Use this article when View PDF, a status change, or Convert to order is greyed out or keeps refusing on an estimate and you are not sure why. After this you will know whether your business requires a customer on committed estimates, and you will have unblocked the action by selecting one.
When a business turns on "Require a customer", an estimate can be built and saved freely, but it cannot become a customer-facing or committed artefact until a customer is selected. The blocks below are that requirement working as intended.
Symptom | Check (where to look) | Fix (action) | Verify (what you'll see) |
View PDF is greyed out and will not open | The Customer field on the estimate. A red asterisk and the helper "Required to generate a quote PDF or convert to an order." mean a customer is required. | Select a customer in the Customer field. | View PDF becomes clickable and the quote PDF generates. |
Convert to order is greyed out | Hover Convert to order. The tooltip reads "Select a customer to convert this estimate to an order." | Select a customer in the Customer field. | Convert to order becomes clickable and the order is created. |
The Status field snaps back when you pick Waiting for response, Follow-up sent, Accepted, or Won | The Customer field shows a message naming the status, for example "Select a customer before moving this estimate to Won." | Select a customer, then pick the status again. | The status change goes through. For Won, the usual confirmation appears. |
A connected app or integration call to export the quote or place the order returns a "customer is required" error | The estimate has no customer attributed. | Attribute a customer to the estimate, or include the customer in the calling request. | The export or order call succeeds. |
Worked examples
Example 1 — A folded-leaflet quote will not produce a PDF
Northgate Press finishes an estimate for a 5,000-run Folded Leaflets job on Silk 100gsm SRA1 and clicks View PDF to send the quote, but the button is greyed out.
Diagnosis: the estimator looks at the Customer field and sees a red asterisk with the helper "Required to generate a quote PDF or convert to an order." The business has turned on the customer requirement.
Fix: the estimator selects the customer in the Customer field.
Verify: the asterisk clears, View PDF lights up, and the quote PDF generates as normal.
Example 2 — A stitched-book estimate will not move to Won
Northgate Press wants to mark a Stitched Book estimate as Won so it can be handed off, but the Status field snaps back to its previous value every time.
Diagnosis: the Customer field shows "Select a customer before moving this estimate to Won." Won is a committed status, so it needs a customer.
Fix: the estimator selects the customer, then picks Won again.
Verify: the status change is accepted and the usual Won confirmation flow runs. Draft and Rejected were never blocked, which is why earlier triage on this estimate worked.
What if this didn't fix it?
If the Customer field already has a customer selected and the action is still blocked, the cause is no longer the customer requirement. Open a support request and include: the estimate ID, the exact action you tried (quote PDF, a status change to a named status, or convert to order), and a note that a customer is already attributed. To pick the right customer first, see Create your first quote.