Quoting Engine
Please note The SparkLayer Quoting Engine is available on the SparkLayer Pro and Enterprise plan or as an addon for $49 per month on any plan. You can change your plan here or learn more about our how pricing works.
The SparkLayer Quoting Engine introduces a unified solution that streamlines the entire "quote-to-order" process directly from your existing online store. It allows you to handle quotes more effectively, converting them into completed orders faster than ever!
The SparkLayer Quoting Engine works by allowing your B2B customers to easily request quotes for review, and for your sales team to then communicate with the customer until they're ready to complete their order. Use-cases include:
- Managing the negotiation process with a customer
- Managing pre-ordering where customers need to request quotes ahead of time
- Managing sales-assisted orders where your sales team can add products to an order that your customer can then make edits to before they finalise
- Managing price on application (POA) products where your customers can add items to a quote before finalising pricing
This guide runs through how to get started with the SparkLayer Quoting Engine and how you can configure it for your own business requirements.
Want to test it out? Try our interactive demo of the SparkLayer Quoting Engine.
By way of summary, the SparkLayer Quoting Engine currently supports the following range of features and configurations. You can learn more throughout the guide below.
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Configurations |
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Workflows |
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Ordering |
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Expiration |
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Timeline and Communications |
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π Upgrading to the latest SparkLayer version To begin using the SparkLayer Quoting Engine, you'll need to be using version 3.7 or above. To learn more about how to upgrade, see our guide hereο»Ώ.
To get started with the Quoting Engine, you'll need to enable a special setting. Within the SparkLayer Dashboard, go to the Settings area and switch on "Enable Quotes".
Once enabled, this then allows your B2B customers to request an order as a quote for subsequent review (see "How it works" below). You'll also see the option to set the following:
Configuration | Details |
|---|---|
Quote Statuses | Quote Statuses allow you to specify actions and permissions against a specific status (see "Quote Statuses" below). |
Quote Notifications | This allow you to set which email recipients are notified of quote activity. We recommend configuring this before launching quoting on your store. |
Please note If you've been using SparkLayer before March, 2025, the SparkLayer Quoting Engine replaces the previous "Request for Quote" payment method that shows during the checkout process. Once enabled, this payment method will no longer show to customers during the checkout process.
When enabling quoting, you will be prompted to
Want to test it out? Try our interactive demo of the SparkLayer Quoting Engine.
To understand how the SparkLayer Quoting Engine works, it's useful to illustrate the process at a high-level and how it also works as a B2B customer and a sales agent.
Generally speaking, the process of requesting and completing a quote works as follows:
The quote is requested Active participants: The B2B Customer First, the B2B customer adds products to their cart and rather than selecting "Checkout", they select "Request Quote". They can then select their preferred payment method (once the quote is approved) and sumit a request for review.
The quote is reviewed Active participants: The sales team Next, your team (e.g. a sales agent) is notified of the new quote and the review process begins. The sales agent can login, view the contents of the quote, communicate with the customer, and make any edits.
The quote is negotiated Active participants: The B2B Customer & the sales team Your sales team and the customer can continue to communicate and make edits to the point where the quote is complete and ready to complete as an order.
The quote is completed Active participants: The B2B Customer Once the quote is ready, the customer can then confirm their payment method (e.g. net terms, pay online by card), and the order is then marked as "Processing" and goes through your standard order processing workflows until it's shipped.
When a customer is ready to request a quote, the end-to-end process works as follows:
Customer adds items to an order As they would do with a regular order, the customer can browse your online store and add items to their B2B shopping cartο»Ώ. Once they're ready and - providing the Quoting Engine is turned on - they'll then see the option to "Request Quote" at the bottom.
Customer goes through checkout The customer then selects their preferred shipping method and payment method and reviews the details of the quote before finally clicking "Request Quote". It's important to note that the selected shipping and payment method will subsequently be used when the customer is ready to complete their order.
Customer views the quote At any point, the customer can access the quote by going to their My Accountο»Ώ and viewing their recent activity. They can quickly see:
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Requested on | The date the quote was requested |
Expiry date | The expiry date of the quote. If a quote status is set to "archive", when an expiry date is passed, no further changes to the quote can be made and it will be cancelled. |
Assignee | The sales agent the quote has been assigned to |
Status | The status of the quote, as specified in "Quote Statuses" (see below). |
Items | The line items (i.e. the products) within the quote with quantities and pricing |
Customer communicates with sales team The quote includes a special "timeline" view that allows short-form messages to be sent between the customer and the sales team. For example, you may want to send the sales team a revision to your quote or ask a specific question. The timeline review gives customers a history of all communication in one place and is a great way to keep all correspondence unified within the My Account area.
Any communication sent via the timeline is also sent in an email to the customer.
Customer selects an action Depending on the actions and permissions set in "Quote Statuses" (see below), the customer can then perform a range of actions on the quote.
