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Approvals and margin control for every MSP deal

Agreements over your value threshold and discounts deeper than your policy wait In Review, while cost and margin stay in your team's view.

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On the Business plan, QuoteCloud's approval workflow puts a document In Review when it meets a condition you set, such as a discount percentage or a total value, and it can't be sent until the approvers approve it. Cost and margin from your price book show only in your team's view, never to the client.

An approval workflow for a fictional MSP, Quillfield IT, with two conditions joined by OR: discount percentage greater than 10%, or total value greater than $200,000. Three sample documents pass through it in turn. A $255,900 managed services agreement meets the total value condition and goes In Review: the managing director has approved and the finance manager is waiting. A renewal offer with a 15% discount meets the discount condition and waits for the managing director. A $9,240 security assessment meets neither and is sent as usual.

Your deal desk, written once as a workflow

Set the policy in Settings › Workflow. A trigger catches the deals that need a second look, a switch sends each one to the right people, and nothing is sent until they approve.

Send a sample deal through it

Workflow · MSP deal deskActive

Trigger

The workflow runs when the condition is met

  • Discount PercentageGreater Than 10
  • OR
  • Total ValueGreater Than 200,000
Switch

Routes each document by total value. Conditions are checked in order.

If Total Value Greater Than 200,000 Approval

Approvers from role: Managing director, Finance manager

Simon Achari · Elise Moreau

Must be approved by all users selected. Any rejection results in rejection.

Ready to Send Reject to Send
If no condition is met Approval

Approvers from role: Managing director

Simon Achari

Any rejection results in rejection.

Ready to Send Reject to Send

QF-4108 · managed services: Total value is over $200,000, so the agreement goes In Review. Simon and Elise must both approve before Nina can send it to Thornbury & Webb.

QF-2390-R · renewal: The 15% discount meets the trigger; the value is under $200,000, so the switch's fallback sends it to Simon alone.

QF-S-0233 · assessment: Neither condition is met, so the workflow doesn't run and Ingrid sends the assessment as usual.

  1. 1

    Conditions on discount and value

    The trigger uses Discount Percentage and Total Value, with Greater Than, Less Than, Equals or Does Not Equal, joined by AND or OR. Start from the Approval by Value Threshold or Approval by Discount Level template.

  2. 2

    Each deal to the right people

    A Switch node checks its conditions in order and falls back when none is met, so a multi-year agreement reaches finance while a discounted renewal stops at the managing director.

  3. 3

    No send until it's approved

    Approvers decide in the document's workflow panel and every decision is in its activity log. A rejected document goes back to the rep to update.

Approval workflow: Business planHow the approval workflow works

One agreement, two views of the numbers

The client sees services, quantities and totals. Your team sees the same table with cost, margin and the deal margin beside them. Change the term or a quantity in one view and the other follows.

What Thornbury & Webb sees

Per-user, per-device and Microsoft 365 rows on the term the client picks, onboarding once-off, and the total contract value. No cost, no margin.

Price tables: Essentials and up

Per-user & per-device MSP pricing
Quillfield ITManaged services agreement QF-4108 Sample · fictional business

Your services, per user and per device

ItemQtyMonthlyOnce-off
Managed IT, per user$3,570—
Managed IT · StandardMS-STD-U · Per user · change the tier above
42 $3,570 —
Devices, servers & sites$989—
Device managementEP-MGD-D · Laptops and desktops · patching and remote access
51 $459 —
Managed serverSRV-MGD · Monitoring, patching, backup checks
2 $290 —
Managed firewall & switchingNET-MGD · Per office
2 $240 —
Microsoft 365 & backup$1,764—
Microsoft 365 Business PremiumM365-BP · Per user · annual commitment, billed monthly
42 $1,554 —
Microsoft 365 backupBKP-365 · Mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams
42 $210 —
Onboarding, once-off—$6,240
Onboarding & documentationONB-STD · Audit, documentation, agent rollout
1 — $4,200
Device enrolmentENR-DEV · Each laptop and desktop
51 — $2,040
Security options Tick to add
 51 $612 —
42 $168 —
1 $390 —
Monthly recurring
$6,935/mo
Once-off
$6,240
Total contract value over 36 months
$255,900
Onboarding paid on signing (50% of once-off)
$3,120

All prices excluding tax. Monthly charges apply for the contract term and are invoiced by Quillfield IT.

