Commercial controls and payment terms
Content owner: Quote Control product. Last reviewed: 19 September 2026.
Use Administration → Controls and Administration → Payment terms to publish commercial settings. Both tabs create a new control version. A control version is the saved set of commercial rules used by a quotation revision.
Commercial control fields
Section titled “Commercial control fields”| Field | Effect |
|---|---|
| Proforma threshold (£) | A caveat with the proforma-threshold trigger becomes required when the quotation total excluding VAT is strictly above this value. |
| Approval threshold (£) | A submitted quotation total excluding VAT strictly above this value enters the Approval queue. A total at or below it is approved automatically. |
| VAT (%) | Calculates VAT and the total including VAT for quotation totals and customer PDFs. |
| Default parts mark-up (%) | Supplies the starting mark-up for a new custom part line when no selected material rate provides its own mark-up. |
The default parts mark-up is a starting value. Estimators can review the line and enter an authorised selling price; Quote Control then recalculates its mark-up and margin.
Quotation review policies
Section titled “Quotation review policies”Use the Quotation review policies section to set the company decisions that must be resolved before submission:
- Site details can require a site or allow a human-marked Not applicable quotation with a short reason.
- Obsolete components can require both comparison values, or allow one priced option when the estimator records a reason.
- Minimum margin can be Off, show a private Warn finding, or require independent approval below the configured percentage.
- Catalogue selling price overrides can be allowed, require an explanation, or require an explanation and independent approval above the configured tolerance. A changed catalogue basis needs a fresh review.
These choices are saved in the control version. A revision keeps that version after submission, including if it is returned for correction. See Effect on existing work. The policies do not change prices or make an AI or report suggestion a human decision.
Publish commercial controls
Section titled “Publish commercial controls”- Open Administration → Controls.
- Check the current control version.
- Enter the authorised proforma threshold, approval threshold, VAT percentage and default parts mark-up.
- Review the quotation review policies and their thresholds. Proforma and approval thresholds trigger when the quotation total is strictly above the configured amount; minimum margin triggers below its percentage; catalogue deviation compares each line’s selling-price difference with its configured tolerance.
- Confirm that each policy and threshold matches the authorised commercial decision.
- Choose Publish new version.
- Confirm that Quote Control reports the new control version.
If another administrator publishes first, reload the current controls, compare their changes and then make a new decision. Do not overwrite a newer version without reviewing it.
Read Submission and approval for the checker workflow.
Publish payment terms
Section titled “Publish payment terms”Payment terms are customer-facing wording. Confirm the approved wording with the company owner; this guide is not legal advice and does not provide contract terms.
- Open Administration → Payment terms.
- Enter the approved wording in Customer payment terms.
- Use bold, italic, bullet-list or numbered-list formatting where it improves readability.
- Review the complete wording as customer content.
- Choose Publish payment terms.
Leave the editor empty and publish when new quotation PDFs should omit the payment-terms section.
Effect on existing work
Section titled “Effect on existing work”Publishing Controls or Payment terms creates a new effective control version. A draft revision that has never been submitted uses the active controls. Once submitted, it keeps the control version used for its checks, including its site policy when returned for correction. Starting a new revision uses the active controls. Read how controls stay with the revision.
Newly issued quotation PDFs use the payment terms stored with their revision. Historical revisions and previously issued PDFs remain unchanged. Downloading an older issued PDF returns that retained document rather than rebuilding it from current settings.