Offers & Quotes
An offer is how you put a price in front of a client. Build it from your Services & prices list or type your own lines, add a discount, set a deposit, and send it — the client reads it in their own language, on their own phone, and accepts it with one click.
Creating an Offer
Open a project and go to the Offers tab. Click New Offer.
When creating an offer you can optionally:
- Apply a percentage discount across all line items (e.g. 10% for a returning client).
- Set an expiry date after which the offer is no longer valid.
- Choose an offer template to pre-populate standard line items.
- Add internal notes (not visible to the client).
Adding Line Items
Once the offer is created, add line items from the offer detail page:
- From services — the picker at the left of the Add item row. Choose an item from Services & prices and its description and price are filled in for you; both can still be changed on this offer without touching the list. The picker only appears once you have something in that list, and only offers items that are not archived.
- Type your own — the picker's default. Enter a description and price from scratch for one-off items.
Each line item has:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Description | What the item is |
| Quantity | Number of units |
| Unit Price | Price per unit, in the offer's currency |
| Line Total | Quantity × Unit Price (calculated) |
| Group | Puts the line into a Client Choice or Optional Add-ons block |
| Notes | Per-item notes visible on the offer PDF |
Letting the client choose
Not every line has to be fixed. The Add item row offers three kinds:
| Kind | What the client sees |
|---|---|
| Standard Item | Always included |
| Client Choice | A group marked (choose one) — the client picks one option from it |
| Optional Add-on | Listed under Optional Add-ons — the client ticks it or leaves it |
Give each group a name ("Photo Package", "Print Options") and it appears as a heading on the client's page. An optional add-on can be Pre-checked, and a choice group can have a Default option.
This is how you offer "one of these three wedding packages, plus an album if you want one" on a single page, without three separate offers.
Currency and VAT
An offer is normally in your studio's currency, set on Settings → Studio setup → Studio profile. You can put a single offer in a different one — choose it in the Currency field when you create the offer, and the offer then carries a badge reading In EUR (or whichever you picked). It's set at creation, so pick it before you start pricing.
"Finance totals show this document in its own currency, next to your CHF figures — nothing is converted. Your VAT return counts CHF documents only." So if you invoice a job in euros, that invoice is not in your VAT return — convert it and add it there by hand. See Finance.
VAT
Every offer shows a full Swiss VAT breakdown:
Net Amount: CHF 2,400.00
MwSt (8.1%): CHF 194.40
Gross Amount: CHF 2,594.40
The VAT rate comes from Settings → Studio setup → Studio profile at the moment the offer is created, and is copied onto the offer. Changing the studio rate later does not change an offer you already made.
You can also tick Prices include VAT on an offer, in which case the totals are read the other way round.
Deposit
Most studios bill some portion of the offer up front and the rest on delivery. StudioFlow lets you set this per offer, with a sensible default from studio settings.
On the offer detail page, the totals section shows a single editable Deposit field:
Subtotal CHF 3,770.00
MwSt 8.1% CHF 305.37
Total CHF 4,075.37
────────────────────
Deposit [ 30 ]% CHF 1,222.61
Remainder CHF 2,852.76
Type a percentage and watch the amounts update live. Set it to 0 and the deposit / remainder lines disappear — the client sees only the single Total on the offer.
The field is pre-filled from Settings → Studio setup → Studio profile → Default Deposit (%), or — if you built the offer from a service — from that service's own deposit, in which case the offer says so: "Taken from '…' in your price list. Change it here if this offer is different."
Changing it here changes this offer only.
When the client accepts:
- With a deposit — two draft invoices appear: a Deposit for that share, and a Final for the remainder.
- Without one — a single Final draft invoice for the whole amount.
Both carry the offer's VAT rate, so changing the studio's rate afterwards doesn't change what was agreed.
If a service always takes the same sum up front — "CHF 500 to hold the date" — set that on the item itself in Settings → Studio setup → Services & prices: the deposit field there offers A fixed amount as well as A percentage of the offer total, and an offer built from that item inherits it.
Sending to a Client
Click Send Offer. Before anything leaves the studio, StudioFlow shows you a short confirmation naming the things you can't check afterwards without undoing something:
Send this offer? Anna Meier gets an email straight away with a link to read the offer and accept it online.
Goes to anna@example.com Written in German — the language Anna Meier reads Total CHF 4,075.37 Reminders after sending every 7 days
If something is off — the offer is written in a language the client doesn't read, or the contract body still carries the starter template's example note — the dialog says so in a sentence and the button relabels itself Send anyway. It warns; it never refuses.
Copy the link instead
Under the Send button, Copy the link instead:
No email goes out. We put the link on your clipboard and mark this as sent, so you can share it however you like.
Use it when you'd rather send the link yourself — WhatsApp, a message, your own email. The offer moves to Sent exactly as if you'd emailed it.
Either way
- The offer becomes Sent.
- The project moves to Proposal Stage, if it was an Inquiry.
- The link works.
The client opens the link, reads the offer and clicks Accept Offer. No login and no signature — their click is timestamped and their IP address recorded. The page and every email around it are in the client's own language.
Client Acceptance
When the client accepts:
- The offer becomes Accepted.
- The time of the click and the client's IP address are recorded.
