---
title: Enquiry bank overview
order: 1
updated: 2026-07-12
---

# Enquiry bank overview

Sales work in this app starts with an **enquiry**: a customer asking you for a price on something they want to buy. From capturing that enquiry, the record moves through quoting, follow-up, a purchase order, and finally a confirmed **sales order** — all under the *Sales* group in the sidebar. This page is the map: it explains what lives under *Sales*, the statuses an enquiry passes through, how an enquiry becomes an order, and where each detailed task is documented.

## Open the Sales area

*Sales* is a group in the left sidebar. Expand it to reach its pages. Which entries you see depends on your permissions — a group with no permitted children is hidden entirely, so if *Sales* is missing altogether you have none of its permissions.

The group shows three entries in the sidebar:

- *Add Enquiry* — the form for capturing a fresh enquiry. Needs *Add Enquiry* (`enquiry.add`). See [Add an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/add-enquiry).
- *View* — the *Enquiry Bank*, the master list of every enquiry your firm has raised. Needs *View Enquiry Bank* (`enquiry.view`). See [Browse the enquiry bank](/docs/enquiry-bank/enquiry-bank-list).
- *Orders* — the *Sales Orders* list of enquiries that turned into confirmed orders. Needs *View Enquiry Bank* (`enquiry.view`). See [Sales orders](/docs/enquiry-bank/orders).

Two more pages exist as real routes but are **hidden from the sidebar** and reached from an options dropdown instead:

- *Customer Follow-up* — opened from the *Enquiry Bank* options menu (Shortcuts → *Customer Follow-up*). Needs *View Enquiry Bank* (`enquiry.view`). See [Customer follow-up](/docs/enquiry-bank/follow-up).
- *Order Acknowledgment* — opened from the *Sales Orders* page header. Needs to be a firm administrator or hold *Send Order Acknowledgment* (`sales.sendOrderAcknowledgment`). See [Acknowledging customer orders](/docs/enquiry-bank/order-acknowledgment).

## The life of an enquiry

A typical enquiry travels this path:

1. The customer asks for a price. You [add the enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/add-enquiry). It starts in the *Pending* status.
2. You [generate a quotation](/docs/enquiry-bank/generate-quotation) and send it to the contact person. Once the send succeeds, the enquiry moves to *Submitted*.
3. If the customer goes quiet, you [chase them in follow-up](/docs/enquiry-bank/follow-up). Repeated unanswered follow-ups can auto-mark the enquiry *Lost* if your firm has configured a threshold.
4. When the customer sends a purchase order, you [attach the PO](/docs/enquiry-bank/purchase-order). The enquiry moves to *PO Arrived*.
5. You [convert the enquiry to a sales order](/docs/enquiry-bank/orders). The order is a separate record, linked back to its source enquiry.
6. You record dispatches against the order from the [delivery receipt](/docs/enquiry-bank/delivery-receipt) screen, which lives under *Inventory*.

Not every enquiry converts. Some are marked *Lost* when the customer buys elsewhere. Each of these steps has its own documented screen — this page just shows how they connect.

## Enquiry statuses

Every enquiry carries exactly one status at a time. It is set almost entirely by the system as you act on the enquiry — you rarely set it by hand. The five statuses, and the labels shown in the *Status* filter on the *Enquiry Bank*, are:

### Pending

- **Label:** *Pending*. **This is the status of every brand-new enquiry.**
- The enquiry has been captured but no quotation has been successfully sent yet.
- An enquiry also **falls back to *Pending*** automatically if you edit a tracked field (customer, products, prices, and similar) on an enquiry that was already *Submitted* or *PO Arrived* — changing the offer means the previously-sent quotation no longer matches, so the enquiry re-enters the quoting queue. This re-validation is enforced by the server, not just the screen.

### Submitted

- **Label:** *Submitted*.
- Reached automatically **only after a quotation email is successfully sent**, and only from *Pending* — a successful send never overwrites a later status. The send is processed by a background worker, so the flip to *Submitted* happens once the mail actually goes out, not merely when you queue it.
- *Submitted* is the state where customer follow-ups and the *Mark as Lost* / *Attach PO* actions apply.

### Lost

- **Label:** *Lost*. The customer did not place an order.
- Set by *Mark Enquiry as Lost* — allowed **only on a *Submitted* enquiry**, and only for users with *Mark Enquiry as Lost* (`enquiry.markLost`); firm administrators can always mark lost. The screen and the server both refuse to mark anything that is not currently *Submitted*.
- Can also be set **automatically** by the follow-up worker when the configured *Auto-mark as lost* threshold is reached (it flips enquiries that are *Pending* or *Submitted* to *Lost*). The threshold lives in the *Customer Follow-up* template — see [Customer follow-up](/docs/enquiry-bank/follow-up) and [Document templates](/docs/settings/document-templates#customer-follow-up).
- A *Lost* enquiry can be **reopened back to *Submitted*** by a user with the same write rights as mark-lost. Reopening only works on a *Lost* enquiry — the server blocks reopening a *PO Arrived* order, for example.

