Send the quote, get it signed online: documents without PDF ping-pong

With Advanzo you build the quote straight from the deal: company name, contact person, line items and prices come into the document through placeholders and a product table. You send it by email, the customer opens it in the browser and accepts or signs it online. No PDF that goes back and forth three times, no file called "Quote_v4_final_final". Every quote sits on the deal, with its status and a PDF to download.

This article is for businesses with two to twenty people who send quotes, proposals or contracts regularly: trades, agencies, consultancies, IT service providers. If you write quotes in Word today and email them as PDFs, this is the route to a document that lives in the CRM.

The problem today: the quote lives outside the CRM

This is how it goes in many small businesses: the quote is written in Word or in a template inside the accounting software. Someone copies the address and the line items from the CRM, from the last quote or from memory. Then a PDF is generated and emailed. From here the ping-pong starts.

• The customer wants to change one line item. You open the Word file, adjust it, export again, email again. Version 2.
• The customer prints it, signs it, scans it, emails it back. Or they do not, and nobody knows whether they have even read the quote.
• The signed version sits in one person's mailbox. The deal in the CRM still says "quote sent".
• Three months later someone on the team asks which terms applied back then. Answer: "Ask Reto, he did that one."

This does not only cost time. It costs deals. Every round of ping-pong is a day on which the customer thinks about a different quote. Whoever delivers a clean, editable quote faster often has the order before the competitor has exported their PDF. And when quote and deal live apart, the pipeline value never matches what was actually offered.

What a document is in Advanzo

In Advanzo, quotes, proposals and contracts are documents attached to the deal. You build them in an editor. Three building blocks make the difference to Word:

• Placeholders from the deal: company name, contact person, address, deal title and deal value are filled from the contact, the company and the deal when you create the document. You do not type them in.
• Product tables: line items come from the product catalogue, with quantity, unit price and total. The deal value follows from the line items.
• Signature blocks: a block in which the customer accepts or signs online. No printing, no scanning.

Then there is the brand: logo, colours, fonts and sender settings are stored per brand in Advanzo. Every document inherits them. An agency workspace with three brands therefore sends three differently styled quotes without anyone touching a template.

If you use the AI assistant, you can have a first draft of the document written from the deal context: the contacts, the products on the deal, the email history so far and the brand. The draft is a proposal. You read it, correct wording and prices, and decide whether it goes out. What this looks like in practice is covered in creating proposals faster with AI.

How it works step by step

Step 1: Set up the catalogue and the brand once

Create your products or services with prices in the product catalogue: hourly rates, fixed packages, materials. Under brands, store your logo, your colours, your fonts and the sender. You do this once. After that every document draws on it.

Step 2: Create the document from the deal

1. Open the deal and create a new document, for example a quote.
2. The placeholders for company, contact and deal are already filled.
3. Optional: let the AI assistant write a draft from the deal context and check it paragraph by paragraph.

Step 3: Enter line items and terms

1. Insert a product table and pick the line items from the catalogue. Adjust quantities, check the total.
2. Add the text: scope of work, dates, payment terms, validity of the quote.
3. Put the signature block at the end.

Step 4: Send by email

Send the document from Advanzo by email to the contact person. The email goes through your connected mailbox (Gmail, Microsoft 365 or IMAP) and is logged on the deal. The customer receives a link and sees the quote in the browser, on the desktop or on their phone.

Step 5: The customer accepts or signs

The customer reads the quote online and accepts it or signs in the signature block. You see that on the document in the deal, and the whole team sees it too. Nobody has to ask whether the quote has come back. If the customer wants a change, they reply to the email. The reply lands in the same deal, and you adjust the document without building a new PDF.

Step 6: File the PDF and move the deal on

Download the accepted document as a PDF if you need it for bookkeeping or for the customer. Move the deal to the next stage. A workflow can create a task for you when the stage changes, such as "send order confirmation". That way nothing is forgotten after the signature.

