Quote-to-cash (QTC) is the full business process that runs from the moment you create a quote for a customer through order placement, fulfillment, invoicing, and final payment collection. It ties together sales, finance, and operations so that an accepted quote turns into recognized revenue without manual gaps. Think of it as the connective tissue between “here is your price” and “the money is in the bank.”
How it works
A typical QTC flow moves through a few stages: configure and price the quote, send it for approval, convert the accepted quote into an order, fulfill and ship the goods, issue an invoice, and then collect and reconcile payment. Each handoff is a place where data can be re-keyed or lost, so mature QTC processes aim to carry the same line items, pricing, and customer record from one stage to the next.
Why it matters
When QTC is disconnected, teams retype quote details into the order system, invoices do not match what was quoted, and cash gets stuck in disputes. A tight QTC loop shortens the time between a yes and paid, reduces revenue leakage from pricing errors, and gives finance a clean audit trail from quote to payment.
On Shopify
For B2B merchants on Shopify, the “cash” half of QTC can run through native checkout rather than a separate billing system. A quote that a buyer accepts becomes a real Shopify draft order, and payment, taxes, and order records live in the same admin as the rest of your store. That keeps the sales side (the quote) and the finance side (the order and payment) on one platform instead of stitching a quoting tool to an external invoicing tool. See the B2B quoting glossary for related terms like draft order and RFQ, or pricing for plan details.