Attaching recurring services to every quote

A hardware refresh or project that ships without a managed service is a one-time invoice. Recurring revenue is what grows a managed service provider (MSP) and what the business is valued on. Attaching the service on the quote is easier than selling it after delivery, and it sets the right expectation with the buyer from the start.

Do this in the catalog once. Then every new quote picks up the service with the hardware — one click, not a follow-up call.

The building blocks are the same ones in Quoting best practices for new quoters: listed Recurring products, bundles and add-ons so the service cannot be left off, and quote templates that show one-time and recurring amounts as separate totals.

Why the service belongs on the quote

• Recurring revenue is the business. It's what grows an MSP and what the business is valued on. A hardware or project quote without a recurring service is a one-time sale with no follow-on.
• Every device or project creates an ongoing need: monitoring, patching, backup, security, licensing, support. If you don't quote it, the customer either goes without or buys it somewhere else.
• Quote time is the sale. The buyer is already deciding. Adding the service later means a separate sale and a separate approval.
• The service protects the investment the customer is making. They're buying insurance, not IT; see Building proposals that win: the buyer's decision journey.
• Let the buyer opt in where it fits. Offer tiers or extras as optional lines or a choice group, so the buyer chooses rather than feeling upsold.

Project hours are a different line — they belong on Labor products, not as a recurring retainer. Attach those with the same bundles and add-ons; see Quoting labor and projects. Recurring retainers and subscriptions belong on Recurring (service) products with a billing Term.

1. Put the service on the catalog item — bundles and add-ons

Do not rely on the quoter remembering to search for "Managed Workplace" after they add the laptops. Attach the service to the hardware (or the category) so adding the work adds the service.

The service itself must already be a listed catalog product: type Recurring, Listed and Can be sold on, a category, and Term set to monthly, annually, or the period you bill. Use Create service on Products — not Create new product in the quote editor, which creates a one-time product. A one-time Setup Price on that service is the cutover or onboarding fee; it totals separately from the recurring amount.

Bundles: hardware plus the managed service as one package

A bundle is the package the customer sees as one name: workstations plus managed workplace, a firewall plus monitoring, a project plus the retainer that follows it.

• Child lines keep their own type and billing term. Hardware stays one-time; the service stays monthly or annual.
• The bundle card in the catalog shows totals grouped by billing term — for example one-time hardware plus monthly service on the same bundle.
• The bundle parent is a grouping row. It has no term and no price of its own. What the customer pays is the sum of the enabled children.
• When you add the bundle to a quote and set a quantity, each child's quantity is bundle quantity × quantity per bundle.

On the quote template, set Show bundle products to visible expanded, visible collapsed, or hidden depending on how much of the stack that audience should see. The buyer can still see the package name.

Build the bundle in the catalog, not as a one-off group on a single quote. A quote-only bundle is harder to reuse.

Add-ons: the service appears when the hardware is added

On the hardware product (or its category), attach the managed service as an add-on.

In the product editor (Products → open the product → Edit → Add-ons), you add products under Select required or Select optional. Each add-on has an Add to quote toggle:

On the product page those groups are labelled Standard add-ons (required) and Suggested add-ons (optional).

Category-level add-ons apply to every product in that family, so you do not maintain the same service child on fifty laptop SKUs. Open Products → Categories, edit the category (Manage Category), and use the Add-ons tab. Category add-ons merge with product add-ons when the parent is added; if the same service is on both, it appears once.

Required add-ons can be removed or edited on a live quote only by a quote manager. That is the point: a new quoter cannot quietly drop the managed service. Required add-ons make sure your team never forgets the service. What the buyer can choose is a separate decision: use optional lines or a choice group on the quote when you want them to pick a service level.

The same pattern works for install Labor — see Quoting labor and projects. Use a Recurring add-on for the ongoing service, a Labor add-on for the hours.

2. Cloud licensing: Pax8, Microsoft CSP, and other marketplaces

Cloud subscriptions are recurring lines. They should sit on the same quote as the hardware and the managed service, not in a separate spreadsheet.

