What Is a Sales Quote?

A quote is a proposed price for a set of products or services, sent to a prospective or existing customer before any order is placed. It typically lists line items (drawn from a product catalog), quantities, unit prices, discounts, tax, and a total, along with how long the offered price stays valid.

A quote moves through its own lifecycle as the deal progresses — drafted, sent, viewed by the customer, then accepted, rejected, or left to expire. Once accepted, a quote is the starting point for the order that fulfills it: its line items carry forward rather than being re-typed, though the resulting order keeps its own copy of them so a later catalog price change doesn't rewrite what was actually quoted.

The common failure mode isn't the quote itself — it's what happens after acceptance, when line items get manually re-entered into a separate order or invoice system and a quantity or price quietly drifts in the process.