Quote template reference
The Quote template lays out a quote's PDF: a priced offer with an expiry date, your terms and, for procurement offices, your registration numbers and the customer's tax exemption.
SKU.io uses it whenever a quote's PDF is made: when you click Export → Download PDF on a quote, when the customer downloads it from their quote page, and when it's attached to the quote email. The PDF is named after the quote number. If the quote's store has its own copy of the template, that copy is used; otherwise the global one is.
The customer doesn't only get the PDF. When you send a quote, they receive the Quote Sent email with a View & respond button, which opens a page where they can accept, decline or ask a question online. The PDF is attached to that email by default, and you can turn the attachment off in the Quote Sent email template. See Create and send a quote and Customize the quote email and PDF.
Header details
Quote Meta gives you:
| Variable | Prints |
|---|---|
| Quote Number | For example Q-000123 |
| Quote Date | The day the quote was created, in your account's date format and time zone |
| Valid Until | The last day the customer can accept |
| Customer PO Number | The customer's purchase order number. Empty when there isn't one. |
| Currency Code | The quote's currency |
| Memo | The note for the customer, from the quote's Memo. You can edit it in the quote's Send dialog. |
| Terms | Your free-text payment or delivery terms |
| Incoterm Code | The shipping terms code, such as FOB or DDP. Empty when the quote has none. |
| Incoterm Name | The term's full name, such as Free On Board |
| Shipping Terms | The whole statement: code, named place and edition, for example FOB Origin, Incoterms 2020 |
Store gives the store's name, logo and address. Customer gives the customer's name, email and phone.
Addresses
Billing Address and Shipping Address print the quote's Bill To and Ship To. When the quote has no address of its own, they fall back to the customer's default address.
Two lists of lines
A quote splits its lines into two lists:
| List | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Items | Lines for a product. This is what Total Units counts. Each item also has a Lead Time, such as 30 days or In stock, which is empty when the line has none. |
| Revenue Lines | Everything else, such as a shipping charge, a handling fee or a setup fee. |
Revenue Lines is what the other document types call Financial Lines. Both lists are already inside the quote's Total. Use the Has Revenue Lines switch so a quote without charges doesn't print an empty table, and Has Lead Times to show the Lead Time column only when at least one line states one.
An optional or pick-one line that isn't included prints in Items like any other line, with no marker, but it's left out of Subtotal and Total. The customer may see a row that the totals don't add up to. Quantities also print as whole numbers, so 2.5 prints as 3.
The per-line discount column
Each quote line, product or charge, can carry its own discount, ready to print:
- A percentage discount prints with a percent sign and trailing zeros trimmed, so 10.00 prints as 10%.
- A fixed-amount discount prints as a plain two-decimal number.
- A line with no discount prints nothing at all.
Because a blank cell looks like a mistake in a table, the built-in Quote template prints a dash instead. Copy that habit.
This is the line discount. The discount on the whole quote is part of the Discount figure in Totals.
Totals
| Variable | Prints |
|---|---|
| Subtotal | The product lines the customer has taken, before discount, tax and charges. It doesn't include shipping or other charges. |
| Discount | Line discounts plus any discount on the whole quote |
| Shipping | The total of the quote's Shipping revenue lines |
| Other Charges | The total of every other revenue line, such as handling and fees |
| Tax and Tax (Included) | The quote's tax, for tax-added and tax-included prices |
| Total | What the customer pays: Subtotal − Discount + Tax + Shipping + Other Charges |
| Total Units | The quantity across product lines only, so charges don't inflate it |
Print Shipping and Other Charges as their own rows. If you leave them out, the quote shows a Total larger than its parts with nothing to explain the gap. For the two tax rows, see the Sales Order template reference.
