Accepting a bid settles its quote before the bid is awarded

Accepting a bid does two things at once: it awards the lead to that expert, and it puts a quote in front of the customer. Those two used to happen in that order, which meant a quote the platform could not read was discovered only after the bid had been awarded and the lead had already moved to Quote Review — leaving the customer at a step with nothing to decide, and the SDM with an error and an awarded bid they had not meant to leave in that state.

The quote is now read first. What happens next depends on what it says, and it is decided before anything is written:

• A quote that has never been sent is sent to the customer, who is notified that it is waiting — as before.
• A quote already with the customer, or one they have already accepted or rejected, is left exactly as it is. They are not told about it twice.
• A quote whose status we cannot read — a value stored in the wrong letter case, or a name no longer in use — stops the acceptance. The bid stays open for review, the lead stays where it is, nothing is sent, and the message names the stored value so it can be corrected.

The record of an accepted bid now always names the quote it concerns, including when that quote had already been decided. Everything an accepted lead shows the customer is unchanged.