- The project moves to Confirmed.
If the offer has Client Choice groups or Optional Add-ons, the client makes those choices before accepting, and what they picked is frozen onto the offer.
StudioFlow doesn't quietly invoice a price you may no longer want to honour. The offer shows Accepted after the valid-until date and nothing is invoiced until you press Confirm acceptance — or talk to the client first.
Offer statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being written. Change or delete it freely — the client has never seen it. |
| Sent | The client has the link and can accept. |
| Accepted | The client accepted. Their choices are frozen and the draft invoices exist. |
| Superseded | A newer version of this offer exists. The offer shows a banner pointing at its replacement, with Open latest version →. |
Sharing the link
A sent offer has one link, and it is the same link for the offer's whole life. Two buttons sit next to each other on the offer:
- Copy link — gives you the link the client already has. Nothing changes, no dialog, nothing is invalidated. Use this whenever you want to re-send it, paste it into a message, or just check what they got.
- Issue new link — the destructive one. "This creates a brand-new link and copies it. The link your client already has stops working immediately — so only do this if that link has gone somewhere it shouldn't, and you are going to send the new one yourself."
Neither sending the offer a second time, nor a reminder going out, nor Revise & Re-send changes the link. A client who kept the first email can still open it. The only thing that breaks a link is you pressing Issue new link.
After the client accepts, Copy link stays. It hands you the same link, which now opens the accepted offer with no way to accept it again. Issue new link is gone: a settled offer gets no fresh link, because a new one would let it be accepted a second time.
To look at the document yourself rather than copy its link, use Preview.
Correcting an offer after it's been sent
Two paths, depending on whether the client has accepted yet. Picking the right one keeps your record of what was agreed intact.
Revise & Re-send — sent, not yet accepted
If the client hasn't accepted and you spot a typo, a missing line or a wrong price:
- Click Revise & Re-send on a sent offer.
- Confirm. The offer drops back to Draft so you can edit it.
- Make your edits.
- Click Send Offer again.
The link your client already has keeps working throughout — and shows your edits straight away, so send again as soon as you are happy with it.
No new version is created; this is the same offer, corrected.
A sent offer says so itself: small fixes — a typo, a wrong amount — update the live link instantly, and the client always sees the current content. Use Revise & Re-send for changes big enough that the client should look again.
Owners, Admins and Crew. A Bookkeeper doesn't work with offers.
Create new version — already accepted, the job has changed
If the client has already accepted but the job has changed — an extra shoot day, a different package, a deliverable they've asked to swap — use Create new version:
- Click Create new version on an accepted offer.
- A v2 appears with every line item copied across. The original is kept exactly as it was and becomes Superseded.
- The new version starts as a Draft — edit it, then send it normally.
- When the client accepts v2, only v2 carries the acceptance.
What happens to the invoices generated from the original offer:
| The invoice was | What happens to it |
|---|---|
| Draft | Deleted. Nothing was ever sent. |
| Sent or Overdue | Becomes Superseded, and you get a notification to issue the invoices from the new version. |
| Paid | Left alone, with a notification saying it needs a credit note. Money actually moved, so you settle the difference with a Credit Note against it — never by quietly voiding a payment that happened. See Invoicing. |
The client only ever sees the current version. Earlier ones stay in the project's history.
Owners, Admins and Crew.
Quick decision guide
- Typo, not yet accepted → Revise & Re-send.
- Scope change, already accepted → Create new version.
- Paid invoice that needs correcting → Credit Note on the invoice (see Invoicing).
Offer Templates
Offer templates define a standard set of line items for recurring offer types (e.g. a "Wedding Photography Package" template with your standard items pre-configured). Manage templates in the Offers section → Templates tab.
Each template can be tagged with:
- Language — all seven StudioFlow speaks, shown as a pill on the template card. Keep a German and an English version of the same offer side by side, and the send dialog will tell you if you reach for the wrong one.
- Type — one of your service types. Filter the template list by it when building an offer.
- Tone — Formal or Informal. For your own reference when picking a template; it doesn't change the document.
Use the filter pills at the top of the Templates tab to narrow the list by Language, Type or Tone.
Anyone can read the template library and build an offer from it; creating, editing and deleting a template is an Owner's or Admin's job.
Previewing an Offer
Click Preview on any offer to open a read-only rendered view of how the offer PDF will look before sending it to the client. This works on all document types (offers, contracts, invoices, questionnaires) from the same button position — no need to generate a PDF and re-open it.
Bulk Delete
On the Offers list, tick one or more rows and a toolbar appears with the count and Delete selected. Only Draft offers can be deleted this way — anything Sent or Accepted is skipped with a warning. The confirmation offers Undo for a few seconds.
Header Image
Each offer can have a custom header image that appears at the top of the offer PDF. Upload it from the offer detail page.
Next steps after acceptance
When a client accepts an offer the recommended next step is to send them a contract before the shoot, then invoice from the project once the work is delivered. See Contracts and Invoicing.
Related
- Contracts — the usual next document, once the offer is accepted
- Invoicing — the deposit and final invoices an acceptance creates
- Settings → Services & prices — the price list offers are built from
- Projects — the status flow an accepted offer moves the project through