Shipping on a proposal

Read time: 4 minutes. Last updated: August 22, 2026 Who it's for: Merchants quoting orders where shipping or freight is part of the negotiated total - and who need the agreed amount to carry onto the order.

On a quoted order, shipping is part of the offer the buyer accepts, not something computed at checkout afterwards. A proposal carries a shipping status, an amount, and a label; what you set here is what the buyer sees, counters against, and accepts.

⚠️ Live carrier rates require the Starter plan or higher. On Lite, enter the shipping amount manually.

The two shipping statuses

Set the status in the Shipping section of the proposal editor:

Pending - quote on request. The amount is to be determined. The buyer's proposal shows that shipping is provided separately, rather than a zero that reads as "shipping is free." No amount is stored.
Final - locked amount. You enter the amount, and it becomes part of the accepted total. It's forwarded onto the draft order at conversion.

The Shipping label is free text shown alongside the amount - for example Standard ground, 5-7 business days or LTL freight, dock delivery, liftgate included. Use it to state transit time and any freight terms or accessorials, so the offer isn't ambiguous.

You can also mark individual lines as requiring shipping or taxable, which is what Shopify uses when it recalculates at conversion.

Calculate live rates

Rather than typing an amount, fetch the rates that apply to this buyer's address and these lines. The Shipping rates section sits near the top of the proposal editor, directly under the ship-to address it prices against.

Make sure the quote has the buyer's shipping address. Without one the calculator has nothing to price against and tells you so.
Select Fetch live rates.
Review the returned options - each shows a title and an amount.
Apply one. The proposal's shipping status locks to Final, and the amount and label are filled in from the rate you chose.

If you change the line items after fetching, a banner warns that the rates are stale - select Refresh rates before sending, because the rate was calculated from the quantities you had at the time.

What the list contains: the rates Shopify itself returns for that address and those items - your configured shipping-zone rates, Shopify Shipping rates, and real-time carrier rates if your store has third-party carrier-calculated shipping enabled. An empty list means no rates are configured that reach the buyer's destination.

Third-party carrier-calculated shipping is a Shopify plan feature (included on Advanced and Plus; Grow can add it for a fee or on annual billing). If your live rates only show your own zone rates, that's a Shopify setting, not a QuotWay limit.

What happens at conversion

Final - the locked amount is forwarded onto the Shopify draft order as the shipping line.
Pending - there's nothing to carry; set shipping on the draft order in Shopify before invoicing.

Shopify recalculates tax and shipping when it builds the draft order, so the figures can move. QuotWay records any difference on the quote's timeline. Shipping drift is surfaced for you to review; tax drift beyond your configured threshold requires acknowledgement before the conversion proceeds. See Convert a quote to a draft order.

Split conversion and multiple shipments

When an accepted quote is split into several draft orders, each group reconciles its own shipping - appropriate when the buyer pays freight per shipment. To charge shipping once, convert the groups together instead. Groups can carry different shipping addresses. See Partial acceptance and split conversion (Professional and above).

Common gotchas

A zero amount reads as free shipping. If it's undetermined, use Pending, not 0.
Rates need an address. No ship-to address on the quote means no live rates.
Stale rates after a line change. Refresh before sending.
Large drift at conversion usually means the ship-to address changed between the proposal and the conversion.

Build and send a proposal - unit prices, discounts, and expiry.
Convert a quote to a draft order - what carries onto the order.
Plans, trial, and billing - which plan includes live carrier rates.