A quote sent in chat that cannot be edited

"How much?" is the question that opens almost every sale in chat. And the answer almost everyone gives — the figures typed by hand into the message — is the most fragile one there is.

Why the price in the message is a problem

A message can be forwarded with a piece cut off. It can be screenshotted halfway. It can be misremembered: "you told me 350, not 380". No bad faith required, just a long conversation and two numbers close together.

Then there are the details that never fit in a message: the exact quantity, the variant, the discount and what it applies to, whether shipping is included, how long it is valid. Every missing detail is one more question, or one more argument later.

What a quote that holds up needs

Three things, and none of them is red tape:

• separate lines — item, quantity, unit price, line total — so there is no "total" left to interpret;
• discounts and charges written down where they can be seen, not "I'll sort you out on the price";
• a form that cannot be edited: an image or a PDF, not text.

The last one is what changes things. An image with the quote inside cannot be edited in two taps. Whoever receives it can pass it on to whoever decides, and it arrives whole.

And the time?

Here is the real objection: a quote like that, done in Excel or an office program, costs five minutes. In chat, five minutes is an eternity: the customer has already asked someone else.

So the right question is not "how do I make a proper quote", but "how do I make one in the time of a message".

How Yataio does it

Pick the customer, tap the items, and the quote is composed: the lines, the discounts — on one line or on the total — the shipping charge, VAT if you need it. Before sending it you see a preview, exactly as it is.

Then you send it in the chat you are already in, in whichever form you want:

• formatted text, to paste when the customer wants to read it at a glance;
• image, when you want it to arrive whole and stay as it is;
• PDF, when it needs printing or passing to an office.

And when the customer says yes, the quote becomes an order with one tap — same lines, same figures, nothing retyped.

Discounts and charges on a document are explained in the guide; the three ways to send one here. If you often redo the same quote, there is an article on recurring orders.