Overview: What Is an Online Offer?
The Online offer feature lets you share your offer as more than just a PDF attachment. Instead of sending a file, you share a public link that your customer can open in any browser or device — no login required. The link displays your offer PDF in a professional, branded page hosted on portal.eturnity.io.
Beyond simple sharing, Online offers give you visibility and control over your sales process:
Know when your customer opens the offer: The project manager receives an email notification the first time the offer is viewed, so you can follow up at the right moment.
Stay in control: You can withdraw an Online offer at any time, or set an expiration date so it automatically becomes unavailable after a certain period.
Enable direct confirmation: Optionally, your customer can confirm the offer with a single click — triggering automatic emails with relevant PDF and updating the project status for you.
Consistent content: The Online offer always shows the exact PDF that was generated when you activated it. Your customer sees the version you approved, with no risk of accidental changes.
How It Works: The Snapshot Principle
When you click Activate, Eturnity Expert generates a PDF from the currently active variant and its document settings. This PDF becomes the content of your Online offer — a stable snapshot.
Changes made after activation (e.g. to the variant, pricing, or document settings) are not automatically reflected in the Online offer.
To publish an updated version, you need to withdraw the offer and then activate it again. This generates a fresh PDF.
The link stays the same — you do not need to send a new URL to your customer.
Important: The Online offer uses a public link without login protection. Share it only with the intended recipients.
Prerequisites
Before you can create an Online offer, make sure the following is in place:
Access to the Offers page: You need a user role that allows you to create and manage offers in Eturnity Expert (typically a sales or project manager role).
Active variant: The Online offer is always based on the currently active variant in your project. Make sure the correct variant is set as active before you activate the Online offer. The document settings belong to the variant: if you switch the active variant, you see its own template, pages and branding.
Up-to-date calculation: The variant must be in a valid, calculated state. Some actions (such as preview or activation) are not available if the variant has unsaved or invalid data.
Customer email address (recommended): If you want your customer to receive automatic emails (e.g. after confirming the offer), make sure a customer email is stored in the project's Customer section.
Project manager assigned (recommended): A project manager should be assigned to the project so that notification emails (e.g. first-view alerts, confirmation receipts) are delivered correctly.
License Note: If you don't see this option in your product, it may not be included in your current license. Please request a trial or upgrade in the Eturnity Expert or contact support@eturnity.com to learn more.
Step-by-Step: Create, Activate and Share an Online Offer
Step 1: Prepare your offer PDF
Open your project and navigate to the Offers page.
Make sure the variant you want to include in the Online offer is set as the active variant in your project.
In the Document settings section, configure the pages for your offer document (e.g. add or remove document templates, adjust the page order).
Click Preview PDF (previous version: Preview) to verify the document looks as expected.
Optionally, download a local copy with Download PDF (previous version: Generate PDF, then Download document); this is independent of the Online offer.
Tip: Create different document templates for different purposes (e.g. a preliminary offer vs. a final binding offer) so you can quickly switch between them depending on the stage of your sales process.
Step 2: Configure Online offer settings
Below the document settings, you will find the Online offer settings section. Here you define how the Online offer behaves for your customer.
Customer action in Online offer: Choose what action button your customer sees.
Confirm— The customer can confirm the offer with a single click. This sends an automatic email with the offer PDF to both the project manager and the customer, and marks the variant as Sold.None— No action button is shown. The customer can only view (and optionally download) the offer.
Set offer expiration date: Choose a date after which the offer will no longer display the PDF. After expiry, the link still works but only shows your contact information. The default is 30 days from today. Consider how long personal details should remain publicly accessible when setting this.
Allow offer PDF download: Toggle this on if you want your customer to be able to download the PDF directly from the Online offer.
Privacy best practice: Set an expiration date that matches your sales cycle (e.g. a few weeks rather than several months). If the offer has expired, you reactivate it within the 90 days after it expired, on the new version of the Offers page, with a new expiration date; it then shows the PDF from the time of activation again.
Step 3: Activate the Online offer
Click Activate.
A modal will appear while the PDF is being generated (this usually takes less than 2 minutes). The Online offer link is created once the PDF is ready.
After activation, the status changes to Online offer active and you will see the sharing options.
Important: Any changes you make to the variant after activation will not be reflected in the Online offer. To update the offer content, you must first withdraw the offer and then activate it again.
Step 4: Choose the right link
After activation, two link options are available:
Copy trackable link — This is the link you send to your customer. When the customer opens it for the first time, the first-view notification is triggered and you receive an email.
Copy preview link — Use this link for internal review. Opening this link does not trigger the first-view notification, so you can safely check the Online offer without affecting tracking.
Important: Because the Online offer has no login, any first visit via the trackable link counts as the first view — even if it is you testing the link. Always use the preview link for internal checks.
Step 5: Send the link to your customer
You have two ways to share the trackable link:
Share via email: Click Send via email to open your default email application with a pre-filled message to your customer's email address. The message contains the link, the expiration date and your company name. The subject and text are in the project's Correspondence language (Project settings). The text is the same for all companies and cannot be customised in Expert; edit it in your email application before sending.
