Quotes: Deposits, Follow-Ups, and Closing More Jobs

Quotes: Deposits, Follow-Ups, and Closing More Jobs

Sending a quote is only half the battle. Lawnager gives you tools to collect deposits upfront and automatically follow up with prospects who haven't responded — so fewer estimates fall through the cracks.

Requiring a Deposit on a Quote

Deposits protect your business and signal commitment from the customer before you schedule a crew.

1. •Go to Quotes and open an existing quote, or create a new one.
2. •Scroll to the Deposit section on the quote builder.
3. •Toggle Require Deposit to on.
4. •Enter a deposit amount — either a flat dollar amount or a percentage of the quote total.
5. •Finish building your quote and click Send to Customer.

When the customer receives the quote in the Customer Portal, they'll be prompted to pay the deposit before the quote is considered accepted. The deposit is collected through your connected payment methods (Stripe, Venmo, etc.).

Tip: A deposit of 25–50% works well for larger jobs like landscaping installs or seasonal cleanups. For recurring mowing quotes, you may want to skip the deposit requirement.

Where does the deposit go? The deposit is recorded on the customer's account and automatically applied to their invoice when the job is completed. You'll see it reflected as a credit on the auto-generated invoice.

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Setting Up Automated Follow-Ups

Lawnager can automatically remind customers about quotes they haven't acted on yet — without you lifting a finger.

1. •Open a quote (or create one from scratch).
2. •Scroll to the Follow-Ups section.
3. •Toggle Enable Follow-Up Reminders to on.
4. •Choose your follow-up schedule:
   • •First reminder — how many days after sending to nudge the customer (e.g., 2 days)
   • •Second reminder — an optional second message if they still haven't responded (e.g., 5 days)
5. •Review the default follow-up message or customize it using your saved templates from Settings → Templates.
6. •Click Save or proceed to send the quote.

Follow-up messages are sent to the customer's email on file and also appear in their Customer Portal notification center.

Tip: Keep follow-up messages friendly and short. Something like "Just checking in — your quote is ready and waiting!" performs better than a formal reminder.

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Attaching Photos to a Quote

If you visited the property before estimating, add site photos directly to the quote to show the customer you've done your homework.

1. •In the quote builder, scroll to the Photos section.
2. •Click Upload Photos and select images from your device.
3. •Optionally add a caption to each photo for context (e.g., "Overgrown area near fence line").

Photos appear in the customer's portal view of the quote and add credibility to your pricing.

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Tracking Quote Status

You can see where every quote stands from the Quotes list view. Each quote shows one of the following statuses:

• •Draft — not yet sent
• •Sent — delivered to the customer, awaiting response
• •Deposit Paid — customer paid the deposit but hasn't fully accepted
• •Accepted — customer approved the quote
• •Declined — customer rejected the quote
• •Expired — no response by the expiration date (if set)

Click any quote to view the full timeline, including when it was sent, when follow-ups were triggered, and any customer activity.

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Common Pitfalls

• •No payment method connected? Deposit collection won't work until you've set up at least one payment option in Settings → Payments. See the Tax & Payment Settings article for setup steps.
• •Customer never got the quote? Check that their email is correct on their profile and ask them to check spam. You can also resend directly from the quote detail page using the Resend button.
• •Follow-ups going to the wrong address? Follow-ups use the email on the customer's account. Update it under Customers → [Customer Name] → Edit.

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Using deposits and follow-ups together is one of the fastest ways to improve your close rate and reduce no-shows. Set your defaults once and let Lawnager handle the chasing.