Cord: how to quote, collect and invoice B2B sales from a single link

A sale between businesses often goes through five tools before it gets paid: a spreadsheet to quote, a PDF by email, a chat for the approval, a transfer someone reconciles by hand and another system to invoice. Cord is Flouvia's own product to make all of that happen in one place: from proposal to payment, in a single link. This guide covers how it works, what it includes, what it costs and who it makes sense for.

The problem: one sale spread across Excel, PDF and WhatsApp

Manual quoting doesn't fail for lack of care. It fails because every step lives in a different tool and nothing connects one to the next:

• The price lives in a spreadsheet. The discount you negotiated with each client depends on who builds the quote and on the formula staying intact.
• The PDF goes out and you never hear about it again. You don't know whether your client opened it, forwarded it or is comparing it with another proposal.
• The approval is a message. An “ok, go ahead” in a chat doesn't say which version was accepted, and when a price dispute comes up, nobody has the record.
• Collecting and invoicing means starting over. You send your bank details, reconcile the transfer by hand and type line items and taxes again in another system to invoice.
• Collections depend on someone having time. Overdue accounts wait in a separate sheet until someone sits down to write.

Cord starts from a simple idea: the quote is the system. If the client reviews, approves and pays on the same document, payment and invoice come out of it without typing anything twice.

What Cord is

Cord is Flouvia's commercial closing platform and it lives at cordhq.app. It covers the sales cycle from proposal to payment: branded quotes, approval from the link, online payment, invoicing and collections, with an AI agent that drafts the follow-up on overdue accounts and waits for your go-ahead.

It is an independent product. You don't need to be a Flouvia client or sell on Shopify to use it: any business in the 12 countries where it operates can sign up for free, with no credit card. It grew out of our custom work: first it was the quoting system of a B2B portal for a wholesale distributor, then the Shopify app “Flouvia Cotizaciones B2B” and, since June 2026, a platform of its own. How we built it is in the Cord case study.

How it works, end to end

1. You build the quote

In the editor you add products from your catalog or free line items, adjust the price of each line and see the discount against the list price. Each client can have their own price tier (Standard, Silver, Gold or Distributor), taxes are calculated per line with your country's rates, withholdings and exemptions, and you choose the payment term: cash or 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 days. If your client sent their order as text, a photo or the PDF of their purchase order, the AI matches it to your catalog and leaves the line items ready for you to review.

2. You send a branded link

The quote is shared as a link with your logo and colors, over WhatsApp, email or wherever you already talk to your client, and it can also be downloaded as a PDF. Your client doesn't create an account or install anything.

3. You know when they open it

Cord tells you when your client opens the quote and how many times they have seen it. A view only counts when a person opens it: neither a WhatsApp link preview nor you checking the link marks it as seen. From the Professional plan you also see whether they are looking at it right now and how long they spent on each section.

4. They negotiate and approve on the same document

Your client can comment on the quote or on a line item, propose a different total or approve only some of the lines. To approve, they type their name, and Cord stores the date and a SHA-256 seal computed from the lines they accepted, that name and the IP address they approved from. It is evidence of what was approved, by whom and when; it is not an advanced electronic signature. Every version you send is kept separately (V1, V2, V3…), and if you change the quote while your client has it open, the link won't let them approve the previous version: it asks them to review the changes.

5. They pay from the same link

With payments turned on, your client pays right there with the method used in their country: by card through Cord Payments, by SPEI on quotes in Mexican pesos or through your own Mercado Pago account, depending on where you operate. You can collect the full amount, a deposit and the balance later, an installment plan or a monthly card retainer. The money lands in your account, not Cord's, and the payment is recorded on the quote automatically.

6. You invoice without re-typing

From an approved or paid quote, one button issues the invoice with the same client, the same line items and the same currency; a workflow can also do it for you. What gets issued depends on the country: in Mexico, Cord stamps the CFDI 4.0 with the SAT from the Starter plan, using your own digital seal certificate, and on the Free plan it issues a pro forma. The country table below covers the rest.

