A service catalogue and quotation templates
How a firm sets up its service catalogue and quotation templates in Achekam so that proposals are quick, consistent and priced by a person.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
In many firms, every proposal starts from the last one somebody sent. A manager opens a previous client's document, changes the name, adjusts a few fees and hopes nothing from the earlier client survives. The result is proposals that describe the same service in several different ways, fees that drift without anyone deciding they should, and the occasional embarrassment of another client's name in paragraph three.
A service catalogue and a small set of quotation templates fix most of this. They make proposals faster to prepare, consistent in what they promise, and easier to turn into billing once the client signs. This article explains how to set them up in Achekam, and why the prices remain a person's job.
Services described the way clients buy them
The catalogue is a list of the services the firm sells. The test of a good entry is whether a client would recognise it. "Annual financial statements and income tax return for a private company" means something to a business owner. "AFS comp + ITR14" means something only to the firm.
For each service, write:
- A name in the client's language.
- What is included, in a sentence or two, so the scope is clear.
- What is not included, where clients commonly assume otherwise.
- Whether it recurs, monthly, annually or once.
Keep the list to what the firm genuinely sells. A catalogue padded with services nobody has delivered in years makes proposals look generic and invites questions the firm cannot answer well.
When a firm first opens the catalogue, Achekam adds a starter list of services. That starter list carries no prices.
Prices typed by a person
In Achekam's catalogue, prices stay blank until a person types them. Nothing in the catalogue, the starter list or a template invents a fee.
On a proposal or quotation, every fee line is priced by a person, VAT is applied at the standard rate for the firm's jurisdiction, and Achekam recalculates the total from the lines. The person preparing the quote cannot accidentally leave a stale total that no longer matches the lines above it.
VAT on documents deserves a moment's thought in each country. Achekam takes the standard VAT rate for an invoice from the approved rule in force on the document's date in the issuing workspace's country, and refuses rather than assumes a rate when no approved rule applies. For Nigerian and Kenyan firms, while the VAT rate rule awaits approval by Achekam's platform administrators, Achekam refuses to charge standard-rate VAT on an invoice and tells the user to choose a tax code without VAT or wait. A firm in either country should check the position before promising a VAT-inclusive figure.
Clients compare quotes, and how VAT is shown on a quote matters. For South African firms, SARS's page on the obligations of a VAT vendor sets out what a registered vendor must do, including charging VAT on taxable supplies, quoting VAT-inclusive prices and issuing tax invoices. Build the templates so that every quote meets that requirement from the start.
One display limit for Nigerian and Kenyan firms: amounts on the CRM board are shown in rand even for Nigerian or Kenyan firms. The proposal itself is the document the client sees, so check its currency before sending.
Templates for common bundles
Staff can save quotation templates and start quotations from them. A template is a set of catalogue lines that usually go together.
Most firms need only a handful:
| Template | Typical lines |
|---|---|
| Small company, annual | Annual financial statements, income tax return, annual return filing |
| Monthly bookkeeping client | Monthly bookkeeping, VAT returns, management accounts |
| Payroll add-on | Monthly payroll per employee band, annual reconciliation |
| Individual | Personal income tax return, provisional tax |
Fill in the actual lines from the firm's own catalogue. When preparing a quote, start from the nearest template, then add, remove and price lines for the client in front of you. The template saves time; the person still decides what this client needs and what it costs.
How to decide between fixed fees and time-based billing for each line is covered in fixed fee or time billing.
Where the catalogue lives in the menu
One menu trap catches nearly everyone. SETTINGS > Services Catalogue does not open the service catalogue: it opens the firm's module switches. The priced catalogue is under CRM & SALES > Leads > Services & quotes.
Tell everyone who prepares proposals where to find it, and avoid editing module switches by mistake while looking for the catalogue. The proposal window picks its lines from this catalogue, so a service missing from Services & quotes cannot be added to a proposal from the list.
Mapping lines to services for billing
The catalogue's value continues after the client says yes. When an engagement letter is signed, Achekam turns the lead into a client, activates a service for each mapped quotation line, and drafts, but does not issue, the invoice. Recurring lines go on a schedule. An unmapped service is recorded as unmapped.
That makes mapping worth getting right at catalogue level. A quotation line mapped to a catalogue service flows into the client's services and billing; an unmapped line does not. No screen shows what a signed contract created, or lets staff retry a failed step, so after each new client signs, check the client's services and the draft invoice by hand. The steps from proposal to signed letter are set out in from proposal to signed engagement letter.
Set aside an hour with a partner this month to write the catalogue's descriptions, price each service, and build your three most common templates. Every proposal after that starts from a better place.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