What your team sees

The hidden Cost and Margin columns appear beside every row, with the margin for the whole deal under the totals. They are calculated from the price book and only ever shown in the team view.

Hidden cost and margin columns: Essentials and up

Licences & hardware with hidden margin
Quillfield ITManaged services agreement QF-4108 Team view · sample data

Your services, per user and per device

Your team's view: cost and margin columns are hidden from the customer

ItemQtyMonthlyOnce-offCost /moMargin
Managed IT, per user$3,570—
Managed IT · StandardMS-STD-U · Per user · change the tier above
42 $3,570 — $2,058 42%
Devices, servers & sites$989—
Device managementEP-MGD-D · Laptops and desktops · patching and remote access
51 $459 — $229 50%
Managed serverSRV-MGD · Monitoring, patching, backup checks
2 $290 — $140 52%
Managed firewall & switchingNET-MGD · Per office
2 $240 — $110 54%
Microsoft 365 & backup$1,764—
Microsoft 365 Business PremiumM365-BP · Per user · annual commitment, billed monthly
42 $1,554 — $1,386 11%
Microsoft 365 backupBKP-365 · Mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams
42 $210 — $100 52%
Onboarding, once-off—$6,240
Onboarding & documentationONB-STD · Audit, documentation, agent rollout
1 — $4,200 — —
Device enrolmentENR-DEV · Each laptop and desktop
51 — $2,040 — —
Security options Tick to add
 51 $612 — $357 42%
42 $168 — $67 60%
1 $390 — $180 54%
Monthly recurring
$6,935/mo
Once-off
$6,240
Total contract value over 36 months
$255,900
Deal margin hidden from customer
37.0%

All prices excluding tax. Monthly charges apply for the contract term and are invoiced by Quillfield IT.

What the approver sees

The agreement is In Review because its total value is over $200,000. The managing director has approved; the finance manager can approve or decline. Until both approve, it can't be sent.

Approval workflow: Business plan

Setting up approvals in your rollout
Quillfield ITManaged services agreement QF-4108 Approver view · sample data

Document workflow

In Review

Triggered when Total value greater than $200,000

  • Simon AchariManaging directorApproved
  • Elise MoreauFinance managerWaiting

Must be approved by all approvers before it can be sent.

  1. Approval request sent by Nina Castell
  2. Approved by Simon Achari

Approval workflow · Business plan

The rules MSPs actually set

Most deal desks need two rules: one for discounts, one for big agreements. Add the others only where your business needs them.

  • Discount over your policy

    Discount Percentage Greater Than 10 catches the renewal sweetened to keep a client, or a hardware line priced to win, before the client sees it.

  • Multi-year total value

    Total Value Greater Than 200,000 sends every large 36-month agreement to finance before it is sent, not after it is signed.

  • A template that always needs a look

    Created from template catches every document started from, say, your enterprise agreement template, whatever its value.

  • A key account

    Customer Company or Customer Account sends pricing for one client to the person who owns that relationship.

  • New reps

    Creator role, team or email puts a new starter's documents In Review until you trust their pricing.

  • Margin informs, it doesn't trigger

    Margin isn't an approval condition. The approver opens the team view, sees the deal margin, and decides.

Put your discount policy into QuoteCloud

Try Business free for 14 days, no credit card required. Build the workflow, send a test agreement over your threshold and approve it yourself.

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Cost and margin start in the price book

Every managed service, licence and laptop in your catalogue carries its price, cost and billing term. QuoteCloud calculates profit and margin for your team, and neither ever reaches the client's copy.

When a distributor changes prices, import the new list by CSV with column mapping. Role permissions decide who can change the price book, and categories can be assigned to teams.

