How to use what’s new

1. Getting into your dashboard New

1. On any page of www.randkdesigns.com, tap the small dot at the top left, or Admin at the very bottom of the page.
2. Sign in with your dashboard password.

Along the top of your dashboard: New invoice Quote builder Refresh Settings Help Sign out. Quote builder and Help are new. Help opens this page in a new tab, so it’s always one tap away.

2. The quote builder New

Price any order in a minute, then send it as a link, an email or a PDF. Tap Quote builder at the top of your dashboard.

1. Customer: their name, business or team if there is one, email, and phone.
2. Items: add as many lines as you need:
   • + R&K item for your own hats, shirts and tumblers. They price themselves from your price sheet, bulk prices included. Add 2XL and 3XL counts, extra print spots or 3D puff where they apply.
   • + Special order for another brand’s blank (Carhartt, YETI, Richardson and so on). Pick the category, then type the brand and model (any brand at all, so you can check whether you can order it). Type your supplier’s blank cost, pick the decoration, and its price fills in from your settings.
   • + Other for anything else: engraving on an item they bring, Money Run tack, a repair. Type what it is and the price.
3. Delivery and extras: pickup in Eckert or shipping, plus embroidery digitizing, rush, the special-order fee, Up front (%), how many days the quote is good for, and a note that prints on the quote. Up front starts at 75%. Make it 100 on any quote you want paid in full before you order.
4. The finished quote shows as you type (next to the form on a computer, below it on a phone), with the total and, for special orders, what’s due up front: that percentage of the order, before shipping and tax.

Pickup quotes add Eckert’s 6.5% sales tax by themselves. Shipped quotes say tax is added for the delivery address, and it is, when you invoice (section 8).

3. Sending a quote

Under the quote:

• Copy link to send copies a short link like www.randkdesigns.com/q/Ab3xK9pQ. Paste it into a text, Messenger or an email. It opens the quote, ready to print.
• Email with Gmail opens a new Gmail email from rkdesigns324@gmail.com, already addressed to the customer, with the quote and its link in it. Read it over and press Send.
• Other mail app does the same in your phone’s own mail app.
• Print or save as PDF prints just the quote, or saves it as a PDF to attach anywhere.
• Start a new quote clears the builder. The quote you sent still opens from its link.

4. When a customer says yes

When they open your quote link, they see a clean R&K quote with your terms, and a form to Send it to Kelsey. When they send it:

1. You get the usual quote email and phone alert, and it shows in your Quotes tab as “Special order quote Q-… (verified)”.
2. (verified) means the prices are exactly the ones you sent. (not verified) means the link wasn’t made while you were signed in, or someone changed it: check the prices before you invoice.
3. Open it to see their note, every line and total, and the quote’s link at the bottom. Tap the link and the quote opens in a new tab, just as they saw it. A long link shows as Open the quote.
4. Tap Create invoice on it. On a special order you pick what to invoice:
   • Up front: one line, “Up front (75%) for quote Q-…”, due before you order the blanks.
   • Balance: one line, “Balance for quote Q-…”, the rest, for when the order is done. A shipped order’s shipping goes on it too. At 100% there’s no balance.
   • Whole quote: every line on the quote, on one invoice.
   The invoice fills itself in: the lines and prices from the quote, their name, email and phone, and pickup or shipping. For shipping, type their address. Check it over, then tap Save and send invoice. A quote with nothing due up front goes straight to the whole quote.
5. The quote shows “Due up front” and the “Balance” each as an amount + tax, and each invoice adds the sales tax for its part. The two together come to the quote’s total, give or take a cent.
6. Order the blanks only once the up-front invoice is paid.
7. Send the proof as usual. The balance is a second invoice, paid before pickup or shipping. Once the up-front invoice is saved, the request’s card opens that order instead, so make the balance from Quotes I’ve sent (section 5): Create invoice on that quote, then pick Balance.
8. A quote that isn’t in Quotes I’ve sent (one you made signed out, or before 23 October and only printed): tap New invoice and add what’s left before tax, which is the quote’s subtotal minus the up-front amount. Don’t type the quote’s “Balance”: on a pickup it already has the tax in it, and the invoice adds the tax for you.

Customers can also skip the quote and just call or text you. Nothing about that changes.

