Revision requests

What a client asks to change after a quotation was sent, how it is listed and decided, on the quotation or on the email, and what the next revision writes.

After a quotation is issued, a client’s reply may ask for changes: another size, a different quantity, a shorter delivery. FlowOS reads the reply (see Inbox) and lists each change on the quotation it was sent against, under Revision requested. The same changes are decided from the email itself, in its panel in the inbox.

What the list shows

Each client email is a card with the date it arrived and Open email, which opens its conversation. Under it, one row per change:

• the field or kind of change, the line it points at (Line not identified when the client named none), and the value we quoted next to the value asked for;
• the client’s own words;
• May change the price when the change could move a quoted price;
• The quotation’s validity had lapsed when this arrived when the email came after the version’s validity (R118);
• Against R0; a later revision has been issued when the change is against an older revision than the latest issued one.

A change FlowOS could not work out is still listed, for a person to read: a comment typed on a PDF, in the client’s words, and a line that points only at a call or at an attachment the email does not carry. When an email with a file speaks of comments or marks and nothing could be read from it, one row says so.

A person who may not open the email sees the change without the link.

Accept, Decline, Reopen

Someone who may edit the quotation can Accept or Decline a change on an issued version, and Reopen a decided one. The decision is recorded with the person and the time (R118).

Accepting marks the change to be carried by the next revision, and the list says how many accepted changes the next revision will carry. Under each change, a line says what the next revision does with it (R119):

• Will set the quantity to 2, Will remove the line, Will set the line’s discount to 5%, Will set the overall discount to 5%, Will set validity to 45 days or Will set warranty to 2 years, when the client’s words give one plain value and, for a line, the line is on the enquiry’s current reading and not excluded in line review; the line is the one the row names, by its tag or its line number;
• Edit by hand for anything else: a price, payment, delivery or other term, a specification or material, wording that is relative (“one more”, “additional 2%”) or names several figures, and a change naming one tag of a line that holds several, or a tag on two lines;
• Applied to R1 once it is written into a revision. A change a revision carries without having written it, such as the earlier of two emails setting the same value, or one the draft refused because it was being edited at the same moment, reads Edit by hand.

Held changes

A change that arrived after a purchase order was received is held: it shows why in plain words and has no Accept or Decline, because it waits for a person to decide how it fits the order.

Starting the revision

Revise on an issued version starts the next draft. The accepted changes that no revision carries yet are recorded as carried by that draft, and their rows read Accepted · carried by R1; a carried change can no longer be reopened. The ones with a plain value are written into the draft as if a person had typed them, and read Applied to R1; where two emails set the same value, the later email’s is written, and the earlier reads Edit by hand. The draft then marks what changed since the version it revises, and its PDF lists them ahead of the totals (see Quotation builder). Discarding the draft clears what was written into it, so the next draft writes it again (R119).

From the email

A revision request’s panel in the inbox lists that email’s changes with Accept and Decline, and the line saying what each does, then one action for someone who may edit the quotation:

• Start R1 when the latest version is issued: starts the revision as Revise does, then opens the quotation;
• Add to R1 draft when the draft is already started and accepted changes wait that it does not carry: records them as carried by the draft, writes the ones with a plain value, and opens the quotation;
• Open R1 draft when nothing waits.

A decision made here is the same decision as on the quotation. An email answering a quotation made outside FlowOS says so and offers no action; one not linked to a quotation yet asks for the link first.

On the lists

The Quotes Needing Revision list and the quotation list show Needs revision · n when n changes wait on a quotation’s list, as well as when a revision request arrived by mail. A quotation whose latest version is already a draft has its revision started and is not flagged.

Related: Quotation builder · Inbox · Business rules.