Quotes and projects compared
A quote and a project are the same screens with one difference: a quote is work you are pricing, so nothing it plans can reach the floor or a vendor until you win it.
Most of Gnosis does not care whether you are looking at a quote or a project. The tabs are the same, the screens are the same components, and what you type into one carries into the other. There is exactly one idea to hold on to:
What is identical
| Behaviour | |
|---|---|
| Files | Same file manager, same folders, same access rules. Drawings, specs, emails and 3D models all work in both. |
| Materials | Same lists, same items, same vendors and prices. |
| Tasking | Same work streams, tasks, dependencies, durations and calendar. |
| Communications | Same threads. Email filed against a quote stays with it. |
| Description | Same header: client, dates, notes. |
What only a project can do
| On a quote | On a project | |
|---|---|---|
| Raise a purchase order | Plan and price the buy | Raise the PO against a vendor |
| Deploy a work stream | Plan streams and tasks | Deploy, so kiosks show the work |
| Share the schedule | Not offered | Send a read-only schedule out |
| Send work to another shop | Not offered | Assign a stream to a partner shop |
The pattern behind all four: a quote never commits anything outside Gnosis. It does not send an order to a vendor, does not put work in front of the floor, and does not send a schedule to anyone. Everything else, you can do while pricing.
That includes things people assume are project-only. Tasks on a quote take assignees, durations, dependencies and deadlines exactly as a project's do. They simply stay inside Gnosis until the job is won, because Deploy is the door to the floor and that door is only on a project.
What happens when you win
Set the quote's stage to Bid Accepted and a Convert button appears. It asks for the client's PO number, then moves the whole job across:
- Files and their folder structure re-parent onto the new project, so nothing is uploaded twice.
- Material lists and their items come across, with the prices you quoted.
- Work streams and tasks come across, with their dependencies and dates.
- The quote number stays on the record, so you can still find the job by what the customer first called it.
Where you tell them apart
The dashboard is the only place Gnosis draws the line for you: Quotes and Projects are separate tabs, and the search box narrows whichever one you are on. Inside a job, the section you are looking at behaves the same either way.