B2B Quote Pipeline is a production-grade WooCommerce plugin that introduces a complete, structured quoting workflow into any WooCommerce store. It addresses a fundamental gap in WooCommerce’s feature set: the platform is built for consumer retail, but many businesses that run on WooCommerce sell to other businesses, wholesalers, distributors, contractors, and institutional buyers, who expect the ability to negotiate pricing before committing to a purchase. The plugin provides an 8-stage Kanban pipeline that mirrors the lifecycle of a real B2B sales deal: from the initial customer request, through admin review and pricing, into negotiation rounds, and finally to acceptance and order conversion. Every stage transition is tracked, logged, and communicated to both parties via a configurable transactional email system. Unlike third-party quoting tools that operate outside WooCommerce and require manual data re-entry, B2B Quote Pipeline integrates directly into WooCommerce. Accepted quotes are converted to live WooCommerce orders in a single click, preserving product data, customer data, quoted prices, and order history in the native WooCommerce system. The plugin is architected with PSR-4 namespacing, PHP 8.1 strict types, a full REST API, HPOS compatibility, and Action Scheduler integration for automated quote expiry. It is designed to be maintainable, extensible, and performance-safe on high-volume stores.

Features

Quote Cart & Customer Submission

• Add to Quote button on single product pages and shop archive loops
• Session-backed quote cart using WooCommerce session storage
• Floating quote cart indicator (fixed-position pill) with live item count and pulse animation on update
• WooCommerce fragment system integration for page-cache compatibility
• Quote submission form with company name, email, phone, and customer notes
• Auto-generated sequential quote number (e.g. QT-2025-0042)
• Guest quote support — ownership matched by email on login

8-Stage Kanban Pipeline (Admin)

• Visual Kanban board in WooCommerce admin with drag-and-drop status transitions
• Stages: Draft → Pending → Quoted → Negotiating → Accepted → Ordered / Rejected / Expired
• Colour-coded status badges across all admin views
• Per-item quoted unit price — admin can set a different price per line item
• Valid-until date with auto-expiry via Action Scheduler
• Admin notes per quote (internal, not visible to customer)
• Full quote history log — every status change recorded with user and timestamp
• Bulk action support: approve, reject, or expire multiple quotes simultaneously

Customer Portal

• Dedicated My Quotes tab in WooCommerce My Account dashboard
• Paginated quote list with status badge, item count, total, and date
• Full quote detail view: line items, quoted prices, valid-until, admin notes
• Customer action buttons: Accept Quote, Request Changes (Negotiate), Decline Quote
• Quote timeline (history log) visible to customer — filtered to customer-relevant events
• Print / Save as PDF link on each quote detail page
• Shortcode [bqp_my_quotes] for standalone My Quotes page outside My Account

Email Notification System

• 8 transactional emails covering every status transition
• Email types: Quote Received (admin), Quote Sent, Quote Accepted (admin), Quote Declined (admin), Quote Expiring, Quote Expired, Order Created, Quote Updated
• Each email: configurable subject line, heading text, enabled/disabled toggle
• HTML email bodies built with pure string concatenation — no ob_start() conflicts in any context
• Custom From Name and From Email per email type
• Admin notification email address configurable separately from site admin email
• All emails wrapped in try/catch — email failure never crashes the caller

Order Conversion

• One-click quote-to-order conversion from admin quote detail view
• Preserves quoted unit prices on the converted WooCommerce order
• Links converted order ID back to source quote record
• Customer receives Order Created email with link to WooCommerce order
• Quote status automatically transitions to Ordered after conversion

REST API (9 Endpoint Groups)

• GET/POST /quotes — list with filters/pagination, create new quote
• GET /quotes/{id} — full quote with items and history
• PATCH /quotes/{id}/status — transition status with optional note
• PUT /quotes/{id}/items — update line items and quoted unit prices
• POST /quotes/{id}/convert — convert accepted quote to WooCommerce order
• GET /quotes/{id}/history — full audit trail
• GET/POST /cart — read or update quote cart items
• POST /cart/submit — submit quote cart as new quote
• All endpoints use WP REST nonce authentication; admin endpoints require manage_woocommerce

Architecture & Technical

• PSR-4 autoloaded, namespace B2BQuotePipeline\
• PHP 8.1 strict types throughout — declare(strict_types=1) on every file
• 4 custom database tables: bqp_quotes, bqp_quote_items, bqp_quote_history, bqp_quote_sessions
• WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) declared compatible
• Action Scheduler integration for quote auto-expiry cron tasks
• Admin boot and WooCommerce-dependent boot separated to prevent menu timing issues
• Zero ob_start() in any AJAX, REST, or cron context