How to Switch to Costed Quoting and Set Costing Defaults

Summary

Overview: A Travel Agency workspace can quote in two ways. In Catalog mode, Pippin finds the price in your knowledge. In Costed mode, Pippin lays out the trip, and prices come from your supplier rates with your markup; your team checks and finishes each costing. This guide shows how to switch modes on the AI Studio Quotes tab and set the workspace defaults every costing starts from: pricing rules, notes, terms and the document layout. Changes save automatically.

Prerequisites:

• You are the Admin of the workspace.
• Your business type is Travel Agency. Other business types don't see the quoting mode; they quote from the catalog.
• For Pippify to suggest net costs, add your supplier rates (see How to Manage Supplier Rates).

How Pippin Decides

1. In Catalog mode, Pippin prices a quote from what it finds in your knowledge.
2. In Costed mode, as soon as a customer has given the trip (destinations or itinerary), the travel dates and how many are travelling, Pippin starts a costed quote in that same reply and tells the customer their tailored quotation is being prepared. A range such as "4-6 pax" is enough.
3. In Costed mode, Pippin doesn't wait for hotels, tours or extras to be in your documents, because your team types every cost into the costing.
4. In Costed mode, Pippin offers a booking only when the customer asks to talk to a person. Your routing preference doesn't change this.
5. Every costed quote waits for a person to review the costing and approve it before it is sent.
6. If the business type changes from Travel Agency to a B2B type (in Settings › Business type, through Coach or in the setup wizard), the workspace goes back to Catalog quoting.

Limits

• Costed quoting is for Travel Agency workspaces only.
• Terms for services-only quotes and Important notes printed under the heading in every client document hold up to 20,000 characters each, formatting included.
• Each new costing version starts from the Pricing defaults. You can change them for one version in the quote builder.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Switch the quoting mode

1. In the left menu, go to Settings › AI Studio.
2. Click the Quotes tab.
3. Under How Pippin quotes ("Pick where Pippin's prices come from. Every quote still waits for your approval."), click a card:
   • Catalog: "Pippin finds the price in your Knowledge and drafts the quote for your approval."
   • Costed: "Pippin lays out the trip; prices come from your supplier rates with your markup."
4. Your choice saves at once. A check mark shows on the selected card, and the message "Pippin now quotes in Costed mode" (or "Pippin now quotes in Catalog mode") appears.
5. When Costed is selected, the costing settings appear under Validity and terms.

You can also switch from the Rates tab. In Catalog mode it says "Pippin uses these rates only when it quotes in Costed mode. In Catalog mode it prices from your Knowledge." Click Switch to Costed. See How to Manage Supplier Rates.

If you run the setup wizard, Pippin picks the mode for you: Costed when your knowledge holds supplier rate sheets, Catalog otherwise. It shows the choice as How Pippin quotes under Pricing in the setup feed, with Currencies (Suppliers charge and Clients pay). For costed quotes in two currencies, Pippin never guesses the Exchange rate: the item shows Needs you until you enter how many of the supplier currency make 1 of the client currency. Click Change to set an item yourself. See How to Complete the Setup Wizard.

Step 2: Check what Pippin has to work with

Under each card, a line shows what Pippin can price from:

• Under Catalog: "Pippin prices from your Knowledge (N documents, N price lists)." With no knowledge yet, it warns: "No Knowledge yet: add your price lists and packages in the Knowledge tab so Pippin can price from them."
• Under Costed: for example 12 rates ready, 2 need a look · Open Rates. Click Open Rates to check them. With no rates yet, it warns: "No rates yet: add rate files in Knowledge or add rates in the Rates tab."

The counts are read again each time you open the tab.

Step 3: Set the terms for services-only quotes

Under Terms for services-only quotes, type the terms printed on a quote that books services only, such as transfers or a yacht. These print instead of your Quote terms on those quotes. Leave it blank to print no terms on them.

Step 4: Set the pricing rules

Under Pricing ("How a costing turns net costs into a sell price"), fill in:

1. Exchange rate and Exchange rate as of.
2. Markup: choose Per day, per person, Percent of the price or Fixed amount, and enter the amount.
3. Single supplement markup: same choices.
4. Buffer per person (twin), Buffer per person (single) and Bank charge per booking.
5. Round the sell price up to: the step the sell price rounds up to. It must be above zero.
6. Cost currency and Sell currency: three-letter codes such as USD. They start from your Default currency under Currency and instructions.

Step 5: Write the important notes

Under Important notes printed under the heading in every client document, type the notes every client document carries, for example "Rates are net and non-commissionable…".

Step 6: Set the document layout

Under Document layout:

1. Client document:
   • Sections: use the arrows to reorder sections and the switch to show or hide them. Programs and prices always shows.
   • Itinerary columns, Hotel columns and Service columns: reorder, rename the header, and show or hide each column.
   • Meals: pick how meals print: (B | x | x), (B | - | -) or Breakfast, Lunch.
   • Name each hotel set above its table: turn on to print a name above each hotel set.
   • The text lines, such as Greeting, Tagline, Intro line, Validity line and Closing line. The hint under each line says which placeholders it can use, for example {validUntil}, and whether a blank line hides it (Leave blank to hide this line) or uses the default (Leave blank to use the default).
2. Internal Excel: reorder and rename the Excel columns, and set the cell labels and sheet names.
3. Check the preview on the right. Switch between Itinerary sample and Services sample. It refreshes as you type. The samples are a made-up trip with invented hotels and prices, not your own quotes.
4. Click Download sample Excel to see the internal Excel with your settings.
5. To undo all layout changes, click Reset to default layout, then Reset. The window says "Every label, column and section goes back to the default, and the change saves like any other edit."

Step 7: Check that it saved

1. Every change saves on its own: a choice as soon as you make it, text a moment after you stop typing. There is no save button.
2. The chip at the top right of the tab shows Saving…, then Saved, and the message "Quote settings saved" appears.

Costed documents that haven't been sent yet are updated with your new notes, terms and layout.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

• The chip at the top of the Quotes tab shows Saved.
• After you reload the page, Costed is selected and your pricing, notes and layout show.
• On a lead's Quotes tab, a Sales Manager or Admin sees Start a costed quote.
• A new costing version starts with your Pricing values.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

• "Costed quoting is available for travel agency workspaces only": the business type isn't Travel Agency. Fix: costed quoting can't be used with other business types.
• "Use a three-letter code such as USD": the currency code is incomplete. Fix: type all three letters.
• "The preview could not be rendered." or a message naming a setting: the preview couldn't use one of your layout values. Fix: check the line named in the message.
• "The sample Excel could not be made.": the download failed. Fix: try again.
• "Could not switch to Costed. Please try again.": Switch to Costed on the Rates tab didn't go through. Fix: try again, or switch on the Quotes tab.
• Could not save (retry) on the chip, with the message "Could not save. Please try again." (or a message that names the problem): the save didn't go through. Fix: click (retry).
• Not saved — fix the highlighted field on the chip: a text block is over 20,000 characters, or the custom validity is out of range. That change isn't saved. Fix: shorten the text or fix the days.

Limitations & considerations

• Switching back to Catalog keeps your costing settings saved for later.
• Quote validity and Quote terms sit in the same section. See How to Set Quote Validity and Terms.

Next Steps & Related Resources

• Next steps:
  • How to Manage Supplier Rates
  • How to Start a Costed Quote
• Related articles:
  • How Pippin Drafts a Costed Quote
  • How to Build a Costing
  • How to Price a Costing
  • How to Preview, Download and Send a Costed Quote
  • How to Set Quote Validity and Terms

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@pippify.ai.

Last Updated: 10/19/2026