Creating and Sending Estimates

Estimates and Invoices share the same underlying pattern — a grid, an editor, your service catalog, and PDF export — tied together by one important workflow: turning an accepted estimate into an invoice with one click.

The Estimates grid

Columns: Number, Title, Lead, Client, Status, Total, Issue Date (newest first by default), Valid Until, and Assigned To. Select multiple rows to bulk Delete, with a confirmation first. Double-click a row to open it, or + New Estimate to start one. Each row also has its own quick Convert action.

Creating an estimate

• Title is the only required field.
• The number is filled in for you — EST-0001, EST-0002 and so on. Type your own over it if you'd rather; the next automatic number skips anything already taken.
• Status starts as Draft and moves through Sent, Accepted, Approved, Declined, or Expired — set manually as the deal progresses, or automatically once a customer approves it through the portal (see below).
• Issue Date defaults to today; Valid Until defaults to two months out. A sent estimate becomes Expired on its own once that date passes — an estimate you've already approved or declined is never changed.
• Link to either a Lead or a Customer — not both — plus a contact and the assigned user.
• Line items can be typed freely (description, quantity, unit, unit price, taxable checkbox) or pulled from your Service Catalog, which auto-fills price and details. A catalog "package" automatically expands into all of its individual line items.
• Your tenant's default tax rate pre-fills; tax only applies to line items marked taxable.
• Discount is either a dollar amount or a percentage — use the $ / % button beside it to switch. A percentage is of the subtotal, before tax, and the figure it comes to is shown beside the field. Either way the discount comes off the total; it doesn't reduce the tax.
• Two separate notes fields: Notes (visible to the customer) and Internal Notes (visible only to your team).

Sending, approval, and PDFs

• Preview PDF generates a branded PDF including your company logo.
• Send to client emails the estimate directly from the editor, with the PDF attached, and also makes it visible to the customer through the customer portal — on Business and Growth plans, customers can review and approve an estimate themselves online, no signature chase required.
• Draft estimates are never shown in the portal — only ones you've actually sent.
• The Viewed column on the Estimates grid shows whether the customer has opened it yet — worth a look before chasing a decision.

Taking a deposit

Under the totals, Deposit records what you're taking up front: a percentage of the total, or a fixed amount. The amount it comes to is shown beside it.

Create deposit invoice bills it straight away. That's an ordinary draft invoice for the deposit figure alone — send it, take payment and chase it like any other. It carries no tax of its own, because the job is taxed once, on the final invoice.

When you later convert the estimate, the deposit already invoiced comes off as a credit line — Less deposit invoiced (INV-0042) — so the second invoice asks only for the balance. Deposit plus balance always adds up to the estimate.

An estimate raises one deposit invoice. Delete that invoice and the estimate can raise another; void it instead and the full amount is billed at conversion.

Turning an estimate into an invoice

The one workflow worth understanding in detail:

1. Click Convert from the Estimates grid, or Convert to Invoice from inside an open estimate.
2. A new invoice is created, copying the title, lead/customer/contact, assigned user, notes, tax rate, discount (including whether it's a percentage) and every line item exactly as they were on the estimate. A deposit already invoiced is subtracted as a credit line.
3. The new invoice always starts fresh as a Draft, dated today, due in 30 days, with payment terms automatically set to Net 30 — regardless of what the original estimate had.
4. The original estimate is left completely untouched. Nothing about its status changes — the connection only shows up as a note on the new invoice referencing the estimate it came from.

You're taken straight into the new invoice to adjust dates, terms, or anything else before sending.

Tips

• Build out your Service Catalog before you need it — picking line items from the catalog instead of typing them fresh keeps pricing consistent everywhere.
• Double-check the due date and payment terms right after converting — they reset to Net 30 and won't carry over.
• Use Internal Notes for anything you don't want a client to see if they get a copy of the PDF.
• Since the original estimate never updates itself after conversion, it's worth manually marking it Approved once you convert it, so your Estimates grid still reflects reality.