Action | Details |
|---|---|
Edit Quote | This allows the customer to make edits to the quote such as adding/removing products, changing quantities and more. Clicking this will load the My Cart Interfaceο»Ώ with the quote pre-populated. |
Confirm & Complete | When the customer is ready to complete the quote, clicking this will take them through to the checkout process to confirm the order. The shipping and payment details will be pre-populated based on the options selected when originally requesting the quote (these can be edited if required). |
Cancel & archive | This will cancel the quote and prevent any further edits or updates being performed against it. This should only be used if the quote is not longer require. |
Customer completes the quote Once the customer is ready to complete their quote, they can click the "Confirm & Complete" button (see above). This takes them through to the final step of the B2B checkout process where they can then confirm their preferred shipping and payment method (noting that these will be pre-populated based on the options selected when originally requesting the quote). The customer can then perform a final review of the quote and click "Complete Order"
Order is ready for processing Once the quote has been completed, it will be "converted" into an order and then undergoes your standard workflows for shipping the order to the customer.
Using the Quoting Engine as a sales agents is one of the best use-cases of this feature. It gives your sales team a great way to proactively create quotes for your customers which can then be reviewed and modified before requesting as an order.
Please note For quoting, you need to have setup a sales agent within SparkLayer. A sales agent could be anyone in your business that wants to be able to place orders on behalf your customers in SparkLayer. Learn more about how sales agents work in our guide hereο»Ώ.
Roles In some areas of our docs, we refer to βSales Agentβ as a general term. However, there is a distinction between Sales Agents and Sales Admins. Only a Sales Admin can assign quotes and perform certain higher-level tasks.
The process of reviewing a quote works in much the same way as detailed above with the exception of some sales agent specific actions that streamline the review process.
Notification of a new quote Based on how you've set up notifications (see "Quote Notifications" below), an email will be sent informing your team that a quote has been requested. This will include the customer's details and the items within their quote.
Sales agent is assigned to a quote Within the notifcation sent (see above), the "Review quote" button allows the quote process to begin. When clicked, you'll be prompted to sign in to the website and you'll then be taken to the quote where a number of actions can be performed by clicking the edit icon within the yellow box. If the quote needs to be assigned, this can be done by a Sales Admin.
Please note Only sales agents assigned to the quote by a Sales Admin can perform these changes.
The following details can be edited:
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Assigned Sales Agent | A Sales Admin can assign a specific Sales Agent to the quote. Once saved, they'll be notified to sign in to review the quote |
Quote Status | This allows a status to be assigned to the quote based on the options set up within "Quote Statuses" (see below) |
Expiry Date | This allows an expiry date to be set against the quote. If a quote status is set to "archive", when an expiry date is passed, no further changes to the quote can be made and it will be cancelled. |
Sales agent begins review process When a quote is assigned to a sales agent by a Sales Admin, the Sales Agent will be notified via email and can then proceed to begin their review. The sales agent can also view a quote at any point by signing into their account and seeing their recent activity. The "Status" gives an easy way to distinguish quotes versus regular orders.
Sales agent communicates with the customer As with the customer, the sales agent can use the special "Timeline" to send messages to the customer as well as private "internal notes". This is a great way to leave an audit trail of any important activity related to the quote.
Sales agent selects an action Based on an actions required, the sales agent can perform an number of activities against the quote.
Action | Details |
|---|---|
Edit Quote | This allows the sales agent to make edits to the quote such as adding/removing products, updating line-item pricing, editing shipping costs, changing quantities and more. Clicking this will load the My Cart Interfaceο»Ώ with the quote pre-populatd. |
Confirm & Complete | This allows the sales agent to complete the quote on behalf of the customer. Clicking this will take them through to the checkout process to confirm the order. The shipping and payment details will be pre-populated based on the options selected when originally requesting the quote (these can be edited if required). |
Cancel & archive | This will cancel the quote and prevent any further edits or updates being performed against it. This should only be used if the quote is not longer require. |
If the sales agent selects to edit the quote and they subsequently make changes, they'll be prompted on the to confirm the quote status, expiry date, and they can optionally leave notes. You can learn more about "Quote Statuses" below.
Sales agent finalises the quote The final step of the process is to "Confirm & Complete" the quote. This may be performed by the customer themselves or by the sales agent. Once the quote has been completed, it will be "converted" into an order and then undergoes your standard workflows for shipping the order to the customer.
Quote Statuses allow you to customise rules and workflows around how the quote process works. For example, you may want to restrict customers performing specific actions (e.g. being able to edit a quote), or you want quotes to automatically archive once the quote expiry date has passed.
By assigning a status to a quote, you can control how the quote process works and how you engage your sales team and customer throughout.
To get started with the Quote Statuses, within the SparkLayer Dashboard go to the Settings area and clicked the "Edit" button next to "Quote Statuses".
