Cedar Works quote workflow

1. Current workflow

Sales prepares Q-104 for Cedar Works in a quoting workbook. Quotes, Pricing, Customers, and Reports tabs hold useful information. Colour and notes indicate status, while approval and handoff happen outside the workbook. A duplicate Q-104 file creates uncertainty over the current price.

Current path: Sales prepares quote → manager reviews a revision → operations schedules approved work → manager reports on current records.

Primary record

Quote number, customer, line items, total, revision, status, and next task.

People and handoffs

Alex in Sales prepares revision 2. Sam, the Manager, approves it. Operations receives “Schedule installation,” based on approved revision 2.

Added sample assumptions

One team uses this process; a single manager approval is sufficient. These are questions to confirm in real Discovery, not standard offer inclusions.

2. Preserve the useful rules

Keep the quote terminology, line items, and calculation. Store the approval with revision 2 and its approver. The illustrative review queue received it Mar 12 at 10:14; approval was recorded at 16:03. These times describe sample activity, not a project schedule.

A later price change needs a new approval. The prior approval remains attached to its original revision. Operations must see which approved revision supports its task. Reports read the current records instead of copied files. In the shown records, approved Q-104 ($1,250) and separate draft Q-105 ($640) total $1,890. That is the total across the two shown records, not all approved revenue.

3. Change the surrounding workflow

Replace ambiguous cell colours with named stages and a shared current quote record. Give the manager an approval queue, operations a next-task view, and reporting a current summary. Retain revision history so a changed quote cannot silently inherit its earlier approval.

Recommendation: A bounded quote-to-approval workflow is a candidate for a first build if shared handoffs are the main problem. If review shows one person uses the workbook reliably and coordination is rare, keep the spreadsheet and improve its validation and status conventions instead.

4. Proposed first build and boundaries

Illustrative inclusions: Quote record and line items; checked totals; sales, manager, and operations views; revision-linked approval; next-task handoff; current status reporting.

Illustrative exclusions: Accounting integration, payment collection, a customer portal, complex historical-data cleanup, and additional connected workflows. These would require separate scoping.

Added sample assumptions: A limited, reviewed set of active quotes can be imported. Reporting needs only current counts and totals by status. Identity, hosting, backups, export format, and support requirements still need confirmation. No standard deployment or migration package is promised by this example.

5. Acceptance checks

1. Enter the two Q-104 line items: the total is $1,250, matching the workbook.
2. Send revision 2 for review: the manager sees that revision, its total, and the waiting status.
3. Approve revision 2: the record retains Sam’s decision and the approved revision. Operations receives “Schedule installation,” referencing revision 2.
4. Change a price after approval: a new revision requires approval; revision 2’s decision does not approve the change. Operations can identify that a revision is awaiting review.
5. Review reporting: Q-104 is counted once under its current status; draft Q-105 remains separate. Changing status updates the summary without copying records.
6. Check agreed role permissions: sales prepares, the manager approves, and operations receives the task. Test the precise permissions with representative users before acceptance.
7. Compare agreed imported records with the source workbook, retain the original, and confirm which system is authoritative before cutover.

6. Risks and unanswered questions

• Which macros, discounts, tax rules, rounding, and exceptional quotes must be preserved?
• Who can change a quote after approval, and what happens to work already scheduled?
• How many active records need migration, and which duplicate is authoritative?
• What access, retention, hosting, export, backup, and support requirements apply?

These unknowns prevent a reliable implementation quote. Confirm representative workbook cases and the agreed approval and cutover rules before committing to the first build.

7. Price, timing, and next decision

A real planning handoff includes a fixed proposal for the first implementation when the build is viable and sufficiently defined. It records requirements, findings, scope boundaries, acceptance criteria, timing, and operating responsibilities. If the right answer is not to proceed, it gives reasons and alternatives; unavailable information and its consequences are identified clearly. No build price or delivery date is offered in this fictional example.

For a small project centred on one principal workflow, plan around $2,000 USDⓘPrices are shown in USD for a consistent North American reference. Canadian projects are quoted and invoiced in CAD at the equivalent amount. US projects are quoted and invoiced in USD. Once quoted, the project or phase amount is fixed in the agreed currency. total. If a planning phase is needed, its agreed cost of no more than $500 USD is included in that planning amount. We agree on the final implementation scope and price before development begins. Clearly scoped work can go straight from a free fit review to a free fixed quote. If important questions need investigation, I propose a small planning phase with an agreed scope and price of no more than $500 USD. No paid work starts until its scope and price are agreed and you explicitly approve it. You can use the handoff with Featherply, another developer, or nobody. Larger workflows, integrations, and complex migrations are scoped separately.

Client decision: Keep the document and stop, approve a scoped next investigation, or approve the first build when its scope and terms are clear. Additional work is agreed one phase at a time.