A new quoter's first week

A new hire is productive in week one when they assemble proposals from blocks you already approved — not when they invent products, prices, or layouts on each deal.

Do this after catalog, pricing, and templates exist. If those are still in progress, finish Set up Salesbuildr in this order first, then start this week.

The week is:

1. Before day one — an account with quote access, not catalog access
2. Days 1–2 — tour the listed catalog, the template library, and the quote editor
3. Day 3 — one practice quote from a template, left in Draft, reviewed by the manager
4. Days 4–5 — first live quote from an opportunity, reviewed again before Send

How to assemble (templates, listed products, no one-off prices) is in Quoting best practices for new quoters. This article is the first-week plan around that job.

Before day one: user account, role and permissions

An Admin sets this up. The new quoter should land in a workspace that is already ready to quote.

Create the account

The person must already be a contact on your company (your Professional Services Automation (PSA) sync usually created that record). Then:

1. Go to Settings → Users & Access → Users.
2. Click Invite User.
3. Pick that contact, confirm the email they will sign in with, assign the lean role below, and send.

They receive an activation link. Invitation statuses on the Users list are invitation sent, pending setup, active, or no access. The link expires after one hour. If it has expired, use Resend invitation on their row — do not create a second user.

They sign in with Google, Microsoft, or email and password, matching the method on their profile. Use the same email as the invite. Detail: Users & Access. Login errors: Access & Permissions.

Give quote access, not catalog access

A quoter creates opportunities, builds quotes from the listed catalog, and sends them. They should not own products or pricing.

Custom roles beyond Admin and User need the Permissions feature, which depends on your plan. Without it, every non-admin is a User and already has both Quote editor and Product editor. Agree who owns the catalog, and treat Create new product in the picker as off-limits.

With Permissions on:

1. Go to Settings → Users & Access → Permissions.
2. Click New role permissions mapping.
3. Create a Quoter role: check Quote editor. Leave Product editor, Products importer, Pricing book editor, and Quote template editor unchecked unless this person also owns the template library.
4. Open the user at Settings → Users & Access → Users and assign Quoter. Do not also assign the built-in User role — User already includes Product editor.

Admin bypasses every permission check. Do not make a new quoter an Admin.

Why the split exists, and how to add a Catalog role for the people who should edit products: Users, roles and approvals as your team grows.

Confirm they can send, and that you can review

On the user detail page:

• Set Primary manager (and Secondary manager if you use manager approval). Advanced approval rules can route a sent quote to that manager.
• Confirm the company link is verified. Unverified staff cannot send as quote managers. If they see "Your company link has not been verified," open the user and Mark as verified.
• For week one, leave Restrict opportunity access off (the default under opportunity configuration). When it is on, non-admins only see opportunities and quotes they own — the manager cannot open the practice draft unless they are the opportunity owner or an Admin.

Days 1–2: tour the catalog, templates and quote editor

The new quoter is looking, not sending. Sit together or pair asynchronously. The goal is to recognize the three building blocks they will assemble from.

The listed catalog

Open Products. This is the only source of items a quote should use.

Have them:

1. Search by manufacturer part number (MPN) first, then by name. That is how the picker finds the same item later.
2. Open a listed product your team actually sells on Product Detail. Note Listed (General Info) and Can be sold (Pricing), and that it has a category. A product that is unlisted, or has no category, cannot go on a quote.
3. Open a bundle your team actually sells — a workstation kit or a managed-services stack. On a live quote they add the bundle and set a quantity; they do not rebuild the children.
4. Notice add-ons on a product or category. Suggested extras appear when the main item is added.

They are browsing the portfolio they are allowed to sell. They are not creating products, importing from the Marketplace, or changing prices.

The template library

Open Quotes → Templates. A template is the layout, styling, default settings, and product tables for a kind of deal.

Have them open the simple hardware quote template they will use for practice this week. A short hardware quote keeps learning focused; longer proposals come later. They can glance at a recurring services or project template so they know those exist. Point out:

• Widgets already stacked in order (intro, product tables, financial summary, terms)
• Locked widgets they must not remove
• Settings the template already chose (payment terms, currency, cover)

On New Quote they pick one of these. They do not start from a blank layout. A company can also have a default quote template, so the right one is pre-selected for that customer. Full library: Quote Templates.

The quote editor

From anywhere in the app, press Q (or click New Quote on the Dashboard, an opportunity, or the Quotes list). The create dialog asks for a template, company, and currency. Create practice quotes against your test company, not a real customer. Practice quotes still sync to the PSA, but nothing is processed for the test company.