You'll then see active statuses as well as the option to "Add new status". By default, all quotes are set to a status of "Quote Requested" and there's an additional status of "Awaiting Customer" that can be used when sales agents perform actions.
When editting or adding a new status, you can configure a range of rules that will take effect when a quote is assigned to this specific status.
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Quote Status Display Name | This is the status that will show when viewing the quote via the My Account on your website. |
Quote Status Handle | This is used for internal purposes only |
Set as default quote status for customers | When set to active, all new quotes requested will use this status initially. |
Quote status when edited | When a quote is edited (either by the customer or sales agent), the quote can automatically be assigned a status |
Actions allowed | Specific actions can be assigned to a status |
Once you made changes to your quote statuses, you'll then see these reflect when viewing the details of the quote within the My Account area.
Please note Only sales agents assigned to the quote can perform changes to quote statuses.
Notifications are triggered based on certain activities (see "Email notifications sent" below) and it's possible to configure how these work. The notifications work as follows:
Recipient | Details |
|---|---|
Sales Agent | When a Sales Admin assigns a quote to a Sales Agent, they will receive all subsequent notifications to the email address you've set up for them |
Additional email addresses | You can optionally specify additional email addresses to send quote activity to (see below) |
Store email (fallback) | If a Sales Agent hasn't been assigned to a quote ad no additional email addresses have been configured, notifications will be sent to your store email (see below) |
Sales Agent
This will be the email address you use when setting up a Sales Agent via our Sales Agent Orderingο»Ώ tool.
Additional email addresses
For quotes that aren't assigned to a Sales Agent, you can also manage who receives notifications of quote activity via the Configurations section of the SparkLayer Dashboard. This will take effect for new quotes or if a quote is unassigned.
Once you've enabled quotes, simply click Edit next to Quote Notifications and you can add any email addresses you require.
Store email (fallback)
The store email can be managed within your Shopify admin by going to Settings, General and modifying your store details. This is typically the email address where standard Shopify notifications are sent to.
Please note The content for notifications sent are managed by the Templates section of the SparkLayer Dashboard. You can learn how this works in our guide hereο»Ώ. We also recommend enabling My Account "quick links"ο»Ώ to make it easier to view quotes via clicking the link within the email notification.
The following notifications are triggered during the quote process based on specific activities performed:
When reviewing a quote requested by a customer, there are a number of key areas to be aware of. These relate to how you're notified of new quotes, right through to how you can communicate with the customer about the quote.
It's possible to make edits to a quote such as updating quantities, adding or removing products, shipping methods and more. Please see "How it works" above to learn more.
The SparkLayer Quoting Engine features a special "timeline" that allows communication relevant to a quote to be centralised in one place. It's a great way for customers and Sales Agents to interact and ensures a full audit of the quote is made in the process.
Timeline activities
The quote timeline will display the following activities:
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Quote actions | Including when it was requested and updated |
Customer messages | any messages requested by the customer |
Sales agent messages | any messages requested by a Sales Agent |
Internal notes | any private messages requested by a Sales Agent |
Quote edits | any edits are detailed with an audit log of what changes were made |
Adding messages
The timeline works by enabling a message box when viewing a specific quote with the My Account areaο»Ώ. Any messages added are also sent as email notifications to the recipient (see "Notifications sent" above). Based on the user type, the timeline works slightly differently.
The sales agent is given the option to send a message (and notify the customer) or save as an internal note.
When saving as an internal note, the message is denoted in a yellow box and kept private from the customer. Only other sales agents can see these notes.
When any quote is requested, the final part of the process is to complete the quote and convert it into an order. At this point, the order can then be processed and shipped just like any other.
To learn more about how this works, see "How it works" above.
It's possible to configure which Customer Groupsο»Ώ you'd like to be able to request quotes via your website, allowing you to control which customers can access the feature.
To get started, go to the Customer Groups section of the SparkLayer Dashboard and edit the appropriate customer group by clicking the edit icon. Within the "Quoting Engine" section, simply check the box to enable quoting for that specific customer group.
SparkLayer has built-in functionality that can optionally 'auto-redirect' a customer or sales agent directly to the order or quote details, simply by clicking a link. To learn how this works, please see our guide hereο»Ώ.
It's possible to adjust the text specific to the Quoting Engine functionality by adding special code to the SparkLayer Core Script.
The SparkLayer Quoting Engine will be subject to many ongoing improvements, however please be aware of the following limitations currently.
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Company Users | It is not currently possible for Limited Users to request quotes. Learn more about Company Usersο»Ώ |
Out of stock products | BigCommerce does not allow out of stock items when creating or editing a quote. |
As part of ongoing improvements to the SparkLayer Quoting Engine, there will be a number of improvements planned.
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Out of stock products | When completing a quote, if products in the order are out of stock, this will prevent the quote from being finalised. |
We've love to know if you have feedback on the SparkLayer Quoting Engine. Let our team know by emailing [email protected]