  • SKU, category, price, cost, margin and billing term per product
  • Active, Draft and Inactive, so a superseded laptop drops out of new quotes
  • Role permissions, and categories assigned to teams

Product catalogue: Essentials and up

Microsoft 365, licensing & hardware resale
Price book · all productsQuillfield IT Sample data
  • All
  • Managed services
  • Security
  • Licences
  • Hardware

CSV import distributor-price-list-november.csv · 212 products updated, 6 marked inactive

ProductPriceBillingCostMarginStatus
Managed IT · StandardMS-STD-U · Managed services $85 Monthly · 36 mo $49 42% Active
Device managementEP-MGD-D · Managed services $9 Monthly · 36 mo $4 50% Active
Managed detection & responseMDR-247 · Security $12 Monthly · 36 mo $7 42% Active
Microsoft 365 Business PremiumM365-BP · Licences $37 Monthly · 12 mo $33 11% Active
Microsoft 365 Business StandardM365-BS · Licences $21 Monthly · 12 mo $18 11% Active
Business laptop, 14-inchHW-LAP14 · Hardware $1,690 Once-off $1,420 16% Active
Business laptop, 14-inch (previous model)HW-LAP14-G2 · Hardware $1,540 Once-off $1,310 15% Inactive

Cost and margin are for your team only: they never appear in the client's document

Approvals by email, or In Review

What changes for sales, finance and the managing director once the policy lives in QuoteCloud.

The jobApprovals by emailWith QuoteCloud
Asking for a discount A PDF to the managing director and a reply that may or may not come before the client calls. The rep requests approval from the document; it goes In Review and the approvers open it in QuoteCloud.
Stopping an unapproved send The policy lives in a wiki. Nothing stops a 25% discount going out at 5pm on a Friday. A document In Review can't be sent until it is approved.
Big multi-year agreements Finance sees the 36-month total once it is signed. Anything over your total value threshold reaches finance and the managing director first.
Knowing the margin Cost in a spreadsheet, margin worked out by hand for each deal. Cost and margin per row and for the deal in the team view, from the price book.
Who approved what Somewhere in someone's inbox. Each approval and rejection in the document's workflow activity log.

Set up discount and value approvals

Five steps in Settings › Workflow, about the length of a coffee.

  1. Create the workflow

    In Settings › Workflow, start blank or from a template such as Approval by Value Threshold or Approval by Discount Level.

  2. Set the trigger

    Add Discount Percentage Greater Than 10 and Total Value Greater Than 200,000, joined by OR.

  3. Route with a switch

    If the total value is over 200,000, send it to the managing director and finance; otherwise, to the managing director.

  4. Choose the approvers

    Pick approvers from a role, require all of them to approve, and set what happens when no approver is found.

  5. Test, save, activate

    Test it, save it and set it Active, then send a test agreement over the threshold and approve it yourself.

Approval and margin questions

Which conditions can send a quote for approval in QuoteCloud?

A workflow can trigger on discount percentage, total value, the creator's team, role or email, the template a document was created from, a product folder, or the customer company or account. Conditions use greater than, less than, equals or does not equal, and can be joined by AND or OR. Approval workflows are on the Business plan and up.

Can margin trigger an approval?

No. Margin is not an approval condition. Set your rules on discount percentage and total value instead. The approver opens the team view of the price table, sees the cost, margin and deal margin calculated from your price book, and decides. Costs and margins are never shown to the client.

Can a rep send an agreement that is In Review?

No. A document that meets a workflow's condition goes In Review and can't be sent until the approvers approve it. Approvers approve or decline in the document's workflow panel and each decision is recorded in its activity log. If any approver declines, the document is rejected and goes back to the rep to update.

Do clients ever see my cost or margin?

No. The Cost and Margin columns in a price table are hidden from the client, and the margin QuoteCloud calculates from each product's price and cost appears only in your team's view. The client's copy shows the services, quantities, prices and totals you choose to show, nothing else.

Can different approvers handle different deal sizes?

Yes. A Switch node routes a document by condition, in order, with a fallback when no condition is met. For example, agreements over $200,000 go to the managing director and the finance manager, and smaller discounted deals go to the managing director alone. Each approval step can require every selected approver to approve.

Which QuoteCloud plan includes approvals?

The approval workflow is on the Business plan, US$59 per user per month, and Enterprise. Price tables and the product catalogue with costs and margins are on Essentials, US$39 per user per month, and up. Essentials and Business both start with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

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