Cuotaro manual

1. Global view

What Cuotaro is for

Cuotaro is an operations workspace for small service businesses. It is built around the way work actually moves: a customer asks for something, the business captures the request, prepares a quote, schedules or completes the job, and keeps track of what still needs to be collected.

The important idea is not that Cuotaro has separate modules. The important idea is that each record carries context forward. Customer information supports the request; the request can support the quote; the accepted quote can support the job; and the job or quote can support the payment record.

Use Cuotaro as the place where daily work becomes reliable. Calls, emails, WhatsApp messages, notes, files, quote PDFs, job status, reminders, and payment follow-up all stay connected to the customer instead of being scattered across inboxes, spreadsheets, and memory.

Cuotaro is deliberately narrower than a full CRM, accounting system, ERP, or field service suite. Its purpose is to keep the operational flow clear, quick to update, and easy to read during the workday.

To preserve context, Cuotaro protects linked records. Customers, requests, quotes, and jobs cannot be deleted while other records still depend on them; payments and files can be removed when needed.

2. Daily workflow

A practical operating rhythm

A typical day starts with visibility. Open the dashboard first, check open requests, quotes waiting for a decision, jobs due today, pending payments, reminders, and recent activity. This gives the team a practical order of work before new interruptions arrive.

1. When a customer contacts the business, create or open the customer record before the details are lost.
2. Capture the request with the need, source, urgency, service address, notes, and the expected next step.
3. Keep the request open while information is still missing: photos, measurements, inspection notes, customer approval, or an internal check.
4. Create the quote when the work can be priced. Add line items, discounts, tax, customer notes, and internal notes.
5. Send the quote PDF from Cuotaro, then use status and reminders to keep the follow-up visible.
6. When work is accepted, create or update the job with schedule, assigned user, service address, checklist, files, and completion notes.
7. Record the expected payment, due date, paid date, refund, or unpaid marker so collection work remains visible after the job is finished.
8. Use activity history, global search, filters, tags, and customer codes to recover context quickly when the customer calls again.

This sequence is flexible. Some businesses start with a quote, others create a job directly, and some only use payments for operational control. The best practice is to keep enough context in each step so the next person can understand what happened and what should happen next.

3. Dashboard

The daily control panel

The dashboard is the starting point for operational decisions. It reads across the workspace and shows customers, open requests, quotes waiting, jobs due today, pending payments, reminders, and recent activity.

Use it at the beginning of the day and again after busy periods. The dashboard is not meant to replace the detailed lists; it tells you where to go next. A quote waiting for follow-up, a job due today, a pending payment, or an overdue reminder should lead you into the record that needs action.

Recent activity is especially useful in teams. It gives a quick view of what changed, who touched the workflow, and which customer records have moved forward.

4. Customers

Where the work belongs

The customer record is the anchor for the whole workflow. A customer can be a person or a business, and the record stores contact details, website, fiscal identifier, address, tags, notes, and activity history. The fiscal identifier label comes from Settings, so it can appear as Tax ID, NIF, RUT, or the wording used in the workspace.

Create the customer before creating operational records whenever possible. This keeps requests, quotes, jobs, files, messages, and payments attached to the right place from the start.

Use customer notes for stable context: access instructions, preferences, commercial remarks, preferred contact method, billing comments, or anything the team should remember before acting. Use request, quote, and job notes for the details of that specific piece of work.

Tags help segment the customer list and make later filtering easier. They can represent business type, priority, service category, region, VIP status, or any classification your team uses. Enter tags separated by commas so they remain searchable and reusable.

From a customer record you can call, open WhatsApp, send SMS, open the address in Google Maps, visit the website, prepare a message, attach customer files, and start a payment for that customer. Customer codes help identify records consistently as the list grows.

5. Requests

Capture the need before it becomes unclear

A request is the first structured description of possible work. Use it when the customer asks for service, reports a problem, needs a visit, asks for a quote, or sends information that still has to be evaluated.

The request is where early uncertainty belongs. Record the source of the request, the service address, urgency, preferred date or time, description, internal notes, and the next step. This keeps the job list clean because unapproved or unpriced work is not mixed with accepted commitments.

Requests are useful when the business still needs photos, measurements, technical checks, stock confirmation, a mapped location, customer approval, or an internal check. Once the request is clear, it can become the basis for a quote or, when a price is not needed, a job.

Use request status as an operational signal. A request can be new, being assessed, ready to quote, quoted, accepted, rejected, or closed depending on where it stands. The goal is that any team member can open the request and understand the next action without reconstructing the conversation.

For more context on this area, see service request tracking software.

6. Quotes

Turn the request into a customer-ready proposal

A quote is the commercial answer to a clear request. It should explain what is being proposed, how it is priced, and what the customer needs to approve before the work becomes a job.

Quotes include line items with quantities, unit prices, discounts, the selected indirect tax rate, notes, and totals. The first indirect tax rate configured in Settings is used by default for new quote lines. The PDF follows the fiscal labels, tax breakdown, date format, and money format configured in Settings, including symbol position, separators, and decimal precision.

Use customer notes for text that should appear in the customer-facing PDF or message. Use internal notes for margins, supplier comments, negotiation context, or anything that should remain inside the team.