7. You collect what is still owed

While an invoice stays open, Cord reminds your client of the due date; by default, seven days and one day before, and 3, 7, 14 and 30 days after it, on every plan. You choose the schedule, and you can also turn the reminders off. From Professional you can also turn on the AI collections agent, explained below.

You can try the whole journey from the client's side on Cord's sample quote, where nothing is saved or charged.

What each part includes

Cord is split into modules that work on the same quote. This is what each one does and which plan it is available on:

AI collections, in approval mode

This is the part that raises the most questions, so it is worth being precise. The collections agent is optional, you turn it on yourself and it is available from the Professional plan.

• What it does: once a day it reviews the accounts past their due date and the grace days you set, and drafts a different email for each one, with the balance actually owed, the days overdue and the link to pay. It writes in the tone you choose, with your signature and in the language of each client's documents: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French or German. No client receives more than two AI collections messages every seven days.
• Installment plans: it can propose 2 to 6 monthly installments that add up exactly to the balance of a quote, with no discounts on the debt; Cord calculates the installments, not the model. The plan only exists if your client clicks “Accept plan” in the link in the email: neither you nor the agent can activate it for them, and if they don't accept it within 14 days, the proposal expires.
• Approval mode: the agent starts this way. Every email waits in your inbox for you to approve it, edit it, ask for a rewrite or discard it, and nothing reaches your client without your go-ahead. Every approval, discard and exclusion is kept in the audit log.
• Moving to automatic: once you have approved eight emails without changes, Cord suggests letting it run on its own. If you prefer to keep reviewing, the agent keeps waiting for your approval.
• Transparency with your client: every email says in a visible line that it was drafted with artificial intelligence and carries a link to stop collections emails; if your client clicks it, Cord lets you know. The AI model doesn't receive their name or email address.
• Usage: each email uses one AI action from your plan; Professional includes 50 a month and Scale 500.

Automatic invoice reminders are a different thing: they go out on every plan, with the same template for everyone. The agent writes one message per account, based on how late it is and what has already been said, and the two can run side by side.

Countries, payments and invoices

Cord operates in 12 countries. In each one, online payment and the document it issues are different:

“Being activated” means Cord has already built that document and switches it on country by country. Until it is active for your account, Cord issues a standard invoice with your numbering and per-line taxes, without filing it with the authority. Filing with a tax authority is available from the Starter plan; the invoicing page shows each country's status.

• 14 currencies to quote and invoice in: the Mexican peso, US dollar, Canadian dollar, Brazilian real, euro, pound sterling, Colombian peso, Argentine peso, Chilean peso and Peruvian sol, plus the yen, yuan, Swiss franc and Australian dollar for international trade.
• An exchange rate you can prove: if you sell in one currency and keep your books in another, Cord locks an exchange rate from a published source when you quote, and the invoice declares that same rate. You can add a cushion of 1, 2 or 5%. If no published rate is available, the operation stops instead of using a made-up one. It protects your records; it is not a currency hedge.
• Payment methods: with Cord Payments your client pays by card inside your link; in Mexico, also by SPEI and, if you turn it on, in 3, 6, 9 or 12 interest-free installments. Other local methods, such as bank debit and bank transfer with a reference, are in beta.
• Fees: collecting online carries no extra monthly fee on any plan, Free included. In Mexican pesos with Cord Payments, the rate is 4% + MXN 3 + VAT by card and 1% + MXN 7 + VAT by transfer, up to MXN 588.12; interest-free installments add a cost per term. In other currencies, US dollars included, Cord charges no platform fee for now: only the payment processor's rate applies. With Mercado Pago you pay your own account's rates.
• Credit sales: on a sale with payment terms, the link confirms the order on credit and shows the due date instead of charging. The term starts on the day your client approves.

