Choosing what customers see on quotes and invoices

Available on every plan

Customer view is being turned on account by account. Contact support if you do not see it yet.

Customer view controls which prices and quantities your customer sees. Hidden values are left out of the online document, PDF, and Word download. Staff can still see the full figures in SortScape.

Quotes can hide quantities, unit prices, line item totals, and the subtotal, tax, and total. SortScape invoices can hide quantities and unit prices. Each line’s amount and the invoice total always show.

Set the defaults for new quotes

1. Open Settings → Quotes & requests → Quotes.
2. Under What customers see, find Defaults for new quotes.
3. Turn these options on or off:
   • Show quantity on line items
   • Show unit price on line items
   • Show total per line item
   • Show totals and tax

The Preview underneath shows a sample quote with the current settings. It covers the line items and totals, not the whole quote layout.

These are toggles on the settings page. You do not need to click Edit.

A quote must show its line item totals, its overall total, or both. If you turn one off, the other toggle stays on and cannot be changed.

To keep your rates private, turn off both Show quantity on line items and Show unit price on line items. Hiding only one can still let a customer work it out from the other figures.

Set the defaults for new invoices

These settings apply only to SortScape built-in invoicing.

1. Open Settings → Invoicing → Invoices.
2. Under What customers see, find Defaults for new invoices.
3. Turn Show quantity on line items and Show unit price on line items on or off.

The Preview underneath shows a sample invoice with the current settings. Each line’s amount and the invoice total always show because a tax invoice needs a price against every line.

These are toggles on the settings page. You do not need to click Edit. To keep your rates private, turn off both quantity and unit price.

Change one quote or invoice

When creating or editing a quote or SortScape invoice, open Customer view under the line items. A ticked box means the customer sees that value.

Quotes have Quantities, Unit prices, Line item totals, and Totals. Invoices have Quantities and Unit prices.

The row reads Shows everything when every value is visible. When something is hidden, it names those values, for example Hides quantities, unit prices and totals.

Administrators can use the settings link inside Customer view to open the account defaults in a new tab.

Defaults apply only to new documents

SortScape copies the account defaults when it creates a quote or invoice. Changing a default later does not update documents that already exist. Documents created before Customer view show everything until you change them. You can change each document’s Customer view separately.

The defaults apply when you:

• Create a quote or invoice from its form.
• Invoice work from the schedule or invoicing screen.
• Create invoices with bulk invoicing.

Copying a quote or SortScape invoice keeps the original document’s Customer view instead of using the current defaults.

Bulk invoicing does not have a Customer view choice in its preview. Each new SortScape invoice uses the account defaults, including invoices sent by email or text as soon as they are created. Change the defaults first, or create that invoice on its own if it needs different settings.

Rules for quotes

A quote must show its line item totals, its overall total, or both. When you hide one, SortScape keeps the other option on.

Optional line items always show their own amount, even when other line item totals are hidden. The customer needs that amount to choose whether to include the option. Its quantity and unit price still follow the Customer view settings. Hide both quantity and unit price if you do not want the customer to work out the rate.

When to hide the total

A summed total can be misleading when one quote mixes different units. For example, a quote might include mowing at $80 each time, gardening at $100 per hour, and rubbish removal at $90 per cubic metre. Adding those figures produces a $270 total, which a customer could mistake for the amount charged each time.

Turn off Totals when the customer should accept each line’s price and unit instead of one combined amount. The quote will still show each line item total.

When Totals is off:

• The online quote, PDF, and Word download leave out the subtotal, tax, and total.
• The amount at the top of the online quote is left out.
• The total_amount tag in quote emails and texts is blank.
• Staff emails about an accepted or declined quote leave out the dollar amount.

The Quotes list, CSV exports, and reports still show the quote amount to staff.

Xero and QuickBooks Online invoices

Customer view does not change Xero or QuickBooks Online invoices. Those systems send their own invoice PDFs, so the invoice defaults and per-invoice Customer view row do not appear in SortScape.

Customer view still applies to quotes when you use Xero or QuickBooks Online because SortScape sends the quotes.

What staff see

Hidden values stay visible to staff in SortScape. On a saved quote or invoice, a note above the items names what the customer will not see. In the editor, the Customer view summary names the hidden values.

Hidden quote line totals and overall totals are also greyed. A crossed-out eye appears beside a hidden quote Total. Quantities and unit prices are not marked separately, so check the note or Customer view summary to confirm whether they are hidden.

These marks apply only to the staff view. The customer’s online document, PDF, and Word download leave the hidden values out completely.