How to Send a Quote on WhatsApp

To send a quote on WhatsApp you attach the PDF to the chat with the customer, or you send a link that opens the quote in the browser, and you write two or three lines above it saying what it covers, how much it comes to and by when you need an answer. The attachment is the fastest route and works from the phone in the customer's hand; the link is better when the document is heavy, when it may be revised, or when you want to know whether it was opened. Either way the quote stays a numbered document with an expiry date: WhatsApp is the delivery channel, not the filing system.

If your customers answer on WhatsApp within minutes and ignore email for days, by the end of this guide you will know which route fits your case, what to write alongside the document, and how to record an acceptance that arrives as a chat message.

What you need before you start

• The quote already finished and checked, with a number, the lines, the total, the tax treatment and a validity date. WhatsApp shortens the delivery, not the preparation: if the structure of your document is still improvised each time, the groundwork is in the guide on how to write a professional quote.
• The customer's mobile number in international format, with the country code in front. A number saved with local formatting looks fine in your contacts and simply fails to open a chat.
• A business number, not your personal one. A quote sent from a private number is hard to trace six months later, and only the business profile lets you hand a conversation to a colleague.
• A PDF named so it means something. Quote-2026-114-Rossi.pdf tells the customer what they are opening; documento1.pdf gets lost in their downloads folder by Thursday.
• Somewhere to record that it went out. The status has to change to sent, with a date, in the place where you keep your open proposals. If that place is currently a folder and your memory, the capabilities worth having are set out in the guide to quoting software.

One thing that is not a prerequisite: permission to broadcast. A quote goes to one named person who asked for it. Sending the same document to a list of contacts is a different job with different rules, covered in the guide on sending WhatsApp messages to multiple customers.

How to send the quote PDF from your phone

This is the route most people take, and it takes about two minutes.

1. Export the quote as a PDF and save it to the phone. If you produced it on a computer, send it to yourself or open it from your cloud drive. The file is then in the phone's storage, under a name you can see.
2. Open the chat with the customer and tap the attachment icon. It is the paper clip on Android and the plus sign on iPhone, next to the text field. A panel opens with the source options.
3. Choose Document, not Gallery. Gallery turns the file into an image, compressing the text and losing anything clickable. Document keeps the PDF intact, and the preview shows the file name and page count.
4. Check the preview. You should see the correct name and the right number of pages. If the name reads documento1, rename it now: this is the last moment it is cheap to fix.
5. Write the accompanying message before you press send. Not after. The document then lands with its caption and the customer reads both together, instead of receiving a bare file and wondering what it is.
6. Send, then watch the ticks. Grey means delivered, blue means read if the customer has receipts on. Unread for a day is normal; not delivered at all usually means the number is wrong.
7. Mark the quote as sent in your records. Date, channel, recipient. By the end of this step the proposal appears in your list of open quotes with the date it went out, which is what makes any follow up possible.

WhatsApp accepts documents far larger than any ordinary quote. Still, over a few megabytes a link travels better.

Alternative method: send a link instead of an attachment

Instead of the file you send a URL that opens the quote in the browser. It is the better option in three cases: a large document, a revision you can see coming, or a send you want to track.

Revisions are the strongest argument. With an attachment, version two sits in the chat alongside version one, and a customer scrolling back three days can accept the wrong total. With a link the address stays the same and the content behind it is always the current one.

The second argument is what you learn. A file in a chat tells you it was delivered. A link can tell you it was opened, and when, which is useful before deciding whether to call on Thursday.

The trade off is real: some customers trust an attachment more than a URL. Put the link on its own line with a short sentence saying what it opens, and keep the sender identifiable, so the message does not read as coming from an unknown number.

If the link leads to a page where the customer can also accept or sign, delivery and decision collapse into one step, which is the fastest version of the whole process. How that works, and what an online acceptance is worth, is in the guide on getting a quote signed online.

How to send a quote from your computer

Most quotes are written at a desk, so moving the file to a phone just to send it is wasted effort.

From WhatsApp Web or the desktop app, open the chat, drag the PDF into the conversation window, add the message and send. No transfer step.

From the system where the quote lives is better still, because the send is recorded against the customer. In Flusia the quote, the customer record and the business WhatsApp conversation sit in the same place, so the document goes out on the channel the customer uses and the history stays attached to the client rather than to one handset. To see how the quoting side is organised, the quotes and offers page walks through it.

What to write in the message that carries the quote

The accompanying message decides whether the PDF gets opened now or later, because it is what appears on the lock screen. Three lines, in this order: what it covers, the total, what happens next. "Here is the quote as agreed" says nothing the file does not. A made up example, a small agency writing to a client after a meeting:

Good morning Marta, here is the quote for the site restyling we discussed on Tuesday: 4,200 euro plus VAT, delivery in six weeks. It is valid until 20 October. If anything needs changing I will send a revised version today. Any questions, just write here.