When sending a quote by email, Cuotaro attaches the quote PDF by default, can include selected customer files, and uses the selected sender as the reply-to address so the customer can answer either the user or the company.

A quote should not become a dead end. Keep its status updated, create reminders for follow-up, and move approved work into the job area when the customer accepts. Rejected or expired quotes still remain useful because they preserve the commercial history of that customer.

The public page on quote and job tracking software explains how sent quotes stay connected to accepted work.

7. Jobs

Manage the work that must be done

A job is an operational commitment. It represents work that has to be scheduled, assigned, executed, checked, completed, cancelled, or verified.

Create the job from the request or quote when that context exists. This keeps the customer, request, quote, service address, notes, and files close to the work. If the business receives work that does not need a quote, a job can also be created directly.

Use status and dates to make the job list readable: scheduled, in progress, completed, cancelled, or any status available in the workspace. The scheduled date, start time, end time, assigned user, checklist, internal notes, and completion notes help the team understand what must happen on site and what happened after the visit.

From a job you can open the service address in Google Maps, message the customer, attach files, and create a linked payment. This keeps field work, customer communication, documentation, and collection follow-up connected.

When the job is completed, update the completion notes and payment status as soon as possible. This is the point where operational work often becomes collection work, so the payment record should not be left until later if an amount is still due.

8. Reminders

Keep the next action visible

Reminders protect the operational flow from being interrupted. Use them for quote follow-ups, customer calls, visits, payment checks, renewals, document requests, internal checks, and team tasks.

A good reminder should make the next action obvious. Link it to the customer and, when possible, to the request, quote, job, or payment that explains why the reminder exists.

Email reminders are sent to the assigned member and help protect important follow-ups even when that user is not looking at the app at that exact moment.

Use reminders instead of relying on memory. They are especially valuable after sending quotes, before scheduled work, after incomplete visits, and when a payment due date is approaching.

9. Payments

Control what still needs to be collected

The Payments area is an operational control layer. It records expected collections, collected amounts, refunds, and amounts that are finally considered unpaid. It does not replace legal invoicing, tax compliance, or accounting.

Link payments to the customer and, when relevant, to the quote or job that created the amount. This makes it easier to understand why the amount exists and what work it belongs to.

A payment is considered collected only when it has a paid date. The due date shows what should be collected, the paid date shows what has been collected, negative amounts can represent refunds, and the unpaid checkbox marks amounts that should no longer appear as expected collections.

Payment amounts use the decimal precision and separators configured in Settings. Use payment notes to record practical collection context, such as transfer references, partial payment explanations, or why an amount was marked unpaid.

10. Files

Keep evidence and documents attached to context

Files are the supporting material around the workflow. Use them for photos, documents, signed material, technical references, delivery evidence, issue evidence, and anything that explains what was requested, quoted, done, or paid.

Files can be linked to customers, requests, quotes, jobs, and payments. Choose the place that best explains the file. A general contract may belong to the customer; inspection photos may belong to the request; a signed acceptance may belong to the quote; completion photos may belong to the job; and collection evidence may belong to the payment.

Customer files can also be attached to customer messages and quote emails when they add useful context, such as catalogs, technical sheets, photos, or commercial documents.

Storage limits depend on the active plan, and CSV export remains available as the guaranteed way to recover structured workspace data.

11. Templates

Make repeated communication consistent

Templates help the team communicate faster without rewriting the same message every time. They are available for Customers, Requests, Quotes, Jobs, and Payments, and each message composer shows the templates that match the current area.

Use templates for common situations: acknowledging a new request, asking for missing information, sending a quote, confirming a scheduled job, following up after a visit, requesting payment, or sharing next steps.

Each template type can have one default template. When a default is selected, the message composer uses it first for that type.

Variables let Cuotaro fill parts of the message with workspace, customer, request, quote, job, or payment data. Email can include attachments where available, while WhatsApp, SMS, and clipboard actions use only the message text.

The best templates are professional but practical. They should give the customer the next action, the relevant reference, and a clear way to reply.

12. Plans and billing

Plan limits and billing self-management

Only the workspace owner can access plans and billing management. The plan controls limits such as users, records, storage, and access to paid-plan features.

When a limit is reached, Cuotaro blocks the action that would exceed the plan and keeps the existing data accessible. This means the team can still consult the operational history while the owner decides whether to adjust the plan or clean up data.

The billing portal lets the owner manage the active plan, cancellation, billing details, and payment methods.

13. Settings and users

Configure the operating rules of the workspace

Settings define how the workspace behaves and how customer-facing documents look. They include company name, contact details, logo, business category, fiscal ID label, indirect tax name, three indirect tax rates, money format, timezone, date format, and language.

Money format includes the symbol, symbol position, thousands separator, decimal separator, and decimal precision for quantities, unit prices, and amounts. These values affect how quotes, PDFs, payments, and totals are displayed.

New workspaces receive fiscal, money, timezone, and date defaults from the country selected during account creation; the owner can adjust them later in Settings.

Only the owner can manage users and request account deletion. Member users work inside the same workspace and do not create a new independent account.

Check Settings before daily use. A correct logo, fiscal label, tax name, tax rates, date format, money format, and timezone make quotes and operational records easier for the team and clearer for the customer.