Cawoba user guide

Business or buyer account?

Cawoba has two apps, one for each side of a deal. You can use the same email for both.

A retailer who also buys from wholesalers usually needs only the business account: businesses can receive and answer quotes from their suppliers too.

Register a business

Takes about five minutes. Keep your GSTIN handy if you have one.

1. Enter your email. Open Cawoba Business and choose Register. Use an email you check regularly, because codes and quote alerts go there.
2. Create your account. Add your first and last name and choose a password of at least 8 characters. The strength meter shows when it's strong enough.
3. Verify your email. Enter the one-time code we email you. It is valid for 10 minutes. You can ask for a new one after a minute.
4. Add your business. Business name, business type (merchant, retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer), city and state. GSTIN is optional, but add it if you have one: it appears on your quotations and decides whether tax is split as CGST + SGST or IGST.

You land on your dashboard, ready to go. If your login belongs to more than one business, you are asked which one to open first.

Create a buyer account

1. Open Cawoba for buyers and enter your email.
2. Add your name and a password of at least 8 characters.
3. Enter the code we email you. That's it, there are no business details to fill in.

From your home screen you can find suppliers, connect with them, ask for quotes and see any quotes already sent to you.

Join a team from an invitation

If someone at your company invited you, open the link in the invitation email.

• New to Cawoba: the email is already filled in. Add your name and password and verify the code. You skip the business step because you are joining an existing business.
• Already have an account: sign in and accept the invitation. The new business appears alongside any you already have.

What you can see and do depends on the role the admin gave you. If a menu item is missing, ask them to adjust your role.

Sign in and reset your password

Sign in with your email and password at Cawoba Business or Cawoba for buyers. You stay signed in across both apps on the same browser.

Forgot your password? Choose Forgot password, enter your email, and use the emailed code to set a new one.

Complete your business profile

Go to Settings → Business profile. This is what buyers see when they find you, and what prints on your quotations.

• Logo, display name and a short description of what you sell
• Address, state and GSTIN (used for the GST split on quotes)
• Contact details you are happy to make public

Changes apply to new quotes. Quotes already sent keep the details they were created with, which is what you want for a record.

Switch on apps

Open Apps to see what's available. Only admins can switch apps on or off.

• Product catalogue is on from the start. Price lists, Schemes, Stock and Warranty build on it.
• Credit works on its own.
• Each app starts on a free plan.

Add products

Products are your SKUs: the items you actually sell and quote. Open Products and add each one with:

• Name and SKU (unique within your business)
• Selling unit, such as piece, kg, metre, box or dozen
• HSN code and GST rate

Have a lot of items? Admins can import them from a spreadsheet and export them back out.

Products have no price of their own. Prices live in price lists, so the same SKU can sell at a different rate to dealers and retailers.

Build your catalogue

The catalogue is how buyers see your products: photos, a proper name, a description, brand and category. Open Catalog.

• Set up categories (up to three levels, e.g. Lighting → Indoor → Panels) and brands first.
• Create a single entry for one SKU, or a group for variants like a TV in 43" and 55". Use attributes such as size or wattage to tell variants apart.
• Choose whether each entry is public and whether its price is shown.

A SKU can be in only one catalogue entry at a time.

Set up price lists

With the Price lists app on, open Price list to create lists such as Dealer, Retail or North zone, then set a price for each product.

• Mark one list as your default. It is used when a customer has no list of their own.
• Put customers into contact groups and assign a list to each group.

When you build a quote, each line's price comes from the list you pick, then your default list. You can always type a different price on a line, for example a negotiated rate.

Add contacts and connect

Contacts are the businesses and people you sell to. You can quote any contact, whether or not they use Cawoba.

• Not on Cawoba: add their details, including GSTIN if they have one. Send quotes as a PDF or a share link.
• On Cawoba: connect with them. Once connected, quotes appear in their account, they can accept or ask for changes directly, and you can share their credit balance.

Buyers can also find you and send a connection request, which you accept from your contacts.

Invite your team

Admins can open Settings → Roles to create roles and choose what each one can do: view or create quotes, approve incoming quotes, edit products, manage price lists, see credit, and so on. Then invite people by email and give them a role.

