What is quote-to-cash?
Quote-to-cash (QTC) is the end-to-end process from preparing a sales quote to collecting the cash and recognising the revenue: configuring products and prices, approving discounts, producing the quote and contract, then billing, collecting payment and recording revenue. It joins the sales team's systems, usually the CRM, to finance's billing and ledger systems.
Also calledQTCQ2Cquote to cashCPQ to cash
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- Starts with
- Configuring and pricing a quote
- Joins
- CRM to billing and ledger
- Revenue rules
- ASC 606 / IFRS 15
How quote-to-cash works
The sales side uses configure, price, quote (CPQ) tools to build a quote from approved products and price lists, with discounts routed for approval. Once the customer signs, the contract and its terms pass to billing, which invoices on the agreed schedule, and to revenue accounting, which identifies performance obligations and allocates the price under ASC 606 or IFRS 15. Collections and cash application close the loop. The finance value is in consistency: if the quote, contract, invoice and revenue schedule come from the same data, there are fewer billing disputes and revenue adjustments. The handover between sales and finance systems is where most errors occur. Tabs takes signed contract terms into billing and revenue, and RightRev recognises revenue natively on Salesforce data.
Common questions
What is CPQ?+
Configure, price, quote: software that lets sales teams build accurate quotes from approved products, prices and discount rules. It is the first stage of quote-to-cash.
Who owns quote-to-cash?+
Responsibility is shared: sales and revenue operations own quoting and contracts, finance owns billing, collections and revenue recognition. Clear handover rules between them matter most.
How does quote-to-cash affect revenue recognition?+
The quote and contract set the prices, discounts and deliverables that revenue accounting uses to identify obligations and allocate the price, so errors upstream become revenue adjustments later.
Quote-to-cash software
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage · Glossary