Copy and paste: Click Copy trackable link to copy the link to your clipboard, then paste it into your own email template, CRM, or messaging tool.
Tip: If no email application opens, copy the trackable link and share it yourself.
To have your company address and phone number in every email, set up a signature in your email application. If you want to use your own text for all offers, save it there as a template and insert the offer's trackable link into each email.
What Your Customer Sees
When your customer opens the link, they see a branded page that includes:
Your company branding that is defined in the Document configuration (logo and colours, as configured in your account)
An embedded PDF of your offer, optimised for desktop and mobile viewing
Your contact information (project manager name and company details)
A Download button (if you enabled the download option)
A Confirm button (if you selected
Confirmas the customer action)Activation date
Expiration date (as defined in the settings)
Online Offer Statuses
The current status of your Online offer is displayed in the Online offer settings section. Here is what each status means:
Status | What it means |
Online offer inactive | No link has been created yet, or the link has become unavailable (shows a 404 page) because the offer was in an end state (like withdrawn, expired, accepted) for more than 90 days. |
Online offer active | The link is live and displays your offer PDF. The customer has not opened it yet. |
Online offer viewed | The customer has opened the trackable link for the first time. The offer is still accessible. |
Online offer withdrawn | You have withdrawn the offer. The link still works but only shows your contact information — no PDF is displayed. |
Online offer expired | The expiration date has passed. The link still works but only shows your contact information — no PDF is displayed. |
Online offer accepted | The customer has confirmed the offer. An email with the PDF was sent to the project manager and the customer. The link now only shows your contact information. |
What happens after withdrawal, expiry, or acceptance?
The Online offer no longer displays the PDF. Only your contact information remains visible.
After 90 days in any of these end states, the link is fully deactivated and shows a 404 page.
You can activate a withdrawn offer again at any time, as well as any offer whose link already shows a 404 page; this creates a new PDF under the same link. You reactivate an expired offer within the 90 days after it expired, on the new version of the Offers page in the Online offer step, with a new expiration date; it then shows the PDF from the time of activation again. For an up-to-date PDF, instead click Create new offer in the Online offer step and confirm. This replaces the existing Online offer, and the new one only contains the variants you then add again; activate it again with these variants, which creates a new PDF.
Updating an Online Offer
If you need to change the content of an active Online offer (e.g. updated pricing, different components, or revised document pages), follow these steps:
Click Withdraw offer to take the current Online offer offline.
Make your changes to the variant and/or document settings.
Click Activate to generate a new PDF and publish the updated offer.
Let your customer know that a new version is available. The link remains the same, so they can simply open it again.
Good to know: Withdrawing and re-activating the offer also resets the first-view tracking. The next time your customer opens the link, it will be counted as a new first view and you will receive a notification.
Customer Action: What Happens When the Customer Clicks Confirm?
If you selected Confirm as the customer action, your customer sees a Confirm button on the Online offer page. When the customer clicks it, the following happens automatically:
The Online offer status changes to Online offer accepted.
The variant in your project is marked as Sold.
An email with the offer PDF is sent to the project manager and the customer (using the email addresses stored in the project).
The Online offer page then only displays your contact information (no more PDF).
Important: The Online offer is a tool to streamline your sales process. Whether the customer's confirmation is legally binding depends on the legal terms and conditions included in your offer PDF and your local regulations. Make sure your document contains the necessary legal disclaimers.
Frequently Asked Questions
I do not see the Online offer settings — what should I do?
The Online offer feature may not be included in your current licence, or it may not yet be available for your account. Contact support@eturnity.com to check your licence or request a trial.
I accidentally triggered the first-view notification
This happens when you open the trackable link yourself. To reset the tracking:
Click Withdraw offer.
Click Activate again.
This generates a new PDF and resets the first-view tracking. Going forward, use the Copy preview link option for internal checks.
Why does the customer not see my latest changes?
The Online offer shows the PDF that was generated at the time of activation. If you have made changes to the variant or document settings since then, you need to withdraw the offer and activate it again to generate a new PDF.
Why are no emails being sent?
Check that a customer email address is stored in the project (required for customer-facing emails).
Check that a project manager is assigned to the project (required for notification emails to you).
The link only shows contact information, or a 404 page
Contact information only (no PDF): The Online offer is likely withdrawn, expired, or accepted. Withdrawn: activate the Online offer again; this creates a new PDF. Expired: on the new version of the Offers page, open the Online offer step, click Edit under Settings, choose a date from today onwards under Set offer expiration date and click Save; the offer then shows the PDF from the time of activation again. For an up-to-date PDF, instead click Create new offer in the Online offer step and confirm. This replaces the existing Online offer, and the new one only contains the variants you then add again; activate it again with these variants, which creates a new PDF.
404 page: The Online offer has been in an inactive end state for more than 90 days and the link has been fully deactivated. Activate the offer again; this creates a new PDF under the same link with the current state of the variant.