Working with requests
Included with Professional and Enterprise
A request is an instruction that has not become a job or a quote yet. It holds who asked, which property, what they want and anything they sent with it. Accept a request to turn it into a job or a quote with its details copied across. Reject it to record why you said no.
From enquiry to job
- It arrives. Your website's form sends it in, you drop an email or a PDF onto the requests page and VOW reads it, or you type it in yourself. The request is Pending and unread.
- Read it. Open the request from the inbox. Check the address VOW suggested, link the requester to a contact, and add anything the form left out.
- Decide. Click Accept and choose the job or quote details in the wizard that opens, or click Reject and record why.
- Tell the requester. Send them the acceptance or rejection email from the request, so the Requester notified step is complete.
Before you start
- Your role needs View requests page and View request details, or Requests is not in your main menu. Set up users shows how an administrator gives them to you. Accepting, rejecting and editing also need Process requests. Creating one by hand needs Create work requests, and Process requests to save it.
- Open Requests from the main menu. It opens in the inbox view, showing the requests that are still Pending.
- Requests from your website need the API key an administrator creates in Set up requests. Reading requests out of emails and files needs Enable AI request creation turned on under Settings | Requests. See Requests settings.
Where requests come from
| Source | How it arrives | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Your website | The enquiry form sends the request through the requests API. | A new unread request with the form's answers under Request details, the requester under Provided contact details, and a short list of Address suggestions VOW matched from what they typed. |
| An email or a file | You paste the text or drop the file onto the requests page, and VOW reads it. | A request filled in from the text, marked unread if your company has chosen that. The original is kept under Raw request data. |
| You | Click New request and type it in. | A new unread request with whatever you entered. |
The banner at the top of Request details says which of these made the request.
The statuses
Every request is in one of three statuses. The stepper at the top of the request shows three steps, Received, Rejected/Accepted and Requester notified.
| Status | What it means | What moves it on |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The request is waiting for a decision. | You, with Accept or Reject. |
| Accepted | A job or a quote was created from it. The request shows which one at the top. | Final. |
| Rejected | Your company said no. The reason is recorded. | Final. |
Accept and Reject are only offered while a request is Pending. The email buttons are only offered after the decision. A pending request also carries an unread mark, which clears when someone with Process requests opens it.
Two views of the same requests
The buttons at the top right of the page switch between them. VOW remembers which one you used last.
- Inbox view shows a list of requests on the left with All, Incomplete and Unread filters, and the selected request open on the right. Use it to work through what came in today.
- Table view is a grid with presets for the common filters. Use it to find an older request or to see many at once.
The lessons in order
Each lesson starts where the previous one finished.
For every field on a request, see the Request editor reference. For the two views, see Requests inbox view and Requests grid view.