A quotation that looks like your business
The quotation carries your logo, address, GSTIN, validity period, terms and signature, with items, quantities, rates and tax laid out the way the buyer expects. It goes out as a PDF on WhatsApp or email in the time it takes to pick the items. Because the rates come from your item list, the quote is consistent with what you actually charge rather than a number worked out in a hurry — and when a contractor compares your quotation against two others, presentation is doing more work than shopkeepers usually credit.
Convert to an invoice with nothing re-typed
When the order is confirmed the quotation becomes an invoice in one step, keeping every line, rate and quantity. You adjust what changed — a quantity, a rate the buyer negotiated — and bill it. The link between the two is kept, so months later you can see which quotation produced which order. Nobody re-enters twenty lines from a photograph on a phone, which is where a wrong quantity or a dropped line usually gets into a bill.
Knowing which quotes turned into orders
Quotations sit in a list with their status, so you can see what is still open and follow it up rather than waiting to hear. Over a few months that list tells you something more useful than any individual quote: what proportion of your quoting converts, and which kinds of enquiry are worth the time. Most shops discover they are quoting a lot of business they never win and not following up the ones they nearly did.
Proforma invoices and advance payments
Where a buyer needs a proforma invoice to release an advance, the same document produces it. Advances received are recorded against the party and set off when the final bill is raised, so the ledger is correct throughout rather than being corrected afterwards. For site supply where the material goes out in stages, one quotation can produce several bills over time, each linked back to it.