Most quoting tools produce a document. A PortaPro recurring-service quote produces a document and holds a complete, structured plan for how the site is going to be served.
| The quote holds | Which becomes |
|---|---|
| Unit lines (type, quantity, rate, rate period, service frequency) | Rate card rows on the site, the customer's service plan |
| Site plan pins (location, label, unit counts per pin) | Real placements on the site's map |
| Term start date | The billing start date on every rate card row |
| The site itself | The site the delivery job is scheduled to |
None of that is live data while the quote is out. Unit lines are quote lines. Pins are *proposed* pins, stored separately from your real map. Decline the quote and none of it was ever there.
That separation is deliberate. Writing real rate card rows or map pins at proposal time leaves debris behind on every quote a customer never accepts, and starts billing for units that were never delivered.
The rule: the quote proposes, activation promotes.
---
The Site Plan step
Step 4 of a recurring quote is Site Plan, and it is optional. It opens a satellite map centered on the quoted site, with a satellite/streets toggle.
Dropping a pin. Click the map to drop a placement spot. Each pin carries a label you type, like "North gate" or "Behind the grandstand", and unit counts per type. A pin can hold 4 standards and 1 ADA; the next pin holds the other 3 standards.
Placed vs. quoted. Each unit type shows how many you have placed against how many you quoted.
Existing placements show as context. If the site already has live units, they render as muted gray markers with a legend. They are read-only: you are drawing what you are *adding*, not redrawing the site. That is what makes the step usable for an existing customer adding four units to a yard that already holds eleven.
There is no snap grid. Pins go where you put them.
---
What the customer can change
The proposed pins render two places for the customer: as a map on the quote PDF, and as an interactive map on the public accept page.
On the accept page the customer can drag a pin to correct a placement. The positions they leave are the positions recorded when they accept, so the pins your crew is dispatched to are the ones the customer actually agreed to.
The customer moves where, never what. Dragging cannot change a pin's unit counts, add a pin, or delete one. If a pin adjustment fails for any reason, acceptance still goes through: a map detail is never allowed to block a customer saying yes.
---
Acceptance does not start service
When a customer accepts a recurring quote, by default PortaPro records the signed acceptance and the customer's final pin positions, notifies your office, and shows the quote with an amber Approved / Activate badge.
It does nothing else. No rate card rows. No pins on your map. No delivery job. No billing.
This gate exists because a quote's start date is an *estimate* made when the quote was written. A customer who approves in March for an August school placement, or who approves "for the paperwork" three weeks before delivery, would otherwise be swept into the next billing cycle for units sitting in your yard.
You can turn the gate off: Settings > Financials > Quotes > Acceptance > "Activate service automatically when a customer accepts." It is off by default.
---
Activate Service
Open the accepted quote and click Activate Service. The dialog shows every unit line about to land on the rate card with its rate, and a Billing starts date seeded from the quote's estimate. Confirm it against the real delivery, not the quote's guess. That date is what every rate card row bills from and what the delivery job is scheduled for.
What activation writes
What activation does not write
No invoice. Recurring billing rides the rate card cycle engine from the billing start date. Cutting an invoice at activation on top of that would bill the first cycle twice.
One-time and event quotes are a different path: they follow Settings > Financials > Quotes > Acceptance > "When a one-time quote is accepted", which either invoices immediately with a pay page (the default) or waits for the office to convert manually.
---
Partial failures and re-activating
Activation is not one database transaction. Every step is individually idempotent and the whole thing is safe to run again:
If any step fails, the quote is not stamped activated and keeps its Approved / Activate badge. Activate again and only the missing pieces are filled in. Nothing is duplicated.
---
Multi-option quotes must be chosen first
A quote offering Good / Better / Best options still carries every option's unit lines until one is chosen. Activating it would put all of them on the rate card, so PortaPro refuses: *"This quote offers multiple options, choose an option before activating service."*
Choose the option first, either the customer's own choice on the accept page or yours from the quote when the deal closed over the phone. Once chosen the quote collapses to that option and activates normally.
---
Common questions
The customer accepted days ago and nothing is on the rate card.
That is the gate working as designed. The quote is showing Approved / Activate; run Activate Service and confirm the billing start date.
The customer moved my pins. Whose positions do we use?
Theirs. Their dragged positions are recorded at acceptance and are what get promoted.
I activated and the rate card looks right, but there is no delivery job.
The site probably already had a pending delivery job. Activation added the new units to it instead of scheduling a second truck to the same address.
Can I add units to a site that already has service?
Yes. Quote only the units you are adding. The Site Plan step shows existing placements as gray context markers, and activation only ever adds rate card rows.
Does the Site Plan step reserve inventory?
No. Proposed pins are a drawing. Nothing is placed, reserved, or billed until you activate.
We do not use maps. Can I skip the Site Plan?
Yes, it is optional. Skipping it means activation creates rate card rows and a delivery job with no pins.