PDF ping-pong and the online quote compared

The table shows what changes per quote when the document is created in the CRM instead of in Word.

Checklist: what belongs in every quote

A quote that is accepted online has to answer every question before the customer asks it. Check before sending:

• The right contact person with the correct salutation and address. Placeholders help, but a glance is worth it.
• Every line item with quantity, unit, unit price and total. No lump sum without a short description of what is included.
• VAT shown, prices in CHF. How to communicate prices clearly in Switzerland is covered in communicating prices in CHF.
• A validity date for the quote. Without a deadline there is no reason to decide now.
• Delivery or execution date, with conditions where they depend on the customer.
• Payment terms: deposit, payment period, partial invoices.
• What is not included. Three lines of scope boundaries save three hours of discussion later.
• A signature block with the name and role of the person who may accept on the customer's side.
• A follow-up task in the calendar in case there is no reply by the agreed date.

Mini scenario: a plumbing business with 6 people in Winterthur

Brunner Haustechnik AG in Winterthur has six employees: the owner, two people in the office and three fitters. The fitters do not need a CRM. The owner and the office work with Advanzo, three users. The business sends around 40 quotes a month, from a tap for CHF 480 to a bathroom renovation for CHF 18,400. Before: every quote in Word, around 25 minutes including looking up the last prices, plus chasing by phone because nobody knew whether the PDF had arrived.

Today the quote is created on the deal. The 60 most common line items sit in the product catalogue, and the bathroom renovation is a product table with twelve rows. Time per quote: around 10 minutes. That is 40 times 15 minutes, so 10 hours a month the office no longer spends retyping. The customer accepts the quote on their phone, the deal moves to "order", and a workflow creates the task "arrange installation date". At the end of the month the pipeline shows CHF 212,000 in open quotes, and the number is right because it comes from the line items. How trade businesses keep quotes and orders under control beyond that is covered in CRM for trade businesses.

Typical mistakes when moving to online quotes

• Rebuilding the Word template one to one: many templates have grown over years and contain paragraphs nobody reads. Use the switch to cut the quote down to what the customer needs for the decision.
• Typing line items freely instead of using the catalogue: then every person calculates differently and the deal value is wrong. Create the standard line items once.
• Sending the AI draft unread: the draft is a proposal from the deal context. Prices, deadlines and scope boundaries are yours to check before the document goes out.
• No validity date and no follow-up task: a quote without a date and without a reminder is left lying. Set both before you send.
• Attaching the PDF to the email anyway: then the customer signs on paper again. Send the link, and explain in one sentence in the email that they can accept online.
• Brand not maintained: a document without a logo and with default colours looks like a test. Five minutes in the brand settings are enough.

Frequently asked questions

Does the customer need an Advanzo account to accept the quote?

No. The customer receives a link by email, opens the document in the browser and accepts or signs it there. No login and no installation are needed. It works on the desktop and on the phone.

Can I change the quote after sending it?

Yes. If the customer wants to change a line item, you adjust the document in Advanzo. You do not have to generate a new PDF. The customer's email lands in the same deal, so the whole exchange stays traceable in one place.

Is the online signature legally valid?

For most quotes and orders in day-to-day B2B business a written acceptance is enough, and the acceptance in Advanzo records who accepted and when. For contracts with a statutory form requirement, such as certain tenancy agreements or guarantees, clarify the requirements with your legal adviser. That applies regardless of the tool.

What do I need for the AI drafts?

The AI assistant in Advanzo, which writes the draft from the deal context: contacts, products on the deal, email history and brand. Alternatively you enter your own Anthropic or OpenAI key. Either way a person reviews the draft before the document is sent.

Can I still file quotes as PDFs?

Yes. Every document can be downloaded as a PDF, including the accepted or signed version. You can pass the PDF to bookkeeping or email it to the customer on request. The original stays on the deal in Advanzo.

If you want to try this in Advanzo: advanzo.app.