# Quotes (Offerten): writing a quote, its PDF and email, recording the answer, creating the invoice

> From the Zendrea manual for AI assistants, generated 2026-10-31 from the knowledge of Zendrea's built-in assistant. All topics: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms.txt; all of them in one file: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms-full.txt. Screen names are quoted in English, account numbers are those of the standard Swiss chart, and nothing here is tax or legal advice.

**Where.** The Entries panel has a **Quotes** tab, directly above Revenue. A quote is a priced offer to a client and **books nothing**: no journal entry, no VAT, no open item. It is written in the invoice form: client, lines (billing items or flat amounts, one or several VAT rates, NETTO/BRUTTO, discounts), currency, the quote date and a **Valid until** date (default: quote date + 30 days). The list shows the quotes of the selected fiscal year (a quote belongs to the year of its date), with search and a toggle for the quotes still waiting for an answer.

**Number.** Its own series, separate from invoices and from the Belegnummern: the first suggestion is OF-<year>-001, then each new quote continues the most recent one's format. The field stays editable, and a typed format is continued.

**Statuses** (the Status column): Open; **Expired** (an open quote past its valid-until date, derived, still acceptable); Accepted; Declined; Invoiced (shows the invoice number). The user records the client's answer with two toggle buttons, **Mark as accepted** (check mark) and **Mark as declined** (cross): the pressed one is the answer, its tooltip gives the date; a click on it sets the quote back to open; a click on the other switches. A quote with an answer is **locked**, since it is what was agreed or refused: to change it, set it back to open, or copy it. Delete exists only while a quote is open. In a closed fiscal year every button is off and the quote is read-only. A row click opens the quote read-only.

**Row buttons, in order:** Edit, Copy (a new quote with the next number and the same dates), Create PDF, Send by email, Mark as accepted, Mark as declined, Create invoice, Delete. A disabled button's tooltip says why.

**PDF.** Create PDF opens a dialog with the language, an **intro text** (printed above the lines) and a **closing text** (printed after the totals). Both start from the quote's own texts or from default texts in the chosen language; switching the language replaces only texts the user has not edited. The PDF is the invoice layout titled "Offerte OF-2026-001" (Quote, Offre, Offerta), with the validity date where an invoice prints its due date, and **no QR payment slip**. A new PDF can be created only while the quote is open, so the PDF of an answered quote stays the version that was sent. The eye in the PDF column opens it. The dialog floats: the chat stays usable beside it, so the assistant can write an intro or closing text for the user to paste.

**Email.** Send by email opens the invoice email dialog for the quote, with the same requirements as invoices: a PDF, and email set up under Settings → Email, the sender included (the topic [email-setup](https://www.zendrea.ch/docs/email-setup.md)). Subject and text start in the quote's language; the attachment is named like "offerte-ensium_gmbh-OF-2026-001.pdf". Declined and invoiced quotes are not sent. Sends appear in the email log as "Quote".

**Create invoice.** Only on an accepted quote. It opens the normal new-invoice form on the Revenue tab, filled from the quote (client, language, currency, VAT, lines with their discounts); number, dates and footer are the invoice's own, and the quote's closing text is not copied. Saving books the invoice as usual and marks the quote as Invoiced in the same step. The invoice goes into the fiscal year of today's date; when the quote's own year is earlier and still open, a dialog asks which of the two years the invoice belongs to (work done in December, invoiced in January). Without an open fiscal year for today the button is off: create the year first. Deleting that invoice (after deleting its booking in the journal) sets the quote back to Accepted. Accepting a quote does not create the invoice by itself, because the work and the invoice usually come later.

**Not built yet:** acceptance by the client through a link, reminders for unanswered or expiring quotes in the Deadlines panel, optional lines, quote templates. There is no tool to read the quote list.

**What a quote must or should say, Switzerland.** No law lists the content of a quote (Art. 26 MWSTG lists what an INVOICE must show), and the price-display ordinance (PBV) does not apply to an individual quote. Required when it applies: the company name as registered (Art. 954a OR), and no VAT shown while the company is not VAT-registered (Art. 27 MWSTG; the app hides the VAT fields then). Binding: a quote with a validity date binds the company until then, and the acceptance must arrive in time (Art. 3 OR); without one, for the time a reply normally takes (Art. 5 OR); "unverbindlich" or "freibleibend" makes it non-binding (Art. 7 OR). Never write "Annahme nur schriftlich": an agreed written form makes the contract depend on a signed document (Art. 16 OR). A fixed price (Festpreis) binds (Art. 373 OR); an estimate (Richtpreis, Kostenvoranschlag) may be exceeded only moderately (Art. 375 OR, in practice about 10 %). Writing a quote is free unless agreed otherwise (BGE 119 II 40). An accepted quote behind a booking is kept for 10 years with the books (Art. 958f OR).

**Germany.** A quote is a business letter: a GmbH's register details (§ 35a GmbHG; for a sole trader § 37a HGB) belong on it and in the covering email, and the app does not add them by itself; a quote to consumers must state the total price including VAT (PAngV). Retention: 6 years for business letters.

**Labels in the user's language** (this topic quotes the English UI): Quotes = DE Offerten, FR Offres, IT Offerte; Revenue = DE Einnahmen, FR Recettes, IT Entrate; New quote = DE Neue Offerte, FR Nouvelle offre, IT Nuova offerta; Valid until = DE Gültig bis, FR Valable jusqu'au, IT Valida fino al; Mark as accepted = DE Als angenommen markieren, FR Marquer comme acceptée, IT Segna come accettata; Mark as declined = DE Als abgelehnt markieren, FR Marquer comme refusée, IT Segna come rifiutata; Create invoice = DE Rechnung erstellen, FR Créer la facture, IT Crea la fattura; Create PDF = DE PDF erstellen, FR Créer PDF, IT Crea PDF; Send by email = DE Per E-Mail senden, FR Envoyer par e-mail, IT Invia per e-mail; Intro text = DE Einleitung, FR Introduction, IT Introduzione; Closing text = DE Schlusstext, FR Conclusion, IT Conclusione; Open = DE Offen, FR Ouverte, IT Aperta; Expired = DE Abgelaufen, FR Expirée, IT Scaduta; Accepted = DE Angenommen, FR Acceptée, IT Accettata; Declined = DE Abgelehnt, FR Refusée, IT Rifiutata; Invoiced = DE Verrechnet, FR Facturée, IT Fatturata.

Prices come only from billing items or the user's figures. You may write intro and closing texts or email wording for the user to paste, in the quote's language, but no legal clauses.