• Admin can do everything, including inviting people, switching apps and connecting integrations.
• Give each person only what they need. A salesperson might create quotes but not change price lists.

Create and send a quote

1. Open Quotes and start a new quotation.
2. Pick the contact and, if you like, a price list.
3. Add items from your products, or add a custom item with its own description, unit, price and GST rate. Quantities can have decimals, such as 12.5 metres.
4. Add a discount per line if needed, choose whether your typed prices include GST, set a valid until date and add notes.
5. Check the totals. They update as you type and match exactly what will be saved.
6. Save as draft to finish later, or Send.

Each quote gets a number (Q0001, Q0002…). Drafts are visible only to you and your team. The buyer sees nothing until you send.

Tax is split automatically: CGST + SGST when you and the buyer are in the same state, IGST when you're not. The quote shows both GSTINs, the place of supply, HSN codes and the total in words.

What the buyer can do

• Accept: the deal is agreed. This is final.
• Ask for changes, with a note explaining what they want. You see the note and revise.
• Decline: it's closed, but the buyer can later ask you to bring it back, after which you can revise it.

Buyers always act on the latest version. If you revise a quote while the buyer has it open, they are asked to refresh before they can accept, so nobody agrees to an old price.

Revise, withdraw or delete

• Revise a sent quote to change items, prices, dates or notes. The revision number goes up, the buyer is notified, and the earlier version stays in the history.
• Withdraw a sent quote you no longer want to honour. Withdrawn quotes are closed for good.
• Delete is only for drafts, since the buyer never saw them.

Open History on any quote to see every version and every action: who did it, when, and what changed.

Validity and expiry

A quote is valid up to and including its valid until date, in your business's time zone. After that it can't be accepted and moves to Expired automatically. Leave the date empty for a quote that never expires.

The buyer can ask you to revive an expired quote. Revise it with a new date and send it again.

PDF and share links

PDF

Quotation Q0042 · Sharma Electricals

₹76,818.00 · valid until 14 Nov

Tap to open the PDF

Here's the revised quote 👍

11:02 ✓✓

• Download PDF to print or attach to an email. Drafts can be downloaded too, marked clearly as drafts.
• Copy share link to send over WhatsApp or SMS. Anyone with the link can open the PDF in a browser, no account needed. Links last 30 days and always show the quote's current state.

Quote requests

Buyers can ask you for a quote from your profile or catalogue. Requests arrive in Quote requests with the items and quantities they want.

Answer by creating a quotation from the request. The buyer sees it linked to their request. If you delete a draft you started for a request, the request opens again.

Ledger, Tally or Zoho Books

Switch on the Credit app, then choose where balances come from in Settings → Credit:

• Cawoba ledger: record invoices, payments and notes yourself. Good if you don't use accounting software.
• Zoho Books: connect your Zoho account. Balances and documents are read from Zoho when needed.
• Tally Prime: install the small Cawoba bridge on the Windows computer that runs Tally (Settings → Tally walks you through it). Only the customers you choose are synced.

Integrations are read-only. Cawoba never creates or changes anything in Tally or Zoho. Only admins can connect them.

Share balances with customers

1. Connect with the customer on Cawoba.
2. Open their contact and, for Tally or Zoho, link them to the matching ledger in your books.
3. On the contact's Credit tab, switch on sharing.

The customer then sees their outstanding amount, ageing, recent bills and when the figures were last updated. Turn sharing off at any time and it disappears from their view.

Work in more than one business

One login can belong to several businesses, as owner or invited member. Use the business switcher to move between them. Products, prices, quotes and team are completely separate for each business.

Troubleshooting

I didn't get the code

Check spam and promotions folders, then wait a minute and request a new one. Codes expire after 10 minutes.

It says I don't have permission

Your role doesn't include that action. Ask an admin in your business to update your role.

A menu or app is missing

The app may be switched off for your business. An admin can turn it on from Apps.

I was signed out of a business

An admin may have removed you from that business. You can still use any other business you belong to.

My customer can't accept a quote

Check that it hasn't expired, and that the customer is connected to you on Cawoba. Quotes to contacts who aren't connected can only be shared as a PDF or link.

The credit balance looks out of date

The screen shows when the figures were last synced. For Tally, make sure the computer running Tally and the Cawoba bridge is switched on and online.