### PO Arrived

- **Label:** *PO Arrived*. The customer has confirmed by sending a purchase order.
- Reached when you [attach a PO](/docs/enquiry-bank/purchase-order) to the enquiry. First-time attach is allowed **only from *Submitted***; further PO-document edits are allowed while already *PO Arrived*. Any other starting status (pending, regret, lost) is rejected by the server.
- Once *PO Arrived*, editing the enquiry's offer fields is blocked unless you hold the stricter *Edit After PO Arrived* (`enquiry.editAlreadyOrderArrived`) override, because a post-PO edit can desync the order record.
- A *PO Arrived* enquiry is what you convert into a [sales order](/docs/enquiry-bank/orders).

### Regret

- **Label:** *Regret*, offered in the *Status* filter and grouped with *Lost* under "did not convert" on customer and sales reports.
- This is the non-converting sibling of *Lost*. In the current app, the customer-enquiry actions do not set *Regret* themselves (the standard non-conversion action is *Mark as Lost*), so you will mostly see it, if at all, on legacy or imported records. Do not rely on a screen action to produce it.

## Enquiry versus order

These are two separate records, and the distinction matters:

- An **enquiry** is the customer asking for a price. It lives in the *Enquiry Bank*, carries one of the statuses above, and is where quoting and follow-up happen.
- A **sales order** is created *from* the enquiry once a PO has arrived and you run *Convert to Sales Order*. It lives in the *Sales Orders* list and tracks dispatch, delivery, and returns.
- The two stay **linked**. A sales order carries no order number of its own — it keeps the originating enquiry number and the customer's PO number/date. Both records reference each other for history.

The *Convert to Sales Order* action only becomes available once a PO has been recorded against the enquiry (that is, the enquiry is *PO Arrived*), and it needs *Convert Enquiry to Sales Order* (`enquiry.convertToSalesOrder`).

## Key concepts on an enquiry

A few fields on the enquiry record shape how the rest of the flow behaves.

### Mode of enquiry

How the customer reached you. It is **required** when adding an enquiry, and the allowed values are `Mail`, `Whatsapp`, `Verbal`, `Portal`, and `Other`. There is no default — you pick one on the *Add Enquiry* form.

### Queued for sending

An enquiry can be **queued**: previewed and placed into the outbound send queue by a user with *Queue Offer for Sending* (`enquiry.queueOffer`), to wait for a user with send rights to actually dispatch it. The *Enquiry Bank* options menu has a *Show queued only* shortcut that narrows the list to enquiries waiting to be sent, and queued rows expose a *Send Mail* shortcut. See [Generate a quotation](/docs/enquiry-bank/generate-quotation).

### Quotation number lock

The first time a quotation is successfully sent, the enquiry **locks in a quotation number** — a firm-wide counter value that stays fixed for the life of the enquiry. Re-sending the same enquiry keeps that base number and bumps a revision suffix; it never consumes a fresh number. Because the number is firm-wide and consumed at send time, changing the number format later does not renumber enquiries that already carry one. The format, padding, revision suffix, and counter reset all live in [Document templates → Quotation number format](/docs/settings/document-templates#quotation-number-format).

### Universal note and associated party expense

An enquiry can carry a shared *universal note* (standing instructions), gated by *View / Edit Universal Notes* (`enquiry.viewUniversalNotes` / `enquiry.editUniversalNotes`), and an *associated party expense* list (party payouts against the enquiry), gated by *View / Edit Commissions* (`enquiry.viewCommisionsList` / `enquiry.editCommisionsList`). See [Attachments and notes](/docs/enquiry-bank/attachments-and-notes) and [Associated Party Expense](/docs/enquiry-bank/revenue-share).

## What you can do, and where it is documented

The *Enquiry Bank* is deliberately a find-and-open list; almost every action happens **inside** an enquiry's detail screen or from a dedicated page. Here is where each task lives:

- **Add / capture** — [Add an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/add-enquiry).
- **Find / filter / browse** — [Browse the enquiry bank](/docs/enquiry-bank/enquiry-bank-list); deeper rules in [Advanced search](/docs/enquiry-bank/advanced-search).
- **Arrange the table** (columns, tooltips, default status) — [Customise your view](/docs/enquiry-bank/customise-your-view).
- **Group enquiries** — [Enquiry folders](/docs/enquiry-bank/folders).
- **Open one enquiry / act on it** — [View an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/view-enquiry).
- **Edit or duplicate** — [Edit or copy an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/edit-copy-enquiry).
- **Quote the customer** — [Generate a quotation](/docs/enquiry-bank/generate-quotation).
- **Chase for a response** — [Customer follow-up](/docs/enquiry-bank/follow-up).
- **Attach the customer's PO** — [Attach a purchase order](/docs/enquiry-bank/purchase-order).
- **Turn it into an order** — [Sales orders](/docs/enquiry-bank/orders).
- **Thank the customer for the order** — [Acknowledging customer orders](/docs/enquiry-bank/order-acknowledgment).
- **Record what was dispatched** — [Delivery receipt](/docs/enquiry-bank/delivery-receipt) and [Sending delivery receipts to customers](/docs/enquiry-bank/send-delivery-receipt).
- **Attachments and notes** — [Attachments and notes](/docs/enquiry-bank/attachments-and-notes).
- **Party payouts** — [Associated Party Expense](/docs/enquiry-bank/revenue-share).
- **Audit trail** — [History and logs](/docs/enquiry-bank/history-and-logs).

## Permissions that gate the Sales area

Every action here is behind a permission, granted by your administrator. The important ones:

- *View Enquiry Bank* (`enquiry.view`) — the foundation; almost every other enquiry permission depends on it. Without it the whole *Sales* group disappears.
- *Add Enquiry* (`enquiry.add`) and *Copy Enquiry* (`enquiry.copy`).
- *Edit Enquiry* (`enquiry.edit`), plus the stricter *Edit After PO Arrived* (`enquiry.editAlreadyOrderArrived`) for post-PO edits.
- *Preview Offer / Quotation* (`enquiry.createOffer`) — the gateway to quoting — with *Queue Offer for Sending* (`enquiry.queueOffer`), *Send Offer Email* (`enquiry.sendOffer`), and *Send Customer Follow-up* (`enquiry.sendFollowUp`) building on it.
- *Mark Enquiry as Lost* (`enquiry.markLost`) and *Convert Enquiry to Sales Order* (`enquiry.convertToSalesOrder`).
- *Delete Enquiry* (`enquiry.delete`) — independent of add/edit; a user can delete without being able to edit.

Because the app assumes any request can be forged, each of these is re-checked on the server for every operation — the screen only hides what you cannot do; the API is what actually enforces it.

## Before you start

- The **customer** and **contact person** must already exist in your records. Customers and suppliers themselves carry no email address; their contact persons do, so quotations and follow-ups are addressed to the contact person.
- The **product heads and codes** you plan to quote must also exist.

If any of these are missing, add them first from *Data Entry* before creating the enquiry.

## Common questions

### What is the difference between an enquiry and an order?

An enquiry is a customer asking for a price. A sales order is created from that enquiry once the customer sends a purchase order and you run *Convert to Sales Order*. The order is a separate record, permanently linked back to its source enquiry, and it reuses the enquiry number and the customer's PO number rather than getting a number of its own.

### Why did my enquiry's status change on its own?

Statuses are mostly system-driven. An enquiry becomes *Submitted* automatically when its quotation email goes out, and *PO Arrived* when you attach a PO. It can drop back to *Pending* if you edit its offer after it was already submitted, and it can auto-flip to *Lost* if your firm set a follow-up threshold and the customer never answered. See [Enquiry statuses](#enquiry-statuses).

### I can't mark an enquiry as lost — why?

*Mark as Lost* only works on a *Submitted* enquiry, and it needs the *Mark Enquiry as Lost* permission (administrators are always allowed). A *Pending*, *PO Arrived*, or already-*Lost* enquiry cannot be marked lost. If you marked one lost by mistake, reopen it — that puts it back to *Submitted*.

### Where did the Customer Follow-up screen go? It isn't in the sidebar.

It is intentionally kept out of the sidebar. Open it from the *Enquiry Bank* options menu under Shortcuts → *Customer Follow-up*. See [Customer follow-up](/docs/enquiry-bank/follow-up).

### Can I delete an enquiry?

Open the enquiry, choose *Delete* from the actions menu on the detail screen, and confirm in the *Delete Enquiry* modal. Deletion needs the *Delete Enquiry* permission and is controlled by your administrator. See [View an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/view-enquiry).

### Can I bulk-act on several enquiries at once?

The *Enquiry Bank* itself works one enquiry at a time. Bulk sending of follow-up emails is available on the *Customer Follow-up* screen.

### Why can't I see the Sales group, or one of its pages, at all?

Everything under *Sales* is permission-gated. A page you lack the permission for is hidden, and if you have none of the *Sales* permissions the whole group is hidden. Ask your administrator to grant *View Enquiry Bank* (`enquiry.view`) first — it unlocks the rest.