Where control turns projects into profit

You’ve done the hard work of winning the business, and now the client has signed off on the quote. But moving from a sales document to a live project is usually where the commercial intent gets lost in translation. Without a clear link between what was sold and what is being delivered, your profit margins start to drift before the first task is even started.

Converting a quote to a job in AtomicSam ensures that every line item, estimated hour, and external cost you promised the client becomes the foundation of your project management. This link provides the commercial control needed to ensure your delivery team stays within the boundaries of the agreed budget.

Choosing Your Conversion Strategy

How you convert a quote depends on where the project stands. If this is a brand-new engagement, you’ll want a fresh start. If the scope has changed on a project that’s already running, you need to update the budget without losing the work already recorded.

Use the table below to decide which strategy fits your current situation.

Strategy	When to use	Impact on Job
New Job	Use this for first-time projects or distinct phases that require their own separate tracking and invoicing.	Creates a brand-new Job record. All quote tasks and costs become the initial budget.
Replace	Use this when a client signs a revised version of an existing project and you need to reset the budget targets.	Overwrites existing budgets. Preserves all existing time entries while flagging removed tasks.
Variation	Use this for "scope creep" that has been formally approved as an add-on to an active project.	Appends new tasks and costs to the bottom of the existing job without touching current items.

💡 Tip: Use the Variation strategy for small scope increases. It keeps the audit trail clean by showing exactly which quote added which tasks to the project.

How to Convert Your Quote

Once a quote moves to "Accepted" status, you are ready to push those figures into your production environment. Follow these steps to bridge the gap between your proposal and your project delivery.

Open the Accepted Quote you wish to convert.
Click the Convert to Job button in the top right action menu.
If the quote is already linked to an existing project, select your strategy: Replace or Variation. If it is a standalone quote, select New Job.
Review the Conversion Preview. This screen shows exactly how many tasks and cost items will be created.
Click Confirm Conversion to finalize the process.

⚠️ Heads up: When using the Replace strategy, AtomicSam does not delete old tasks if they have time recorded against them. Instead, it flags them as "De-scoped" so your historical data remains accurate.

What Happens During Conversion

AtomicSam does more than just copy and paste data. It builds a commercial framework for the project. When you convert a quote, the system performs several background actions to protect your margins:

Task and Cost Mapping

Every task row in your quote becomes a live task instance in the job. Estimated hours are set as the "Budgeted Hours," giving your team a clear ceiling for their effort. Similarly, every cost row (like software licenses or travel) becomes a cost instance with its own markup and margin targets already baked in.

Inheritance and Snapshots

The new job automatically inherits the client details, billing profile, and currency from the quote. To ensure revenue confidence, AtomicSam takes a Budget Snapshot immediately before and after the conversion. This means if a project lead changes a budget later, you can always refer back to the original "as-sold" state.

The Audit Trail

In professional services, accountability is everything. Every conversion is logged with a applied_to_job_at timestamp. You can see which user performed the conversion, which strategy they chose, and view the original quote document directly from the job's Financials tab.

✅ Did you know: You can convert multiple quotes into a single job over time using the Variation strategy. This is the best way to track how a $10k project grew into a $50k project through approved changes.

Pro Tips for High-Margin Delivery

Standardize your Quote Templates: The better your quote structure, the better your job structure. Group tasks in your quote exactly how you want your team to log their time (e.g., by Phase or Deliverable).
Snapshot your Mid-Project Changes: Always use Replace or Variation rather than manually editing job budgets. This creates a paper trail of "why" the budget changed, which is vital during end-of-month billing disputes.
Review the Preview: Before clicking confirm, check the Conversion Preview for any missing cost markups. It’s easier to fix a quote before conversion than to edit twenty live project tasks later.