Give the Customer Options and Optional Extras
For admins and office staff · Updated 30 Sep 2026
A quote can offer two kinds of choice. The customer makes them on the quote's link before they accept, and the price they see moves with what they pick.
- An option group is a set of alternatives, such as three brands of compressor. By default the customer picks exactly one. You can let them pick any number instead, including none.
- An optional extra is a line the customer can tick to add, such as a spare parts kit. It stays out of the total until they tick it.
Set Them Up
Options and extras are blocks of their own on the Estimate sheet, under your sections, while the quote can be edited.
- To offer alternatives, choose Option Group at the foot of the sheet and type the group's name on its strip. Add each alternative in the row at the foot of the group.
- On the group's strip, choose Picks One or Picks Any.
- Mark the alternative the price stands on with the mark at the start of its line. A pick-one group has exactly one marked. In a pick-any group, mark as many as you like, or none.
- To add an extra the customer can tick, choose Optional Extra at the foot of the sheet and add it in the row that appears.
A line already on the quote can be moved: open it with the arrow at its end and set On the Quote As to Included, Optional Extra or Option in a Group.
What the Customer Sees
- Each option group is laid out as columns side by side, headed with how many they can choose.
- A pick-one group starts on the alternative you marked. A pick-any group starts with the ones you marked ticked. Optional extras start unticked, each with what it adds to the total.
- The price follows their choices. When a mix of choices can't be priced exactly, the link says the total is worked out when they accept.
- Only an acceptance records their choices. Asking for changes or declining doesn't.
After They Accept
The quote keeps their choices. On the Estimate sheet, alternatives they didn't choose read “Not in the total”, and the total counts only what they chose and the extras they ticked. Converting the quote carries across the same lines (converting a quote).
Until the customer accepts, the Price panel and the Quotes page count the alternatives you marked. A quote written before options could be marked has every alternative in its total; Before It Goes Out says so until you mark the one the price stands on.
Mark Accepted doesn't record choices: the quote keeps the alternatives you marked. If a customer chose differently by phone or email, ask them to accept on the link, or make a new revision with their choice marked.
More in Quotes
- Build and Price a QuoteStart a quote, add its lines from the price book or an assembly, and set markup, contingency, discount and a deposit before you send it.
- Send a Quote for ApprovalEmail a quote or share its secure link, and what the customer can do there: accept with a signature, ask for changes or decline.
- Change, Revise or Close a Sent QuoteEdit a quote when the customer asks for changes, make a new revision for anything else, and what happens when a quote is declined or expires.
- Turn an Accepted Quote Into a JobConvert an accepted quote into a job, and a project, draft purchase orders and a deposit or full invoice if you want them, in one step.