Plans and pricing

Monthly prices in US dollars, tax included, as listed on Cord's pricing page:

• Yearly billing: you pay 10 months for 12. That is $120, $300 and $700 USD a year on Starter, Professional and Scale.
• E-invoices filed with a tax authority: where your country requires them and Cord already files them for your account, Starter includes 30 a month, Professional 200, Scale 500 and Developer 1,000. They don't apply in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada.
• Automatic US sales tax: invoices with sales tax calculated by address have their own monthly quota: 10 on Starter, 25 on Professional, 60 on Scale and 150 on Developer.
• Free sends: the 5 sends renew on the first day of each month (UTC). Active quotes are a separate limit: closing one frees a slot but doesn't give sends back.
• Overages: Free has fixed caps. From Starter, anything beyond the included AI, filed e-invoices and API requests is billed by usage.
• Plan changes: no contracts or penalties. You upgrade instantly, prorated, and downgrade at the end of your cycle. If you cancel, your data stays on Free.
• Subscription currency: businesses in Mexico pay in Mexican pesos; those in Spain, Germany and France, in euros; and those in every other supported country, in US dollars.

Who it is for, and who it isn't

Cord makes sense if:

• You quote before you sell: distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers, agencies or services, with a catalog or with free line items.
• You sell on credit and need to know how much each client owes you before selling to them again.
• Your sales team quotes with discounts and you want the ones out of range to ask for sign-off (from Scale).
• You invoice in Mexico and want to stamp the CFDI from the same quote your client approved.
• You want to connect your quotes to your ERP, CRM or client portal: that is what the API, the webhooks, the MCP server and Cord Elements are for.

It is probably not for you, or not yet, if:

• Your business is in a country outside the 12 where it operates.
• You need your tax authority's e-invoice in a country where Cord is still activating it, or need to send invoices over the Peppol network. Meanwhile, Cord issues a standard invoice or leaves the file ready, but doesn't transmit it.
• You need different discount limits for each sales rep. Approval thresholds belong to the organization and apply equally to the whole team.
• You need each sales rep to see only their own accounts. Permissions are per section, not per portfolio; if two business units must be fully separated, each one has to be its own organization.
• You want a consolidated report across several companies. Each legal entity lives in its own organization, with its own plan, and Cord doesn't add them up in a single report.
• You expect the locked exchange rate to protect you from currency swings. It decides how the sale is recorded; converting the money is done by your bank or payment processor at that day's rate.

When an operation needs something a standard product doesn't solve, that is what Flouvia builds as custom software for established operations. Cord grew out of exactly that work.

Frequently asked questions

• Is Cord free?
  Yes, to start. The Free plan never expires and doesn't ask for a credit card: it includes 5 sends a month, up to 5 active quotes at a time and your logo on the link and the PDF, with the “Powered by Cord” seal visible.
• Do I need to be a Flouvia client to use it?
  No. Cord is an independent product; any business in the 12 countries where it operates signs up directly at cordhq.app.
• Is it the same as Flouvia's Shopify app?
  No. Cord grew out of that app, but it is a separate product, with its own domain and its own account, and it doesn't depend on Shopify.
• Does my client need an account to approve or pay?
  No. They open the link in their browser, on their phone or computer, and from there they review, negotiate, approve, pay and download the PDF without signing up.
• Where does the money go when my client pays online?
  To your account, never to Cord's or Flouvia's: to your bank account with Cord Payments, or to your Mercado Pago account.
• Are my invoices valid with my country's tax authority?
  It depends on the country. In Mexico, Cord stamps the CFDI 4.0 with the SAT from Starter. Where each invoice is filed with an authority, Cord switches that channel on country by country, from Starter; until it is active for your account, it issues a standard invoice. In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, no authority receives each invoice.
• Can the collections agent send emails without my permission?
  Not while it is in approval mode, which is how it starts: every email waits for your go-ahead. It only runs on its own if you decide so, and an installment plan only exists if your client accepts it.
• Can I connect it to my own system?
  Yes. Cord has a documented REST API, signed webhooks and an MCP server on every plan, with limits per plan. The Developer plan is meant for higher-volume integrations and is arranged through sales.

To try it with your own operation, you can create a free account at cordhq.app.