About sales estimates

To easily track what estimates you give to your prospective customers, you can produce sales estimates.

An estimate is a realistic guess of what you think a job will cost and is not an exact fixed price. Therefore, estimates do not affect your account balances. Once a customer accepts an estimate, you can convert it to a sales invoice which automatically updates your ledgers with the values of the original estimate.

You can also enter default estimate settings, such as terms and conditions and the number of days until an estimate expires. You should check your default settings before issuing your first estimate.

Creating a new estimate

Note: The details of the product or service appears on the next available item line. If necessary, you can change this information, for example, the quantity or unit price. If you need to create a new product or service record; click Create Item.

If the estimate is for a product and you’ve entered a cost price in the product record, to view the profit calculated on the estimate, click Profit. If the item does not have a cost price, or the cost price is zero, it’s not included in the profit calculation.

1. From Sales, click Quotes & Estimates.
2. Click New Estimate.
3. Enter the following information:

Customer	Choose the customer from the list. If you do not see the customer on the list, click Add a customer from the drop-down list to add them.
Estimate date	Enter the date of the estimate.
Good thru date	The date the estimate expires, which by default is 30 days from the estimate date. You can enter another date or leave it blank if you do not want the estimate to expire. You can also change the default number of expiration days in the Default Days to Expiry field when you enter Terms and Conditions for estimates in Invoice and Form settings.
Reference	Enter a reference, for example, a job number.
Main Address	If there’s a main address in the customer’s record, this appears automatically. If the customer’s country is different to your business address, then both countries show on the estimate. If the countries are the same, these won’t show. If there is no address on their record, enter the address here.
Delivery Address	By default, the delivery address is the same as the invoice address. If you don’t want to use this address, from the Delivery Address drop-down list choose the required address. If the address does not exist, choose Custom and enter the relevant information.

4. To provide an estimate for a specific product or service, enter (or select it from the drop-down list) it in the Product/Service field. If the item is not listed and you want to add it, click Create an Item.
5. Enter the following information:

Description	Enter a description for the estimate. You can enter up to 2000 characters.
Ledger Account	Choose the ledger account for the estimate.
Qty/Hrs	Enter the quantity of items included in this estimate.
Price/Rate	Enter the net value of the item.
Discount	If you want to enter a discount as a fixed amount, enter the value in the Amount box and leave the percentage as zero. If you want to enter a discount as a percentage, leave the value in the Amount box as zero and enter the percentage in the % box.
Tax Rate	Choose the relevant tax rate. Tip: If you don’t see the option to choose a tax rate, check you have entered your tax scheme correctly in Financial Settings.
Tax Amount	This calculates automatically based on the quantity, unit price and tax rate.
Total	This is the total gross value of this item line.

6. If you want to charge your customer for shipping, select the appropriate rate.
7. If you want to attach a file such as a sales brochure, image or supporting documentation, select Attachment and then Upload files and then browse to the file.
8. Choose one of the following options:

Save	To save the estimate.
Save & Email	Accounting quotes are hosted on the web, which means that your customers receive a hyperlink to their sales quote in the email. After clicking the hyperlink, they can review the sales quote, save it as a PDF, or print it from their web browser. Optionally, you can select Include PDF attachment if you want to include a PDF of the quote with the email. Optionally, edit the Subject line, default email text in the Message field, or select Also print a copy to print the sales quote.
Save & Print	To save and print the estimate. The estimate opens in a new window or tab and you can choose to save or print the estimate from your browser file menu.
Save & New	To save the current estimate and then enter a new one.

To save the quote as draft select the Save as draft check box before saving the quote. You can use this option if you’re not ready to send the quote to your customer yet. When you’re ready to send it, simply open the draft quote, make any changes as necessary, clear the check box and then click Save.

If you chose to email or print the estimate, Yes displays in the Issued column on the Quotes and Estimates page and the estimate is pending until your customer either accepts or declines it. Once they have done this, you can convert the estimate to an invoice or mark it Declined.

Tracking an estimate

To help you manage and keep track of the sales estimates you create, you can view details such as when you created the estimate, if you emailed or printed it and if you converted the estimate to an invoice.

Note: You can only view the document timeline in sales estimates created after 01/03/2019.

1. Go to Sales and select Sales Estimates & Quotes.
2. Select an existing estimate created after 03/01/2019.
3. Hover over the following options to view the details:

Status	Details
Created	Shows the date and time you created the estimate.
Sent	Sent as PDF. Shows as manually submitted. If you then email the estimate, it will change to emailed. Emailed. Shows the customer’s email address or addresses and the date and time you sent the email for all email addresses in the To and CC lines of the email. * Green. Shows when at least one of the emails have sent. * Red. If one email fails to deliver. You may need to refresh this page to update this status.
Viewed	Shows the email address and date when the customer viewed the email. If tracking is important, you can clear the Include PDF attachment check box in the Email window. If your customer’s email provider doesn’t confirm when they view emails, the Viewed status doesn’t update. This means your customer may have viewed the sales estimate even if the status hasn’t changed. Note: To use the Viewed status, you must email the estimate when you create the estimate or when you click into the individual estimate. It is not possible to track the viewed status if you email it from the Sales Estimates & Quotes page.
Status	Invoiced. Shows the date and time you created an invoice from the estimate. Expired. If the estimate expires, it shows the expiry date and time. Declined. Shows the date and time the customer declined your estimate.

Editing an estimate

If you need to edit the estimate, you should do so before converting it to an invoice. If you have already converted the estimate, you must void the invoice before you can edit the estimate.

1. From Sales, click Quotes & Estimates.
2. Click the required estimate.
3. Click Edit and make the necessary changes.
4. Click Save.

The sales estimate now shows the new values. If the estimate was previously declined, it’s now pending.

Converting an estimate to an invoice

1. From Sales, click Quotes & Estimates.
2. Click the required estimate.
3. Click Create Invoice. The estimate is converted to an invoice and displays on the New Invoice page. If necessary, change the details. For example, if your customer wants to change the quantity of items ordered.
4. Save the invoice as a draft or click Save, Save & Email, Save & Print, or Save & New.

The status of the estimate shows as Invoiced and the invoice appears on the invoice list. The Quotes and Estimates list shows the invoice number created from the estimate. You can link directly to the invoice from within the estimate by clicking the invoice number link. The invoice also has a link to show which estimate it was created from. If you void the invoice, the link is removed.

Marking an estimate Declined

Note: You cannot decline a draft estimate. If the estimate is a draft, you must first open the estimate, clear the Save as draft check box and then click Save.

1. From Sales, click Quotes & Estimates.
2. Click the required estimate.
3. On the right, click Mark as Declined.

The estimate remains on the list but the status shows as Declined. If the customer changes their mind and decides to accept the estimate, you can reactivate it by opening the estimate and clicking Save. This changes the status to Pending and you can then convert it to an invoice if required.

Deleting an estimate

Note: If you want to keep your estimate numbers sequential, we recommend setting the invoice as declined rather than deleting it. If the estimate has been converted to an invoice, when you delete the estimate, the link between the invoice and the estimate is removed.

1. From Sales, click Quotes & Estimates.
2. Select the check box next to the required estimate.
3. Click Delete and then click Yes.