Tax exemption
When the quote's customer is marked tax exempt, Tax Exemption fills in:
| Variable | Prints |
|---|---|
| Tax Exempt Label | Tax exempt, or nothing for a customer who isn't exempt |
| Certificate Number | The exemption certificate number |
| Issuing State | The state that issued it, or Multistate |
| Certificate Expiry | When the certificate lapses. Empty when it doesn't expire. |
| Exemption Line | The whole statement, ready to print, for example Tax exempt — certificate TX-1123-4456 (TX), expires 12/31/2027 |
| Certificate Expired | A switch that's on when the certificate had expired by the quote's date |
The exemption is set on the customer record. See Set payment terms and credit limit.
Seller registration
Seller Registration prints your own identifiers, which government and institutional buyers often ask for:
| Variable | Prints |
|---|---|
| UEI | Your SAM.gov Unique Entity ID |
| CAGE Code | Your CAGE code |
| Tax ID / EIN | Your tax ID or EIN |
Each is empty until you fill it in at Settings → General → Government Contracting. The help text in the template editor's Variables panel says Settings → Quotes → Government Contracting; the fields are under Settings → General. See Prepare a quote for a procurement office.
Switches
Use these to show a block only when it has something to say:
| Switch | On when |
|---|---|
| Has Items | The quote has product lines |
| Has Tax | The quote has tax |
| Has Discount | There's a line or whole-quote discount |
| Tax Is Included | The quote's prices include tax |
| Has Shipping | The quote has a Shipping revenue line |
| Has Other Charges | The quote has any other revenue line |
| Has Revenue Lines | The quote has any revenue line |
| Has Lead Times | At least one product line states a lead time |
| Has Shipping Terms | The quote states an Incoterm |
| Customer Is Tax Exempt | The quote's customer is tax exempt |
| Has Seller Registration | You've set a UEI, CAGE code or tax ID |
What the stock template contains
- a Quote header with your store details, your UEI, CAGE code and tax ID when they're set, the quote number, date, Valid Until, and, only when present, the customer's PO number and the Shipping Terms
- Customer and Ship To boxes with both addresses
- an items table with a Disc column, and a Lead Time column when any line has one
- a separate Charge table for revenue lines
- a totals block with Total Units, Subtotal, and Discount, Shipping and Other Charges rows that appear only when they apply, then tax and Total
- the customer's tax exemption under the total, with a note when the certificate has expired
- a Notes block and a Terms block, each appearing only when filled in
The Notes and Terms pattern, a heading and its content wrapped together in one show/hide block, is worth copying whenever you add an optional block. The items table is written out in full rather than generated, so the Disc and Lead Time columns are yours to keep, rename or drop.
When the ship-to, shipping terms, lead times, shipping and other-charge totals, tax exemption and seller registration were added, SKU.io updated the global Quote template only where it was still the unedited default. If you've changed your global template, or made a copy for a store, those blocks aren't in it. Add the variables yourself from the Variables panel, or use Reset to Default on the template to start again from the current stock version, which replaces your changes.
Sales Order versus Quote
The two share the same overall shape (store, customer, addresses, items, charges and totals) but differ in what they can say.
| Only a Sales Order has | Only a Quote has |
|---|---|
| Shipping method and Ship Via | A Valid Until expiry |
| Ship-by and deliver-by dates | Free-text Terms |
| Tracking numbers | Per-line discount values |
| Payment and fulfillment status | Per-line Lead Time |
| Custom fields | Shipping Terms (Incoterm) |
| Substituted-product details | Seller Registration: UEI, CAGE code and tax ID |
Both print a ship-to address, Shipping and Other Charges totals, and the customer's tax exemption.
Anything the other type doesn't have prints nothing rather than warning you, so you end up with a label and empty space. The Variables panel for the template you have open is the authoritative list.
Next steps
- Sales Order template reference: the same customer, after the sale.
- Print, email & share these documents: how each document reaches the customer.
- Customize the quote email and PDF: which template a quote uses, and the quote emails.
- Template editor reference: why an unknown name is rejected on save but a loop typo isn't.