Situation	What the message should carry
Quote requested in a meeting	The reference to the meeting, the total, the validity date
Quote requested by phone or chat	What it covers in one line, because they may have asked three suppliers
Revised quote	What changed compared with the previous version, in one sentence
Quote with options	Which option you recommend and why, so the choice is not left blank
Quote to a company	Who else needs to see it, asked explicitly, before it stalls in an inbox

Two rules keep it readable. Separate the paragraphs with a blank line, because a wall of text on a small screen gets skimmed. And ask one question, not three: "shall I confirm for the week of the 12th?" gets an answer far more often than "let me know".

When several people answer the same business number

As soon as two people quote from the same number, three problems appear: nobody knows whether a quote was already sent, two colleagues answer the same customer differently, and the history lives on whichever phone is logged in.

The fix is that conversations stop being personal. Each chat has an owner, the reply history is visible to the team, and the quote attached to that customer is the same document everyone can see. In Flusia the business WhatsApp number is multi operator for this reason, and a conversation stays linked to the customer record rather than to the colleague who opened it. Who takes which chat, and what happens when they are away, is covered in the guide on one WhatsApp number for the whole team.

One rule is worth writing down whatever tool you use: whoever sends the quote owns the reply until it is closed or handed over explicitly.

How to handle the reply and record the acceptance

Replies to a quote come in four shapes, and each deserves a different move.

1. "Perfect, go ahead." This is an acceptance and it needs to leave the chat. Change the status to accepted, keep the message as the record, and confirm in writing what you will start, when and at what price. That confirmation closes the gap between a chat message and an order.
2. "Can you look at the price again?" Do not counter in the chat off the top of your head. Say when you will come back, then send a revised document with a new version number. A discount improvised by message has no record behind it.
3. "I need to show it to my partner." Ask who and by when, specifically. "Shall I check back Friday?" gives you a date; "let me know" gives you nothing.
4. Silence. Nothing has gone wrong yet, and the next section deals with it.

For all four, the decision has to end up on the quote record, not only in the chat. A thread is a fine place for an acceptance to arrive and a poor place for it to live.

What to do when nobody answers

A quote left unread for three days is not a rejection, and a second message on day two is not persistence, it is pressure.

A rhythm that works for most small businesses: a short check after two or three working days, phrased as an offer of help rather than a chase ("did the quote reach you, anything unclear?"); a second contact around the middle of the validity period, by phone or email; and a clear message a few days before the expiry date, saying that after it prices and availability need rechecking. That last one gets the most replies, because it contains a deadline.

Read receipts help you choose. Delivered and unread means there is nothing to interpret yet. Read three days ago and unanswered means they have seen it and are not ready, which calls for a different question rather than the same one again. The full timing is in the guide on how to follow up on a quote.

Common mistakes

Sending the PDF from the Gallery. The file becomes an image, the text turns fuzzy on a small screen and anything clickable stops working. A minor detail until a customer says they cannot read the totals.

Sending the quote without a message. A bare file gets opened when the customer has a spare moment, which may be never. The three lines above the attachment are what gets it read today.

Leaving the acceptance in the chat. "Go ahead" written on a Friday evening is an agreement nobody else in the company knows about. The next person to talk to that customer starts from zero.

Quoting a new price by message. A revised figure with no updated document behind it is the most common source of disputes at invoicing time. Any change to the numbers means a new version of the quote.

How long it takes and what comes next

Sending a quote on WhatsApp takes about two minutes for the attachment and the message, plus half a minute to update the status. The habit is set up once: which number quotes go out from, how files are named, who owns the reply. Call it an afternoon for a small team.

The natural next step is the decision. Once the quote is delivered and read, the work shifts from sending to closing: a clear acceptance route, a follow up with dates on it, and a record that survives the conversation. If you would rather have the quote, the customer record and the WhatsApp thread in one place instead of three, you can try Flusia free for 30 days, with no credit card, and send the next quote from there.

Frequently asked questions

Is a quote accepted by WhatsApp message valid? A written agreement in a chat is evidence that the customer said yes, and for everyday work with a regular client it is usually treated as enough. For larger amounts, or where a signature is expected, a formal acceptance route is safer. These are general pointers: check your own contracts with your adviser.

Is it better to send the PDF or a link? The PDF for simple quotes to customers you already deal with: it arrives, it opens offline, it feels familiar. The link when the file is large, when revisions are likely, or when you want to know it was opened. Many businesses use both, choosing per customer.

Can I send a quote to someone who has never written to me on WhatsApp? If they gave you the number and asked for the quote, yes. If the contact is cold, WhatsApp is the wrong channel for a first approach. As a fictional example, someone who emailed from marta.bianchi@esempio.it asking for prices and left a mobile number has opened the door; a name from a bought list has not.

How do I know if the customer read the quote? The blue ticks tell you the message was read, not that the PDF was opened. That is the practical advantage of a link: opening it is a separate, visible event. Treat both as weak signals.