Setting Quote Expiry Dates
Quote expiry dates protect your pricing against material cost changes and create a natural sense of urgency that encourages customers to accept sooner. Trade2Base lets you set a business-wide default and override it on any individual quote.
Why use expiry dates?
Protect yourself from material price rises — once a quote expires you can update costs before resending.
Create urgency — customers who see a countdown are more likely to accept quickly rather than let the quote go cold.
Keep your pipeline clean — expired quotes are automatically moved to an “Expired” status so your active quote list stays accurate.
Prompt timely follow-up — automatic reminders fire before a quote expires so nothing slips through.
Setting a default expiry in Settings
Open Settings → Quotes
From the sidebar go to Settings, then select the Quotes tab.
Choose Default expiry
Select from the preset options — 7, 14, 21, 28, or 60 days — or choose Custom and enter any number of days. Every new quote will use this value automatically.
Save your preference
Click Save. The default applies to all quotes created from that point forward; existing quotes are not affected.
Overriding expiry on a single quote
When creating or editing any quote, look for the Valid until date field in the quote header. You can type a specific date or pick from the date picker. This overrides the default for that quote only without affecting your global setting.
Tip
For high-demand periods (e.g. boiler season) set a shorter expiry of 7 days on individual quotes to protect yourself from rapid parts price increases.
How customers see the expiry
When a customer opens their quote in the Trade2Base customer portal, a countdown banner is displayed prominently above the quote — for example “This quote expires in 5 days”. As the date approaches the banner turns amber (3 days) then red (1 day), adding natural urgency without you needing to chase manually.
Automatic 48-hour follow-up
Trade2Base can automatically send a follow-up email or WhatsApp message 48 hours before a quote expires. To enable this:
Go to Automations → Quote expiry
Find the pre-built “Quote expiry reminder” automation template.
Choose your channel
Select Email, WhatsApp, or both. You can customise the message text or use the default template.
Activate the automation
Toggle it on. From that point every quote with an expiry date will trigger the reminder automatically 48 hours before.
What happens when a quote expires
The quote status automatically changes to Expired at midnight on the expiry date.
The customer can no longer accept the quote via the portal — they see a message saying the quote has expired and to contact you.
The quote stays on your system and is visible in the Expired filter on the Quotes list.
Re-opening an expired quote
Find the quote
Filter Quotes by status Expired and open the relevant quote.
Click “Reopen quote”
This unlocks all fields for editing. Update any line items, prices, or materials that have changed since the original quote.
Set a new expiry date
Update the Valid until field to reflect your new pricing window.
Resend to the customer
Use Send quote to email or WhatsApp the updated quote. The customer portal link will refresh with the new version and countdown.
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