A Quote in Salesforce is a formal pricing proposal sent to a customer. It’s a child of an Opportunity and snapshots what you’re offering — products, quantities, prices, discounts, terms — at a specific moment in time. The customer signs off on a Quote, then it converts into an Order (or Contract).
Where Quotes sit in the sales process
Lead → Opportunity → Quote(s) → Order / Contract → InvoiceA single Opportunity can have many Quotes. Reps often produce three: “Basic”, “Standard”, “Premium”. One of them gets flagged as the Sync’d Quote, which mirrors its line items back onto the Opportunity.
Object model
| Object | Role |
|---|---|
Quote | The quote header — number, customer, totals, status, expiration |
QuoteLineItem | One row per product on the quote (qty, list price, sales price, discount) |
Opportunity | Parent — the deal the quote belongs to |
OpportunityLineItem | Quote’s line items can sync from / to here |
Key fields on Quote
- QuoteNumber — system-generated identifier
- Name — human-readable title (“Acme Spring Renewal v2”)
- Status — Draft, Needs Review, In Review, Approved, Rejected, Presented, Accepted, Denied (configurable picklist)
- ExpirationDate — when the offer expires
- GrandTotal — auto-rolled from line items minus tax/discount
- Discount, ShippingHandling, Tax — header-level adjustments
- ContactId, BillingAddress, ShippingAddress — who and where
The Sync’d Quote
A new Quote is created with values copied from the parent Opportunity. If you click Start Sync on a quote, Salesforce keeps the Opportunity’s line items in lockstep with that quote — change the quote, the opportunity changes too. Only one quote per opportunity can be sync’d at a time.
Generating the PDF
Salesforce ships with a Quote PDF feature: a Visualforce template renders the quote as a branded PDF that can be emailed to the customer. Templates are admin-configurable, with one usually marked default. The PDF is stored as a File on the Quote record after each send.
When out-of-the-box Quotes are not enough
Standard Quotes work for simple catalogs and flat pricing. They start to creak with:
- Configurable bundles (pick a base, add options, validate dependencies)
- Volume tiers, ramp deals, multi-year subscriptions
- Approval workflows on discount levels
- Renewals and amendments
- Localised templates per region/language
For those, teams move to Salesforce CPQ (formerly Steelbrick) or an AppExchange CPQ. See the follow-up question on complex quotes for the upgrade path.
Common follow-ups
- Quotes vs Orders? — Quote is the offer (pre-signature). Order is the confirmed agreement to ship/deliver.
- Can a Quote exist without an Opportunity? — No. Every Quote rolls up to an Opportunity.
- Renaming Quote to Proposal? — Standard via Setup → Rename Tabs and Labels.
Verified against: Salesforce Help — Quotes. Last reviewed 2026-05-17 for Spring ‘26.