Salesbuildr does not connect to Microsoft Partner Center. Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) licenses — including New Commerce Experience (NCE) subscriptions such as Microsoft 365 — reach the catalog through a connected cloud distributor. Connect the one you buy from at Settings → Integrations → Manage, then work from the matching tab on Products.

Each connected marketplace is its own tab on Products. Details and which distributors apply are in Cloud Marketplaces and Working with Microsoft CSP products.

Pax8 and CloudFactory keep billing term (how often the customer is charged) and commitment term (how long they commit) as separate variants. A monthly-billed 1-year commitment is a different option from an annual-billed 1-year commitment. Pick the variants your team should sell when you Link the product.

If none of those distributors apply, create a custom Recurring service and enter cost, sell price, and term yourself. Custom products do not pull live Partner Center pricing and cannot be ordered from Salesbuildr — fulfill the subscription in Partner Center or your CSP portal after the quote is approved.

Add from marketplace in the quote editor is the hardware distributor marketplace, not these cloud tabs. Link cloud products into the catalog first, then add them from product search — the same path as any other listed Recurring item. You can then attach that linked license as a bundle child or an add-on on the hardware kit so it is not optional memory.

3. Show one-time and recurring totals clearly

Once the quote has both one-time hardware and recurring services, the buyer needs to see two commitments, not a single blended number.

Each line keeps its own billing term. Quote totals group those lines by term — one-time, monthly, quarterly, yearly, weekly, plus a separate one-time setup amount when a Recurring product has a setup price. Show Total Details (labelled Show one time and recurring total summary in quote Manage Settings and on the Financial summary / Summary widget) is the control that lists those term rows. Show Widget Subtotals does the same per product table, so a "Monthly protection" section can total separately from a "One-time cutover" section.

Contract Duration (months) on the quote feeds Show Contract Term Total — the value of the recurring lines over that term, not a substitute for the monthly or yearly row.

Those options, plus grand total, tax, and where the Financial summary widget belongs in the proposal, are covered in Building proposals that win: the buyer's decision journey. Set them on the template so every quote of that deal type presents one-time and recurring the same way. Do not rebuild the totals block on each deal.

On the quote Details tab (your team, not the buyer), quote managers also see a Financial summary of revenue, cost, profit, and margin split into One-Time and Recurring (Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly). Use that to check margin before send. The customer-facing numbers are the widgets and total details above.

Preview Presentation view once before you send. Confirm the one-time and recurring rows are both visible, named for the buyer, and sitting after the case for the work — not as the first thing they read.

What the quoter does on each deal

After the catalog attachments exist:

1. Start from an opportunity or press Q.
2. Pick the template for that deal type (hardware refresh, project, mixed). Do not start blank.
3. Add the listed bundle or hardware. Required add-ons and bundle children should already include the Recurring service. Add suggested add-ons or linked cloud licenses if this buyer needs them.
4. Set quantities (seats, devices). Leave the service price alone unless a pricing book already has the exception.
5. Check the one-time and recurring totals. Open presentation view. Send.

If the service is missing, stop and fix the catalog item or category add-on — do not create a Recurring product in the quote editor for a standard deal.

After the quote is approved, service lines can be pushed to a Professional Services Automation (PSA) contract (Add items to contract). Only Recurring (service) children qualify — not the bundle parent, and not hardware. That handoff only works if the service was on the quote as a real catalog line.

See also

• Product Bundles — parent and child lines, billing terms, and what the PSA receives
• Cloud Marketplaces — Pax8, CloudFactory, KPN / RoutIT, and LeaderCloud tabs
• Working with Microsoft CSP products — no Partner Center; link from a cloud distributor or create a custom service
• Quoting labor and projects — hours as Labor products, attached the same way
• Building proposals that win: the buyer's decision journey — Financial summary placement, widget subtotals, and contract-term totals
• Quote Editor — add products, add-ons, and quote settings
• Product Detail — Recurring type, Term, Add-ons
• Quoting best practices for new quoters — catalog, pricing rules, then templates