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# What is the difference between a simple and a calculated quotation?

Every quotation starts from a [template](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/creating-a-template-ze96ir/), and when that template was created, a choice was made between a **simple** and a **calculated** quotation. That is an important choice: it determines how you calculate, whether [recalculation](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/project-recalculation-1sitd2t/) is possible and how far you can analyse afterwards.

You make the choice with the **Calculated** checkbox in the **Blank quotation** window, when you create a new quotation template. Every quotation you then draw up from that template takes over the choice.

||| You cannot convert a simple quotation into a calculated quotation, nor the other way round. There is no button or setting that changes this afterwards.

## How do I see the difference?

| How you can tell | Simple | Calculated |
| ---- |
| **URL at the top** | calc = false | calc = true |
| **Tabs in the quotation** | no extra tabs | Detail, Parameters, Direct costs, Margins, Overview |
| **Opening a quotation line** | only formatting options | the tabs Line detail, Lay-out, Parameters and Analysis |
| **The price of a line** | you type it straight into the line | you change it in the substructure, unless you tick 'Custom price' |
| **Colour of the price** | normal text colour | your brand colour (accent colour as soon as 'Custom price' is on) |

![Simple quotation (left) vs calculated quotation (right)](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/e/a/d/f/eadf6dec760ec000/image_ija7m3.png)

## What can a simple quotation do?

As the name says: draw up a quotation quickly and simply. **Only the selling price** is kept — no cost price, no margin.

As a result, no recalculation is possible, and you cannot work with posts and parameters, cannot add indirect costs, cannot adjust the margin and cannot carry out an in-depth analysis afterwards.

All the other options of the quotation do keep working as usual: importing a measurement, sending an email and having it signed, introduction and end, replacement codes, creating a revision, keeping files, placing a supply order …

## What can a calculated quotation do?

A calculated quotation gives you a grip on your figures, both while drawing up the quotation and during the recalculation and the financial analysis afterwards. In it you can:

* work with **posts** — the substructure of your quotation lines;
* use [parameters and formulas](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/what-you-can-do-with-parameters-in-your-posts-e2ob35/) in those posts;
* [set your margin](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/setting-your-margins-on-a-quotation-1vt9lep/), [add a commission](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/adding-a-commission-to-your-quotation-1hur54p/) and charge on [direct or indirect costs](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/adding-direct-and-indirect-costs-to-your-quotation-cevyc/);
* hide certain costs in the substructure of a post from your customer;
* request an analysis of the entire quotation and per post.

Those are options, not obligations. In a calculated quotation you can perfectly well draw up a quotation with only item lines, and [adjust the prices manually](https://support.robaws.com/en/article/changing-the-prices-on-a-quotation-ellf0e/) the way you would in a simple quotation.

| In doubt? Then choose a calculated quotation. You lose nothing by it, and you keep all your options open.