Is a quotation still valid after the configuration changes?
Examine the business agreement connecting a configuration, its price and order confirmation, without inventing industry-specific pricing rules.
Exploration · Principles and possible approaches inspired by a project context.
- Business rules
- Quotations
- Change management
Related context: Custom furniture design and quotation system. This is a proposed business analysis. Actual price dependencies and expiry rules require confirmation from the business.
A price refers to a particular offer
A user receives a quote, edits the configuration and proceeds to order. The first question is which configuration the displayed price represents. Correct calculations alone do not prevent misunderstanding if that relationship is unclear.
Identify price-relevant changes
Discuss configuration, quantity and service scope with the business. Distinguish changes that affect the offer from notes or presentation changes. Neither invalidating every edit nor preserving every previous quote is universally correct.
The decision is about validity conditions; revision comparison is only one way to enforce it.
Give changed quotes meaningful states
A candidate model distinguishes a current quote, an outdated reference after changes, and an offer awaiting review. These are discussion states, not existing project enums. Each needs a understandable meaning and an available next action.
If recalculation changes the price, explain which configuration or service change caused it. If quotes expire, communicate the deadline and recovery path. The business must choose whether a time limit exists and how long it lasts.
Confirm a specific configuration and offer
Order confirmation should identify what the user accepted. Later amendments, renewed confirmation and already incurred costs require explicit rules. Historical orders should not silently follow the latest mutable configuration.
The accepting system must enforce the same validity rules that the interface explains.
Walk through changes
Test price-relevant edits, note-only edits, returning later, expired quotes and amendments after confirmation. At every point the user should know what the price refers to, whether it can still be accepted and whether another confirmation is necessary.