Create one throwaway quote named clearly as practice (for example "Practice — do not send") so they can click around:

• Add product on the right-hand panel — search by name or MPN. That is the everyday path.
• Ignore Create new product, Create bundle, Import products, and Add from marketplace. Those are catalog jobs.
• Set a quantity. Leave Price, Cost, and Discount as the catalog filled them in. Markup / margin on the line is for checking, not for inventing a new percentage.
• Switch view or Presentation view in the toolbar — that is what the customer will see. The recipient never sees the editor.

Leave it in Draft. Do not click Send or Mark as sent. A draft is not visible to the customer. Everyday loop: Quote Editor.

Day 3: a practice quote from a template, reviewed by the manager

One complete assemble-and-review cycle, still not sent.

What the new quoter builds

1. Press Q, or New Quote. For practice, Quick quote (a new opportunity with the same name as the quote) is fine — name the quote so everyone can see it is practice, not a live deal. Create practice quotes against your test company, not a real customer. Practice quotes still sync to the PSA, but nothing is processed for the test company.
2. Pick the simple hardware quote template. A short hardware quote keeps learning focused; longer proposals come later. Do not create a blank quote.
3. Add listed catalog products or bundles. Search by name or MPN. Use add-ons the catalog already attached. Two or three lines is enough.
4. Set quantities only.
5. Glance at markup / margin. If a line looks thin, stop and ask — do not type a lower sell price.
6. Personalize the intro if the template has a content block.
7. Open Presentation view. Check that the customer would read a proposal, not a spreadsheet.
8. Leave the quote in Draft. Do not Send. Do not Mark as sent. Do not Share the public link with the customer — a recipient cannot open a draft, and this quote is not for them.

If the item they need is not in the listed catalog, they stop and ask the person who owns the portfolio. Creating a product on the fly is how the next duplicate gets in.

What the manager reviews

The manager opens the same draft in the editor (Quotes list, or the link the quoter sends internally). Check:

Give notes on the draft. The quoter fixes them on this quote. Status stays Draft until day four.

Days 4–5: first live quote, reviewed before sending

Now the same loop on a real deal. The extra rule: the manager looks at it before anyone clicks Send.

Start from the opportunity

Do not use Quick quote for a deal that is already in the pipeline — that creates a second opportunity with the quote's name.

1. Open Opportunities and find the live deal.
2. Confirm company, contact, owner, and pipeline stage.
3. Click Create quote in the sidebar (Active opportunities only) or New Quote from the opportunity.
4. Pick the template for that deal type (or accept the company's default). Confirm company and currency. Click Create.

Create quote is available only while the opportunity is Active. You also need Quote editor; viewers will not see the button. If the button is disabled, a PSA is not connected yet.

Assemble, then stop

Same assemble steps as day three: listed products and bundles, quantities, check margin, presentation view. If a negotiated rate belongs on this customer, it should already be in a pricing book or a discount group — the quoter does not type it.

Then they stop and ask the manager to open the draft. They do not send "so the manager can see it in the customer's inbox." The manager reviews in the editor, the same way as day three.

Send only after that review

When the manager is satisfied:

1. The quoter (or the manager) clicks Send.
2. Confirm the To contact (it must be a contact on the company), expiry, and the email.
3. Send.

Mark as sent is not a shortcut around review. Use it only when the proposal was already delivered some other way (printed copy, in-person). It still releases the quote as sent, without the email.

If Approval Rules are on, Send can move the quote to Internal approval instead of the customer. The customer does not see that status and is not emailed until internal approval finishes. That is a second safety net — it does not replace looking at the draft. The manager Accepts; then the customer gets the proposal (status Waiting approval).

After it is out, follow-up lives on the opportunity, not in a side email: Follow up on quotes and manage your pipeline.

What new quoters should and shouldn't do

Typing a price on a draft changes that quote only — it does not rewrite the product. Approval rules can still catch a thin margin after Send. Neither of those is permission to skip the catalog. If the price is wrong, the fix belongs on the product, a pricing book, or a discount group, by someone with pricing permission.

Reading list

Read these next, in this order:

1. Quoting best practices for new quoters — assemble from an approved catalog, central pricing, and templates
2. Building proposals that win: the buyer's decision journey — read this after your first hardware quotes, before building longer proposals
3. Quoting labor and projects — standard labor products, rates, and project widgets
4. Attaching recurring services to every quote — put a managed service on hardware and project quotes
5. Follow up on quotes and manage your pipeline — opportunities, expiry, and weekly follow-up
6. Adding hardware to your catalog — what to do when a part isn't in the feed