Quotes & Approvals

Quote sending issues, approval workflow and problems, display bugs, and numbering.

Written By Victor Raessen

Last updated 1 day ago

How the Approval Flow Controls Quote Sending

When internal approval is enabled, it is important to understand how each sending method interacts with the approval workflow:

Send action: When a user clicks Send, the quote is submitted to the designated approver first. It is only delivered to the customer after the approver approves it. This is the recommended method for enforcing approval before customer delivery.
Mark as Sent action: This action also routes through the approval workflow and will not bypass the approver.
Shareable link: Be aware that generating or sharing a direct link to a quote does not automatically enforce the approval gate. To prevent unapproved quotes from reaching customers, users should only use the Send action rather than manually copying and sharing quote links.

>Best practice: Use the Send action as the standard method for all customer-facing quote delivery when approval workflows are active. Avoid sharing direct quote URLs until the quote status has moved to Approved.

Internal vs. External Approval & Mandatory Form Fields

Salesbuildr supports two distinct approval stages:

Internal approval — completed by a member of your own team before the quote is sent to the customer.
External approval — completed by the end customer when they accept the quote.

When a quote contains a custom form widget (for example, a direct debit authorisation form), any fields marked as required are intended to be enforced at the external (customer) approval stage only. Internal approvers should be able to approve the quote without completing those fields.

Known issue: If an internal approver receives an error stating that required fields are missing, contact support and reference the widget name and the quote link so the team can investigate.

Quote not sending

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Send button disabled/missing	Quote has no recipients configured	Add at least one recipient (contact with email) to the quote
Send button disabled/missing	Quote template is disabled or not assigned	Check the quote has a template assigned and the template is active
Send button disabled/missing	Quote is locked by an active approval workflow	Wait for the approval to complete, or cancel the approval if it was started in error
Quote sent but not received	Email delivery issue	Check Admin > Email configuration. See Email & Notifications.

Approval workflow stuck

If an approval is not progressing:

Simple approval: All selected approvers must approve (AND logic). Check if any approver has not responded yet.
Advanced approval: Uses criteria-based routing with up to 10 rules. Only ONE approver per group needs to approve (OR logic). Check that the criteria match the quote's values.
Approver not notified: Verify the approver has a valid email and the approval notification template is enabled.
"No manager found" — The approval rule requires the quote owner's manager, but no manager is assigned. Set a manager for the user at Admin > Users.

Quote display issues

Tax not showing correctly — Verify tax settings at Admin > Financial. Check that the correct tax type is selected for the quote.
Images not rendering in PDF — Ensure images use absolute URLs and are publicly accessible. Internal or localhost URLs will not render in PDFs.
Table of Contents missing — The TOC widget must be added to the quote template. Add it from the template editor. See Quote Editor.
Subtotals not displaying — Subtotals require grouping to be enabled in the quote settings.

Quote numbering issues

Duplicate numbers — Quote numbers are auto-generated. If duplicates appear, check Admin > Platform for the numbering format and current counter.
Wrong prefix or format — Update the numbering format at Admin > Platform > Quote Settings.

See Quotes for full documentation.