Pricing and quotes
The Pricing tab is where you build the quote for a deal. It’s always an open editor: the first time you open it on a deal with no quote, Shadows starts a blank draft for you, and you go straight to adding line items.
You always work on a draft. Your changes save automatically as you go, but the buyer sees nothing until you Publish.
Draft and Published
Section titled “Draft and Published”The switch at the top of the tab has two sides:
- Draft is your working copy. The badge counts unpublished changes, and a status line tells you when the draft is saving.
- Published (with its version number, such as v3) shows the offer the buyer currently has. It’s read-only. Click ← Back to draft to keep editing.
Build the quote
Section titled “Build the quote”The Build the quote menu on the left has a tile for each part of the quote. A purple dot means the section has content; a red dot means it needs attention. Click a tile to open its panel.
| Tile | What you set there |
|---|---|
| Items | The products and quantities on the quote |
| Discount | A quote-wide discount, line-item discounts, or a promotion |
| Tax | Estimated sales tax or VAT for the buyer’s location |
| Payment | Payment terms, licence duration and accepted payment methods |
| Currency | The currency the buyer sees, converted at a live exchange rate |
| Schedule | Payment milestones, such as 50% upfront and 50% on delivery. They must total 100% |
| Expire | The date the quote is valid until. Leave it empty for no expiry |
| Files | Attachments the buyer gets with the offer, such as the offer PDF or an MSA |
| Note | A short message shown to the buyer above the offer in the Deal Room |
The quote preview on the right updates as you edit. It shows the line items, Net customer price, Total incl. tax, Effective discount, and the terms the buyer is agreeing to. Hover over any term for a plain-English definition. Admins and Managers also see Overall margin.
Add line items
Section titled “Add line items”- Click the Items tile, then Add.
- In Add line item, search your catalog by product, SKU, or item name. Tick everything you want; you can pick several items across products.
- Add them. Each item appears on the quote with its unit price.
- Set the Qty and Billing cadence for each line. To remove a line, click its remove button.
Your catalog comes from your Pricebook. If a product is later removed from it, the line stays on the quote marked Removed from catalog. Remove it or add a current product instead.
Add a discount
Section titled “Add a discount”Every discount needs a reason. Publish stays blocked until each discount has one.
- Click the Discount tile.
- Under Discount type, choose Quote-wide discount (applies to every line) or Line-item discount (one line at a time). You can’t use both at once: remove one type before adding the other.
- Enter the amount as a Percentage or a Fixed amount.
- Fill in the Reason, for example multi-year commitment.
Admins and Managers can also apply a Promotion from the same panel. One promotion can be applied per quote.
Guardrails
Section titled “Guardrails”The Guardrails bars under the menu show the discount on this quote and the margin at this price, against your limits. As you discount, the panel tells you where you stand:
- No approval needed. You’re within your own discount cap.
- Needs approval before publishing. You’re above your cap. Publish is replaced with Ask … for approval, naming the person who’ll approve it.
- Approved — ready to publish. An approval covers this discount, and the button reads Publish (manager-approved).
See Discount approvals for how requests are routed and answered.
Add tax
Section titled “Add tax”Click the Tax tile. Shadows estimates tax from your billing entity and the buyer’s billing address (and VAT number, where relevant). If something is missing, the panel asks for it and remembers it for the next deal.
The estimate comes from a built-in jurisdiction tax table. It’s not a live lookup or tax advice, so confirm it with your finance team before invoicing. To add it, tick the confirmation and accept. If the buyer’s or your jurisdiction changes later, Publish is blocked with Tax needs re-checking until you accept the tax again.
Publish the quote
Section titled “Publish the quote”- Check the preview and resolve any warnings: a missing discount reason, tax that needs re-checking, or milestones that don’t total 100%.
- Click Publish.
- Confirm in Publish this pricing?
What happens next depends on the Deal Room:
- If the Deal Room is live, the buyer sees the new offer right away.
- If it isn’t live yet, this becomes the current version of the pricing, but the buyer doesn’t see it until the room goes live. No email, Slack or Teams message is sent.
Publishing never sends a message to the buyer and never turns on the Deal Room by itself.
Other actions
Section titled “Other actions”- Download PDF downloads the current draft (or, in the Published view, the live offer) as a signable proposal PDF. It doesn’t publish anything.
- Reset draft discards every unpublished change and goes back to the published version. The buyer isn’t affected.
Quote history
Section titled “Quote history”Quote history lists every published version with the date, who published it, the amount, discount, margin, What changed, and the discount approval that allowed it, if any.
When you can’t edit pricing
Section titled “When you can’t edit pricing”- If the buyer has accepted the quote, or the quote is otherwise closed, it’s Locked. Every tile is disabled, with the reason shown when you hover.
- Viewers, and anyone who doesn’t own the deal, see the quote read-only. If no quote has been started, they see No pricing yet; only someone who can change the deal can start one.