5. Quotes you’ve sent New

If you can’t find a quote you sent, this is where it is. Every quote you build while you’re signed in is kept for you, newest first, even if you only printed it. Open the Quotes tab. There are two buttons at the top: Requests (what customers send you) and Quotes I’ve sent (3) (the number is how many you have). Tap the second one.

Each one shows the quote number, the customer, the total, the date, and Sent back once the customer has sent that one back to you. If you changed a quote and saved it again, the earlier copy says Older version: invoice the newest one.

Under each:

• Open opens the quote in a new tab, just as the customer sees it.
• Copy link copies its short link, ready to text or email again.
• Create invoice makes an invoice from it with the same choices as section 4 (up front, balance or the whole quote). Their name, email and phone come from the quote.
• Open contact opens the customer. A quote with no email or phone says No contact yet, because there’s nobody to save. Add an email or phone in the builder and the quote saves again with them on it.

Turning a quote into an invoice

This is for when the customer says “looks good, go ahead” by text or phone. Open Quotes, tap Quotes I’ve sent, find their quote and tap Create invoice. Pick up front, balance or the whole quote, check it, and save. That’s it. The quote then says Invoiced RK-1010 (whatever the number is), and tapping Open RK-1010 takes you to that order. If they also sent the quote back to you as a request, that request is marked won for you.

Need a second invoice from the same quote, like the balance after the up-front one? Tap the small Invoice again link. It asks first, so you can’t do it by accident.

The customer is in Contacts too

When a saved quote has an email or phone, the customer is added to your Contacts tab on their own, labeled Quote you sent and marked Warm. Their timeline says You sent quote Q-… with the total, and a link to open it. A second quote to the same person goes on the same card, no duplicates. On their card, under Quotes you sent, you can open each quote or tap Create invoice right there. The invoice you make joins the same customer, even if you type a different email on it.

6. Your prices in the builder

The builder now starts from your prices, the ones you sent me:

• Special-order fee: $15.
• Leather patch: $15.
• DTF print: $10 to start. $10 to $40 by print size, and custom sizes by quote, so change it on each quote.
• Embroidery: $12 to start. $12 to $16 for 5,000 to 10,000 stitches, $3 per extra 1,000 stitches, and 3D puff $1.50. Change it on each quote. When your new embroidery pricing guide comes, I’ll set the builder up from it.
• Laser engraving: $15 a tumbler.
• Up front: 75%.
• Embroidery digitizing: $20 to $100, a one time fee at your digitizer’s price. A customer who already has a .dst file can send it with their order.

To change any of them:

1. In the builder, open Your settings (saved on this device).
2. Type your special-order fee, how many days a quote is good for (14 to start), Up front (%), and your decoration price for each kind of decoration on another brand’s blank.
3. Tap Save settings. Every new quote starts from them. Back to the defaults goes back to the prices above.

Settings are saved on each phone or computer separately. Any one quote can still have its own prices and its own up-front percentage. Your own items price from your price sheet.

7. The Special Orders page New

www.randkdesigns.com/special-orders is the page for customers: popular brands you can get, how ordering works (75% up front, then you make it), the care notes for each brand and the terms. It has its own request form where customers type any brand and item, and requests land in your Quotes tab like any other.

It’s in your menu now, under Services, and in the links at the bottom of every page, and Google can find it. Cutting boards are gone from it and from the rest of your site.

A ballpark price on your Custom Quote page

When someone opens Custom Quote, the first thing they see is a short box called “Want a ballpark price first?” They pick what they want, say how many, and choose pickup or shipping. The site shows a rough total with a line-by-line breakdown, and “about $X to $Y” when something isn’t set yet. Digitizing shows as $20 to $100, and another brand’s blank says you’ll price it. They always see that it’s a ballpark only and that you’ll reach back out with the final quote and price, and they can print it or save it as a PDF.

When they send the request, the same breakdown lands in the details you read, labelled “Ballpark shown to the customer,” so you know exactly what they saw. Your real prices still come from your price list, and you can change any of it when you send your final quote.

