How quotes, contracts and invoices connect

An accepted quote is not the end of anything. It is the start of two other documents, and Riffit builds both from it without you retyping a line.

Most invoicing tools treat this as a chain. Quote, then contract, then invoice, in that order, each one a fresh form. Riffit treats it as a hub. The accepted quote sits in the middle and both documents come off it, independently.

That difference is the whole of this page.

What an accepted quote can become

Two things, with different rules.

• A contract. Once.
• An invoice. As many times as the job needs.

The asymmetry is not an accident. You agree terms with a client one time. You bill them as often as the payment schedule says.

One contract, and only one

The first time you turn a quote into a contract, Riffit records which contract it made. Try it again and you get pointed back at the contract that already exists rather than a second one.

This matters more than it sounds. Two contracts for one job is not a duplicate you can quietly delete. It is two versions of what was agreed, and no way to tell which one the client saw.

Your quote's line items come across as the contract's deliverables, one per line. A line with a quantity above 1 carries it, so "Landing page (x3)" arrives written that way.

Many invoices, because most jobs do not pay in one go

Billing an accepted quote gives you three choices.

• The whole quote. One invoice for the full amount. This is what happens when you convert from WhatsApp.
• Specific line items. Pick the parts you have delivered. They are priced from the quote, so the numbers cannot drift from what the client agreed.
• A flat amount. A deposit, or a milestone, at a figure you type.

One detail on that last option, because it is the one people get wrong. The flat amount is GST-inclusive. It is what the client actually pays and what counts against the quote's total, so Riffit works the subtotal backwards out of it rather than adding GST on top. Type 50,000 for a deposit and the client is asked for 50,000.

Every invoice made this way stays linked to the quote it came from, which is how a quote worth 3,00,000 can carry four invoices against it and still show you what is left.

Billing a signed contract is a different move

A signed contract can also become an invoice, from the same chat. It looks similar and it is not the same thing.

A quote is a price list, so you bill it in slices. A contract carries an agreed fee instead, and what Riffit bills depends on the template.

• Project Contract and Freelance Service Agreement. One invoice for the fee. If you raised a deposit invoice first, the dashboard offers to invoice the balance, and a contract that is fully billed stops offering an invoice.
• Retainer Agreement. One month at a time. Each invoice is for the next month and names it, for example November 2026, and you can raise it up to a month ahead. Riffit does not raise retainer invoices on its own, so you raise each month yourself.
• Mutual NDA. Nothing to bill.

The draft is a single line for the fee. That is correct rather than a shortcut: a contract's money is an agreed fee, not an itemised price list, so splitting it into lines would be inventing detail the document never had.

Bill the same Project Contract or Service Agreement twice from chat and Riffit tells you it is already billed. It matches on the original agreement, so billing version 2 of an amended contract still counts as billing that job. The balance after a deposit invoice is raised from the dashboard.

Nothing gets sent on its own

Converting anything produces a draft. The invoice exists, it is numbered, and it has gone nowhere. You review it and send it when you want to.

Riffit will tell you as much when it makes one. Nothing was sent yet.

Where each one happens

Wherever you send from, your client receives it by email on every plan, or on WhatsApp on Pro. Sending by email or WhatsApp has what each one carries.

Contracts are made and sent on the dashboard because signing them properly needs a screen. Once one is signed, though, billing it takes a WhatsApp message like anything else.

The short version

One accepted quote. One contract at most. As many invoices as the schedule needs. Everything arrives as a draft, and everything stays linked to what it came from.