A service quote in Business Central lets you estimate repair costs for a product you have sold. Record fault details, add resources, and convert the approved quote into a service order once the customer agrees.
When a customer reports a fault, your first step is to give them a cost estimate for the repair. In Business Central, you use a service quote for this. It is different from a sales quote. A sales quote covers items and resources you plan to sell. A service quote is tied to a specific service item already in your BC system and linked to that customer. This guide covers every step from creating the quote to converting it to a service order.
What Is a Service Quote in Business Central?
A service quote is a document in the Service Management module of BC. The header looks similar to a sales quote – it has a customer, a document number, and a date. However, the lines work differently. Instead of selecting catalogue items, you select from the service items linked to that specific customer. Furthermore, each line on the quote represents one physical unit the customer wants you to assess or repair. The link to a service item means the quote carries all the product data – group, item number, serial number – forward from the existing record. Consequently, you do not need to re-enter product details by hand. In short, the service quote is the starting point for any repair or maintenance job on a product you have already sold.
Selecting the Service Item on the Quote
To create a new quote, open Service Quotes in the Service Management menu and select New. Choose the customer and set the date. Then, move to the lines section. On each line there is a Service Item field. Click the assist button and BC shows a filtered list of service items linked to that customer only. This is important: you may have hundreds of service items in the system, but the list only shows the ones that belong to the customer on the quote. Therefore, you cannot accidentally select the wrong customer’s product.
The filtered list shows each service item with its description and serial number. If the customer has more than one unit of the same model, they appear as separate lines with different serial numbers. Verify the serial number with the customer before selecting. Once you pick the right item, BC fills in the service item group, item number, serial number, and description on the line automatically. Moreover, you can add more service items to the same quote if the customer has multiple products to assess. Thus, one quote can cover several units at once.
Using the Service Item Worksheet
Each service item line on the quote has a Service Item Worksheet. Think of it as a repair planning pad for that specific unit. Open the worksheet from the line and you can enter fault codes and symptom codes based on what the customer has reported – for example, a noise or a performance issue. Specifically, the fault and symptom codes let your team record the reported problem in a structured way. This is useful later when you review repair history and look for patterns across service items in the same group.
Resources and Spare Parts
Below the fault codes, you add resources and items. A resource represents a technician or a skill. You can assign a specific person or use a general resource type and set the estimated hours. BC calculates the labour cost from the resource rate. You can also add items – the spare parts or materials you expect to need. Each item line shows the unit cost, so the worksheet builds up a full cost estimate for the repair. Furthermore, once the worksheet is complete, the customer has a clear breakdown of what the work will cost before they decide whether to approve it. In short, the worksheet is where the estimate takes shape.
Troubleshooting Guides and Internal Comments
BC includes a troubleshooting tool linked to the service item group on the quote line. Troubleshooting guides are a set of questions and known issues you build up over time for each product group. When you open the guide on the worksheet, it shows questions relevant to that product type. This helps your team ask the right things when talking to the customer on the phone and get closer to the real fault before any work starts. Indeed, the more detail you gather at the quote stage, the better position your team is in when the repair begins.
You can also add comments to the quote. BC supports different comment types: fault resolutions, internal comments, and others. Internal comments are useful for recording what was discussed with the customer in your own words. Additionally, fault resolution comments make more sense once the work is under way on the service order. However, adding internal notes at the quote stage means nothing is lost between the initial call and the start of the repair. Moreover, all comments stay on the document and carry forward when the quote is converted to an order.
The Service Item Log
Every change made to a service document in BC is recorded in the service item log. The log shows a timestamp and the name of the user who made each change. Therefore, if multiple people are working on the same quote or order, you can always see who did what and when. This is particularly useful in busy service operations where quotes pass between team members before the customer approves. Furthermore, the log continues to track changes after the quote becomes a service order and through to the completed repair. Thus, you have a full audit trail for each service item across its entire history in BC. The log also shows the number of previous services for the item, so your team can see straight away if the same unit has been in for repairs before.
Converting the Service Quote to a Service Order
Once the customer reviews the estimate and agrees to go ahead, you use the Make Order action on the service quote. This converts the quote to a service order in one step. The order carries all the lines, worksheet details, fault codes, resources, items, and service item information forward. Nothing needs to be re-entered. The team can then start the repair work from the service order. Consequently, the service quote acts as the bridge between the customer’s initial request and the active repair job. In short, converting the quote takes a matter of seconds and keeps all the detail intact.
Wrapping Up: How to Create a Service Quote in Business Central
The service quote in Business Central covers every step from first contact with the customer to a ready-to-start repair job. You select the service item from a filtered list tied to that customer, record fault and symptom codes, build an estimate in the worksheet, use troubleshooting guides to narrow down the issue, and convert the approved quote to a service order with a single action. Thus, the whole process stays inside BC from start to finish.
NAV SEAL will cover service orders and the repair process in follow-up videos. Watch the full walkthrough on the NAV SEAL YouTube channel and visit navseal.com for more Business Central guides.
For more Business Central guides and tutorials, visit NAV SEAL Blog and watch more videos on our YouTube Channel.