8. Sales tax, now automatic New

• Pickup in Eckert: 6.5%, added by itself, as before.
• Shipped anywhere in Colorado: taxed at the rate where it’s delivered. Stripe works it out for card orders, and now for Venmo and “call me to arrange” orders too. The order’s total already includes it, so that’s the amount to request.
• Invoices you ship: leave Sales tax blank and Stripe works it out when you save. Type an amount only if you want to use your own.
• Shipped out of state: no tax.
• When you tap Mark paid, the sale is recorded in Stripe, so your Colorado tax report in Stripe has every order, not just card orders. The order’s notes say so.

If something needs you

• If Stripe can’t read an address (no ZIP code, say), the order tells you. Look up the rate at colorado.ttr.services, the state’s own lookup, and add it to the payment.
• An older shipped order still waiting for its tax has a Work out tax with Stripe button.
• If you refund an order whose tax was recorded, reverse it in Stripe too (Tax, then Transactions). The order’s note reminds you.

Filing your sales tax

• Your Colorado report is in Stripe: open the Stripe Dashboard, tap Tax, then Reports.
• File and pay it on the schedule on your Colorado sales tax licence.
• Some cities collect their own sales tax, apart from the state: Grand Junction, Montrose and the City of Delta among them. Ask your accountant whether you need to file with any of them.

9. Spam

Your contact and quote forms now filter spam and have a quiet “are you a person” check. Spam never reaches your email or your phone alerts, and nothing is deleted.

• In Messages and Quotes, a Spam button shows how many were caught. Peek at it once a week.
• If a real customer landed there, tap Not spam and it moves back into your list.
• Never reply to or click links in “Google Search Index” or SEO messages. They’re scams.

10. Your newsletter New

People can join your list at www.randkdesigns.com/subscribe (post it on Facebook and Instagram) or with the box at the bottom of every page. When someone signs up, they get a short email asking them to confirm. They join the list only after they tap that link, and they also show up in your Subscribers tab and in Contacts. You write and send newsletters from the Newsletter tab.

Before your first newsletter

1. In the Newsletter tab, type your mailing address and tap Save my address. The law requires a real mailing address at the bottom of every marketing email. Use a PO box or your business address, not your pickup address. Sending is blocked until it’s saved.
2. Check that the privacy sentence about the newsletter on your Order terms & privacy page looks right to you. Nothing goes live in your name without your OK.

Sending one

1. Fill in the subject, an optional preview line and your message. Leave a blank line between paragraphs. Put two stars around words to make them bold. For a link, type [the words to tap](https://the-address.com). A button is optional.
2. Look over the preview, then tap Send a test to me. It goes only to you. Open it on your phone and click everything.
3. Tap Send to N subscribers and confirm the subject and the number. It sends in groups. Keep the page open until it says Done. If you leave, come back and tap Continue sending. Nobody gets it twice.

Every newsletter gets an unsubscribe link automatically. People who use it stay in Contacts, marked Unsubscribed, and are never emailed again.

Your email plan’s daily limit

Your free Resend email plan sends 100 emails a day. If your list is bigger, the send stops cleanly and tells you how many went out. Tap Continue sending the next day, or upgrade to Resend Pro ($20 a month, no daily limit, 50,000 emails a month).

Your contacts from your old website

I brought your 52 contacts over from your old Wix site into Contacts, marked Wix import. Nobody was signed up for the newsletter by that. The 3 people who had subscribed to your emails on Wix are on your list. For the others, the Newsletter tab has Send the invitation: it emails each of them once, asking if they want your newsletter. They join only if they tap yes, and anyone who says no thanks is never asked again. Please don’t send it until you’ve read the invitation wording and OK’d it.

You can bring in more later: in Contacts, tap Import contacts, choose the file, tap Check the file, then Import.

11. Your customers and your day (the CRM) New

“CRM” just means one place that remembers every person who has ever asked you for something, so nobody slips through the cracks. Your dashboard now does that. Every order, quote, message, newsletter sign-up and imported contact becomes a person in Contacts, and each person has a history you can read in seconds.

Why it matters

• Most orders come from people you already know. A customer who ordered 24 hats for a team will order again if you reach out at the right time. The CRM tells you who and when.
• Quotes go quiet. A person who asked for a price and heard nothing back usually buys from someone else. The CRM shows who is waiting.
• You don’t have to remember. Notes, calls and emails are saved with the date and time, so you can pick up a conversation from two months ago in one glance.

