An estimate is the first document a client reads with a number on it. Build it from your saved items, set your own tax and discount rates, let the client adjust what they are buying, then turn the approved version into an invoice.
What is inside
Everything on an estimate is meant to be settled before the work starts: what is included, what it costs, what the client wants changed and what happens once they say yes.
Most of the content is already saved
Adjust the colors, add your logo and change the layout until the estimate looks like the rest of your business. A client comparing two quotes remembers the one that arrived looking considered, and the template you settle on is reused on every estimate after it.
Work you quote often is stored as an item with its description and price, ready to drop into the next estimate. Quoting a familiar job becomes picking lines from a list rather than rewriting the same paragraph for the fourth time this month.
The client can shape the number
Set the tax rates that apply to the work and the discount you are prepared to offer, on one line or across the estimate. Pricing that would otherwise be negotiated over email is stated on the document, so what the client approves is already the final figure.
Some lines can be marked optional, so the client keeps or removes them before signing. Others can be left open for the client to set the quantity, which suits work priced per hour, per unit or per seat. The total moves with the choices they make.
You find out where it stands
The estimate records when the client opened it, which is the difference between following up at a useful moment and guessing. Clients can also comment or ask for a change from the portal, so a disagreement about scope arrives before the work does.
An approved estimate becomes an invoice without retyping. client-removable items the client kept and any quantity they changed carry across, so what you bill is exactly what was agreed rather than the version you first sent. The estimate stays on file beside the invoice it produced.
Also included
The details that decide whether a quote is approved as sent or comes back with three questions attached.
Quote an overseas client in their currency while your own totals stay in the base currency.
Let the client raise or lower the quantity on a line before they accept the estimate.
The client approves and signs the estimate from the link you sent, with no printing involved.
Clients sign in to see every estimate you have sent them and what happened to each one.
A client can raise a question or suggest a change on the estimate instead of starting an email thread.
Template customization goes past a logo swap: the colors and the arrangement of the page are yours too.
A short task list and a full project breakdown are handled by the same estimate screen.
Items you quote often are kept with their price and description, ready for the next estimate.
Every estimate stays in the account with its current status, from sent to kept or removed.
When a quote needs pages of context around it, a proposal carries the estimate inside it.
An invoice raised from an estimate behaves like any other, including reminders and late fees.
Estimates sit alongside your invoices, so quoted work and billed work are read from one account.
Questions
Colors, your logo and the layout of the page. It applies to what the client opens as well as the copy they keep, and the template you settle on is reused on every estimate, so the customization is done once rather than each time you quote.
No practical limit. A three-line quote and a project broken into dozens of deliverables use the same screen, and long estimates stay readable because each line carries its own description, quantity and price rather than being squeezed into a paragraph.
Yes. The customer portal lets a client view the estimate, ask a question or suggest a change, and see your response. Scope is agreed in the document itself instead of across a chain of emails nobody can find two months later.
One click. The accepted lines, the client-removable items the client kept and any quantity they changed all carry over, and the invoice is ready to send. The original estimate stays on file so you can see exactly what was agreed.
Within the limits you set. Mark lines optional and the client keeps or removes them; leave a quantity editable and they can adjust it themselves. What comes back approved is what they actually want, which means fewer revisions for you.
Yes. Choose the currency the client works in and the estimate is priced in it from the start, so the figure they approve is the figure they will pay. Your own reporting still totals in the base currency of the business.
A clear estimate states what is included, what is optional and what it costs. Build one from your saved items and let the client approve it online.
