly accepts the offer.
Accepted → Won: The deal is finalized. An agreement is generated or the quote is sent to ERP.
Accepted → Open: If the customer requests changes after accepting, the quote reverts to Open. This requires a new approval cycle.
Any → Lost: Sales marks the quote as lost if the deal fails for any reason.
Editable Fields per Status
Status | Editable by Sales | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
Open | All fields editable | Full flexibility |
In Review | No fields editable* | *Owner and contact details may be updated if explicitly allowed |
Approved | Locked | Ready for customer submission |
Rejected | Locked | Rework required, to transition to “Open” |
Accepted | Locked | Customer confirmed |
Won / Lost | Locked (archived) | End of lifecycle |
Some account related informations should be editable in Approved /Accepted status . Columns for the customer Documents: address, customer company VAT, Customer person name and title.
Special Features
Take-Back Mechanism: Sales users can "take back" a quote from In Review or Approved status to Open if an urgent change is needed (depending on permissions). This cancels the ongoing approval process.
Versioning: Quotes that are rejected or require major changes may be cloned to create new versions, ensuring auditability of previous decisions.
Approval Comments: At each stage, approvers can leave comments to guide the sales rep or justify rejection.
Notifications: Automated emails are sent at each status change, informing the sales team and approvers of actions needed.
Governance and Control
The quote lifecycle is tightly coupled with the approval logic. Only specific roles (Pricing Team, Sales Leadership) can approve or reject, and quotes cannot be modified during approval stages unless explicitly retracted. In case of Margin approval The Sales Rep set the sales person (Sales Leadership our sales representative) to approve within the Quote.
Sales users must resubmit quotes for approval after each major edit. This ensures that any deviation from pricing policy or profitability targets is formally reviewed and approved.
Lifecycle Summary
The following diagram represents the Quote Lifecycle :