On a SmartBuild-priced estimate, a quote built at your catalog rates goes out as normal. The moment a rep types a different price on a service line — a rate, or a whole line total set by hand — the send locks and Request approval appears. The request carries only the lines that moved — was, is, and what the difference costs — and the approver can approve, decline, close it out, or set their own price on any line, with a reason the rep sees. Admins and sales managers price freely, and so does a rep the account trusts with their own prices. A product SmartBuild priced at $0 is held the same way until a manager marks it Reviewed — OK to send. Built only for post-frame and barndominium builders, where one concrete pad can carry more margin than the whole trim package — so the line that moved is the line you see.
Also called: price approval · discount approval · manager approval · off catalog price · reps discounting · approve a price
Only a changed price locks the send
Try itQuantities, sizes, markup and labour are all free. A service line priced off its catalog rate is the one thing that locks a SmartBuild-priced estimate, because the catalog rate is the one number you blessed in advance. The rate is the one for this estimate's build type — a barndominium line is checked against your barndominium price, not the pole barn one — and the screen and the server check the same number, so an approval is never asked for twice. Change the price back and the lock is gone, with no request and no waiting.
Lock too much and reps route around the system; lock nothing and margin leaves one line at a time.
A rep respects a lock that explains itself. The panel says in plain words why the estimate is held and the two ways out, so nobody feels policed — and the owner knows margin only leaves with a signature.
A rep you trust prices their own work and sends it
Admins and sales managers have always priced freely. A sales rep waits for approval — unless the account trusts its reps with their own prices, for the whole sales team or for one rep at a time. A trusted rep's panel reads Priced off catalog — yours to send: no request button, no alarm colour, and the lines that moved still listed with their dollars against the book. The trust covers their own prices only — approving somebody else's request stays the approver's job.
Your best closers sit in a queue behind every quote, and the screen tells them they're locked when they aren't.
Good salesmen stay where they're trusted with the number. Letting them price and send keeps deals moving the same afternoon, and the dollars-against-the-book line keeps the owner in the picture without a gate.
A price typed by hand is checked as a total
Try itOn Services & Add-Ons a rep can click a line's total and type the price for the whole line. That is a price off catalog too, so it is judged as a total against the line at catalog — $12,000.00 vs $12,125.00 catalog — and goes through the same approval as a changed rate. Reset puts the calculation back, and the lock goes with it.
A rep rounds a $12,125 pad down to $12,000 so the number sounds clean, and nothing tells anyone it isn't the catalog price.
Reps think in round numbers, and so do customers. Letting him type the price he'd say out loud keeps the quote natural — and checking it as a total means even a round-off is seen by whoever owns the margin.
Approve it, or set your own price
The approver sees only the lines that moved — was, is, and the difference — and can type a new rate on any of them in the unit that means something for that line. The total and the difference update as they type, and approving writes their number onto the estimate and tells the rep exactly what was set.
Managers rubber-stamped prices they half-agreed with rather than lose two days to a decline and a retype.
A manager rarely thinks yes or no — he thinks eleven. Letting him type his own number turns a two-day decline-and-retype into one tap, and the rep learns exactly where the line is.
An approval is for these prices, not forever
Try itEach approval records the exact set of prices it covers. Edit any of them afterwards and the lock comes straight back. If the rep changes a price while the request is waiting, it rolls forward to the latest prices and says so, so the approver never signs numbers that are already gone. And the approver has three doors in every state — Approve these prices, Decline, or Close it out — each with an optional reason the rep sees. Decline or close keeps the estimate locked; only an approval unlocks the send.
Approve a $400 door once, and without this it could go out at $40 next week — while a request nobody wants to approve sits on the approver's screen with no way to clear it.
An owner signs without worry when an approval means exactly what was shown. And a clear no with a reason ends the guessing: the approver clears his screen, the rep learns what to change, and the customer gets a corrected quote instead of silence.
Waiting on you, at the top of the screen
Anything waiting shows as a solid amber bar on the approver's home screen — who is waiting, on what, for how much, and for how long. It does not dismiss; it goes away when the queue is empty. The email's Review and approve button lands on the estimate with the decision already open.
A sale waiting on an email that was missed is a rep with nothing to do.
A rep with a sale on hold is a rep with nothing to do. A bar that won't dismiss keeps the approver from forgetting, so a waiting customer gets an answer the same day.
A $0 part waits for a manager too
Try itWhen a SmartBuild product comes back at $0 because it is missing from your SmartBuild price list, a red banner holds the send until an admin or sales manager clicks Reviewed — OK to send — or the rep asks an admin to clear it. Press Send first and the refusal is written for whoever is reading it: an admin is pointed at the button on the banner (and told to add the SKU to the price list to stop seeing it), a rep is pointed at the request. The banner scrolls into view and flashes, and while it checks whether the part was already cleared it says so, with Try again if the check can't finish. The clearance covers those exact parts; a new missing one brings the check back. See the SmartBuild integration.
An admin is told "an admin or sales manager needs to mark it reviewed" and doesn't realise that means him — so a small missing part holds a sale for two days.
People act on a message that names their button. The admin is told what to press and the rep is told who to ask — so a missing part costs a minute, not two days, and a short estimate never slips out unseen.
- 1Price a service line off your catalog rate — or type its total by hand — and the estimate locks. Request approval, or change it back and the lock disappears.
- 2The catalog rate is the one for this estimate's build type, so a barndominium line is checked against your barndominium price.
- 3Add a note if you like; it lands in the contact's notes. The approver's email has Review and approve, which opens the estimate with the decision in front of them.
- 4Approve, decline, close it out, or type a new rate — the total and the difference update as you type, and the button becomes Approve at your price. Any reason you write reaches the rep.
- 5The approval covers exactly the prices it was shown. Edit a price afterwards and the lock comes back.
- 6Admins and sales managers price freely; a rep the account trusts with their own prices sees Priced off catalog — yours to send and sends without waiting.
- 7Until it is decided, an amber banner on the approver's home screen shows what is waiting on them, oldest first.
An estimate built entirely at catalog rates is already approved — you set those numbers. A rep typing a different price is where margin quietly leaves, usually to close a deal at the end of a long day. So a changed price needs a signature before a customer sees it. But approve-or-decline was the wrong shape: a manager looking at a rep's $13 a square foot rarely thinks yes or no — he thinks eleven, and the only route to eleven was decline, explain, wait for a retype and a second request. Now he can say eleven, or close the request out with a reason when the deal has moved on. The approval is bound to the exact prices it was shown, because otherwise approving a $400 door once would license shipping it at $40 later. A lock is also a cost. For a bench of experienced salesmen, a queue in front of every quote is a day of waiting, and a screen that says locked to someone who isn't is a screen that gets ignored. So trust can be given: a rep trusted with their own prices sends without waiting, and still has no say over anyone else's request. And a blocked sale is a rep with nothing to do, so the queue sits at the top of the approver's screen, not in an inbox.
- Reps changing catalog prices on estimates without anyone signing off
- Approvals that could only say yes or no, not a different number
- An approval for one price being reused for a different one
- Trusted reps stuck in a queue behind every quote
- Requests an approver could not clear from his screen