Setting Up QuoteCrest the Right Way: A Complete Walkthrough

Most quoting tools work fine out of the box — and that's exactly why most teams never configure them properly. Ten minutes of setup is the difference between quotes that carry the right tax rate, the right terms, and the right payment expectations automatically, and quotes you patch up by hand every single time.

This is part 1 of a two-part series. Here we take a team from signup to a fully configured workspace. Part 2 connects that workspace to your own application or ERP through the REST API.

Step 1: Sign up and complete onboarding

Create your account at quotecrest.com/register and confirm your email. The onboarding wizard that follows isn't decoration — the answers configure real defaults:

• Business type and goals tailor which features are surfaced first.
• Company details appear on every quote and PDF you send. The country you pick also sets your pricing mode: US and Canadian businesses get tax added on top of net prices; businesses in VAT/GST countries get tax-inclusive pricing, where the price you enter is the price the client pays. You can change this later in Settings → Quotes.
• Default tax rate and item category seed your workspace so your first quote isn't built on a blank slate.

Everything the wizard sets can be revisited in Settings, so don't agonize — but don't skip it either.

Step 2: Connect Stripe for online payments

Online payment collection is available on every plan, and it's the single highest-leverage feature to enable: clients who can pay at the moment they accept cancel less and pay weeks faster.

Go to Settings → Accounting and click Connect Stripe. You'll run through Stripe's own onboarding (or link an existing Stripe account) and land back in QuoteCrest with payment collection live. Payments go directly into your Stripe account — QuoteCrest never holds your money. The platform fee depends on your plan: 1% of the payment on Free, a flat $0.50 on Pro, and $0.00 on Business.

While you're there, set your payment terms default: whether clients pay 30%, 50%, or 100% of the quote at acceptance. A 30% down payment is the safe default for most trades; jobs with heavy upfront material costs usually warrant 50%. Every quote can override the default.

Step 3: Connect QuickBooks or Xero

If you invoice from QuickBooks or Xero, connect it in Settings → Accounting (Pro and Business plans). It's a direct OAuth connection — click Connect, approve in your accounting software, done. QuoteCrest supports one accounting connection at a time.

The moment you connect, three things sync automatically, in dependency order:

1. Tax rates come in first, so line items map to real tax codes.
2. Items (products and services) populate your item library.
3. Clients import as QuoteCrest clients, matched by email where possible.

From then on, the sync runs on a schedule, and you can trigger it manually anytime with the Sync Now button. The payoff comes at acceptance: with auto-sync on accept enabled, an accepted quote becomes a draft invoice in your accounting software — correct line items, tax codes, and customer — without anyone retyping anything. If your quotes use tax-inclusive pricing, the invoice is created in the matching mode, so totals agree to the cent.

Step 4: Set your quoting defaults

Settings → Quotes is where ten minutes of configuration saves an hour a week:

• Terms & conditions templates. Write your standard terms once, mark one template as the default, and every new quote carries it. Per-quote edits never touch the template.
• Tax rates. Define the rates you actually use and mark one as default. If you synced from accounting software, they're already here — just pick the default.
• Item categories and the item library. Categories keep large quotes organized and carry their own default tax rate. The item library stores your standard products and services with prices, so building a quote is picking items, not retyping them. The AI quote builder also uses your library and categories to generate realistic, correctly-priced drafts.
• Quote expiration. Set how many days quotes stay open (30 by default). Expired quotes close automatically.
• Require payment by default and the payment terms percentage from Step 2.
• Prices include tax — confirm the pricing mode matches how your region quotes. This affects the math on every new quote, the PDF, and how invoices land in your accounting software.

Step 5: Invite your team

Settings → Team Members — invite the people who build and send quotes. Pro includes up to 10 team members; Business is unlimited. Each member signs in with their own account (turn on two-factor authentication in Settings for anyone who handles payments).

The checklist

Before you send your first real quote, you should have: ✓ company details and logo, ✓ Stripe connected with a payment-terms default, ✓ accounting software connected with auto-sync on, ✓ a default terms template, ✓ your tax rates with one default, ✓ an item library with categories, ✓ the right pricing mode for your region.

That's a workspace where every new quote starts correct. In part 2, we'll plug this into your own software: creating an OAuth application, authorizing it, and driving quotes from your ERP through the QuoteCrest API.