Castiron Custom Quotes 101

Everything you need to know about managing custom quotes in Castiron!

How to Edit, Update, and Send Quotes in Castiron 

All of your quotes (whether initiated by you or your customers) will live under the “Quotes” tab on the left-hand side of your admin page. You will be able to see each quote and the status of each quote. 

If you are not seeing all the quotes you thought you should be seeing, be sure to check the filter status up top. You have the option to include and exclude certain quote statuses from your view, such as a quote that has been “archived”. 

Step 1: Requesting a Quote from a Castiron Shop

Requesting a quote in Castiron is meant to be super easy for your customer and provide you all the relevant details you need to price a custom order.

Your customers will “submit a request” for their desired product. This only applies to custom products.

Your customer will then fill out the custom order request form that you’ve created. Not sure how to create an optimal custom order form? Check out this video here for tips. 

When your customer selects “Next”, they will be prompted to fill out their contact information and their requested fulfillment method for the Quote Request. 

After providing contact information, your customer will have the opportunity to select a fulfillment method based on what is already active as a fulfillment method in your store. For more information on fulfillment, check out this link. 

If your customer selects “delivery”, assuming that that is an option in your store, they will also be prompted to provide the delivery address before submitting a request.  And bam! Quote request sent.

Step 2: Responding to a Quote Request from a Customer 

Every time you receive a quote request from a customer, you will receive an email notification from the Castiron team. 

The notification email will provide you with the details your customer provided when they went to submit their request. To initiate sending your quote to your customer for payment, select “View Quote Request” 

Selecting “View Quote Request” will take you to your admin portal within Castiron, where you can view the New Quote Request. New quotes will also appear in your Quote Portal as “new” requests.

Click into each request to view, edit, and prepare your quote to be sent.You will see the order overview, your customer information, requested fulfillment information, and the request details that your customer completed. 

If a customer requests something that makes the total more than the base price (ex: additional fillings, varying quantities, a more expensive cake flavor, etc.), you can add upcharges as line items in the request form by selecting “+ Add Item”

In this example, the customer requested a raspberry filling, which the artisan would charge an additional $15 for. This $15 is calculated in the Subtotal by Castiron.

Be sure to confirm the fulfillment details as well. If your customer opted for delivery, they would have been required to submit their address, which will appear hereas well. Don’t forget to charge for fulfillment!

Next, select the payment due date for your Customer. 

Once you are satisfied with the status of the quote, you can send it to your customer by navigating to the top right of your screen. 

If you need more information from your customer prior to sending an invoice, select “Send Message to Customer” under your customer’s details on the right-hand side. 

Unavailable that day? Did someone request something entirely out of your wheelhouse? Reject a request by clicking the Manage Quote button and selecting Cancel quote. This will trigger an email to your customer letting them know you cannot fulfill the order. 

If you'd like to hide that quotes from your view, select the Archive Quote option 

Step 3: The Customer Check-Out Experience 

You’ve sent a quote to be paid! Here’s what your customer will experience when they go to checkout. 

Your customer will get an email notification saying that the quote is ready for review! 

When your customer clicks into the email, they will see a note from you (the artisan) and the option to “accept quote” and pay.  

In order for your customer to officially be able to check-out, they must agree to the details of the order that the request reflects. Additionally, your customer must agree to the terms and conditions of your store. 

Once your customer has paid, the Quote Status will update in your Admin portal to “Paid”. 

Your customer will also receive an email receipt of their custom order request. 

Status Definitions 

A quote is “New” when it has been initiated by the customer and has not been viewed by you.

A quote is a “Draft” when it has been edited by you but has not been sent to the customer for review and payment. 

A quote is “Pending” when it has been sent to the customer but you have not received payment. 

You can “archive” any paid quotes you do not wish to see in your view. 

To message a customer, re-send quotes, or update a quote’s status, click on the three dots on the right-hand side and choose from the selection of action items. From there, you can choose to re-send a quote, message your customer, cancel a quote, or archive a quote. 

If you would like to edit a quote that has already been sent to the customer for payment, simply click on the quote’s status directly. From there, make any updates you will need to make within the quote. Once you press “save” your quote’s status will revert back to a “draft”. This is because all changes to quotes must be sent to your customer to keep communication and payment up to date.