Why won't the quotation tool accept my valid-until date?

The rule the tool applies

• The quote date is required and starts as today's date.
• ‘Valid until’ is optional; leave it empty and it does not appear in the file at all.
• If you fill it, it must be the same day as the quote or later. The same day is accepted; anything earlier is refused.
• If the date is incomplete, say you typed the day and month but not the year, the message is ‘Enter a valid date.’

Mistakes that come up again and again

1. The wrong year in January: out of habit, people type last year, which puts the validity a full year before the quote.
2. Changing the quote date after setting the validity: you prepared a quote for a meeting in two weeks and moved its date to the meeting day, so the old validity date now falls before it. The tool re-checks whenever either field changes.
3. Day and month swapped: some browsers show the date field as day/month, others as month/day. Pick the date from the pop-up calendar instead of typing it if you are unsure.

How many days should a quote be valid?

There is no single right period, but the logic is simple: the faster your costs move, such as imported materials or freight rates, the shorter the period should be. The example the tool loads sets the validity 14 days after the quote date.

The date prints in the file header next to the quote number in the same form you see in the form, year then month then day, a format that cannot be misread as day-first or month-first.

What about Hijri dates?

The date fields in the Quotation generator use the Gregorian calendar. If your client prefers Hijri, add the validity in words or with both dates in the notes, such as ‘This quote is valid for 14 days from its date’, and keep the field Gregorian. Once the client accepts within the validity period, create the invoice with the Basic invoice generator; that date is what stops a client holding you to the same price months later.