One look everywhere

Orders, Quotes, Messages, Subscribers, Today, your newsletters and Contacts all work the same way. At the top of each list there is a search box, a few filter buttons, and a switch for how the list looks:

• Compact is a slim row per person, for a quick scan.
• Table (computer only) is a tidy grid with a column for everything.
• Expanded gives each person a card with their last note, last contact and more.

Your choice is remembered on that phone or computer, one choice for each list. Every row has the same small buttons: Call, Text, Email (opens Gmail), Note, and Customer overview (the arrow, which opens the person’s whole page).

On your phone

• The tabs sit in one row you swipe sideways. The number boxes fold into one line, and a tap opens them.
• Each person is a row like in your email, with a colored circle for their status, their name (bold means they need you), the date, and what happened last. Tap the phone icon to call. Tap the row to open them.
• The filters button (three lines, next to the search) opens your filters, sort and view. The three dots hold the extras: Import, downloads, Spam. The round + adds a contact, a new invoice or a new quote.
• Tap a person’s circle to select several at once, then change their status, add a tag or download the list.

Status: how warm is this person?

Each person has a status you can change from the little box on their row:

• Hot: asked for a price or is about to order. Reply today.
• Warm: interested, or has ordered before. Keep in touch.
• Follow up: you promised to get back to them.
• Customer and Repeat customer: they have bought from you.
• Cold and Not interested: nothing happening right now. They stay in your list, out of your way.

The dashboard picks a status for you from what they’ve done. If you change it, yours wins. Choose “Back to automatic” to hand it back.

Notes, and the running timeline

Open a person (the arrow, Customer overview). The note box is the first thing you see, and the timeline right under it lists everything with its date and time: orders, quotes, messages, sign-ups, your notes, and every call, text and email. Write a note right after every call, such as “Wants 24 hats for the rodeo team, needs them by Nov 20. Prefers text.” Future you will be glad. The Last note shows on every row, so you can review a whole list in a minute.

Last called, texted and emailed

Each person shows when you last called, texted and emailed them (“Called 2 days ago”). The dashboard notes it whenever you tap Call, Text or Email. A tap means you opened your phone or Gmail, so it can’t tell if the call connected, which is why the bar below asks you.

• How did it go? After you call or text and come back to the dashboard, a small bar asks. Tap Spoke to them, Left voicemail, No answer or Send me a quote, and it goes on their timeline. It asks once, and Dismiss ends it.
• Something you did from your own phone? On their page, tap Log a call / text / email I already made.
• Who to reach next: in Sort, pick “Last contacted (oldest first)”, or tap Not contacted in 14 days. That is your list of people to check in with.

A simple routine

Every day, about five minutes:

1. Open Today. Answer new leads and anything marked hot first.
2. Check Quotes for new requests. Reply, or tap Create invoice when a customer says yes.
3. Check Messages. After each call, text or email, add a one-line note.

Every week, about fifteen minutes:

1. Tap Not contacted in 14 days and reach out to the first few: a quick “How are the hats holding up?” or “Need anything for the fall season?”
2. Look at quotes you sent that nobody has answered. Send a friendly nudge.
3. Peek at Spam in Messages and Quotes, in case a real customer landed there.

Every month: send a short newsletter (section 10), and look through your Customers for anyone who hasn’t ordered in a few months.

Keeping it organized

• Use tags on a person’s page for the kind of customer they are: ranch, team, school, wedding, business, wholesale, Wix import. Later, folders will use them.
• Put the company name on a person’s page, so a team order and its coach end up together.
• Keep real names and fix a test or spam contact when you see one.
• Set a follow-up (the calendar icon on a row) any time you say “I’ll get back to you.” It shows on your Today list on the day.

Coming next

I’m still building a search bar at the top of every page (find anyone by a misspelled name, a phone number in any format, an order number or a date), a fuller Today to-do list, a follow-up schedule after every sale with ready-made messages (quality check, thank you, review request, reorder), folders for kinds of customers, and reports on inquiries, quotes, orders and subscribers over time. I’ll tell you each time one goes live.

12. Your business email

kelsey@randkdesigns.com and orders@randkdesigns.com both arrive in your Gmail (rkdesigns324@gmail.com). Put either one on business cards, your website or Facebook, but never in anything for Etsy (Etsy doesn’t allow outside contact details). You keep answering from Gmail, the same as now.