Every small business owner knows what an estimate is: in essence, an estimate is the presumed price for a product or service you will provide to a customer. Sometimes the estimate really is an educated guess - you might not know for sure how long it will take you to paint that house, but you can provide the customer with a best-guess scenario and quote a price based on that. Other times an estimate functions as an offer: this is how much a particular product or service will cost you, based on your criteria, so with this in mind do you want to proceed? In either case, it's important to keep track of the estimates you've sent to customers, because they are in effect a promise you've made - and good businesses always make good on their promises! Let's take a look at how Method allows you to generate new estimates and edit existing ones, all of which will sync to your QuickBooks account!
From the Customer:Job drop down menu, choose a customer or lead with whom to associate this estimate. This will auto-fill any address information Method has on file for this customer or customer job.
From the Date drop down menu, choose a date for this estimate. The default will be today's date.
In the Line Item grid, choose the items that will be included for this estimate by using the Item drop down menu(s). You can include as many items as you want; if you run out of space, click New Line Item to generate further lines. Choosing these items will auto-fill the Description, Quantity, Amount, Cost, and Tax fields in the grid. You can change these, as well as the other options, as you desire (please see Screen overview for more information about these fields). Click Update when you're done filling in line items to generate a total.
TIP:
The above fields are the only required fields on this page and represent the minimum amount of information Method needs to create an estimate. However, the more information you provide, the more comprehensive your estimate will be! For more information on the remaining fields on this page, please see our Screen overview below.
Clicking Save at the bottom of the screen will save this estimate; when you reload the Existing estimate grid you will see it there. If you have clicked Email notification when saving, the button below will appear as Save & Email, and will generate and send an email to any contact on the account who has Opt out of billing unchecked (please see our documentation on Editing contacts for more information). If the Email notification box is left unchecked, this button will appear as Save & New, which means it will save the fields and clear them in preparation for a new estimate. The rest of the buttons provide you with additional options; please see the Screen overview below for more information.
In the Existing estimates grid, choose the estimate you wish to edit and click select. This will populate the fields to the right with any pertinent information already saved and associated with this estimate.
Ensure both the Customer:job and Date fields are filled out (if you are selecting an existing estimate, they will already have information in each field) -- they do not have to have the same information (you can change both of these fields to suit your needs) but they must be filled out in order for Method to save the estimate.
From this screen, you can alter any of the existing fields - change the text in writable fields, change the chosen option in drop down menus, and change any of the information listed in the line item grid. If you choose to update the line items, remember to click Update to generate a new total based on the new items you've chosen.
Clicking Save at the bottom of the screen will save this estimate; when you reload the Existing estimate grid you will see it there. If you have clicked Email notification when saving, the button below will appear as Save & Email, and will generate and send an email to any contact on the account who has Opt out of billing unchecked (please see our documentation on Customers for more information). If the Email notification box is left unchecked, this button will appear as Save & New, which means it will save the fields and clear them in preparation for a new estimate. The rest of the buttons provide you with additional options; please see the Screen overview below for more information.
As with most of the New/edit screens of this type, the screen is divided between the Existing estimate grid on the left and the New/Edit estimate screen on the right. Let's start by taking a quick look at the Existing estimate grid (for more information on how grids work, see our article on Grid functionality).
This grid displays all the existing estimate records in Method and can be filtered a variety of ways through the Filter by view drop down menu.
My active estimates: This will show you all estimates for which the Estimate is active check box is checked.
My estimates: This will show you all estimates currently assigned to you in Method.
My estimates from today: This will show all estimates with today's date in the Date field.
My estimates not assigned a Campaign: Any estimate that is not connected to a Campaign will be shown in this view.
My estimates not assigned an Opportunity: All estimates that do not have an Opportunity assigned to them will be displayed here.
My inactive estimates: This will display all the estimates for which the Estimate is active check box is not checked.
My non-posted estimates: These estimates have not yet been kicked over to QuickBooks.
Clicking "select" next to any record will auto-fill the information available from that record into the pertinent fields in the screen to the right. You can also sort and search the grid by Estimate #, which will be explained in a moment, Date on the estimate, and the Customer:Job with which the estimate is associated. If you click on the Lead or Customer listed in the Customer:Job field, it will open the Edit screen associated with that contact type (e.g. clicking a Lead will bring up the Edit Lead screen).
There are also Shared options for each of these choices.
Now let's take a look at the fields associated with creating a new estimate. Remember, editing an estimate only requires you to Select it from the Existing estimates grid, and then changing the fields as necessary before saving!
Customer:Job: This drop down list allows you to choose a customer and/or a job with which to associate this estimate. Choosing one will auto-fill the pertinent fields associated with the customer (for example, billing addresses, any opportunities associated with the customer, etc.)
Class: This drop down list refers to the type of job being estimated.
Date: This refers to the date the estimate was created. Clicking the drop down list generates a clickable calendar you can use to choose a date.
Estimate #: Typically this number is generated by QuickBooks, but you can edit it here. It's used to keep track of your estimates in the Existing estimates grid.
Bill to/Ship to: This encompasses the pertinent address information for your customer, and should be auto-filled when you choose him or her from the drop down list. You can still make changes in this screen, however.
PO Number: This number references the purchase order sent in by your customer during the initial ordering phase.
Terms: This refers to terms of payment. Please see the related documentation explaining terms.
Due date: Similar to a due date on an opportunity, this is the date you choose to determine whether or not the customer will go ahead with the work based on the estimate.
Rep: This drop down list allows you to choose a sales representative to associate with this estimate.
Directly below you will find another grid; this grid appears when you select a Customer:Job from the drop down list. This grid is where you can input individual line items into your estimate.
You can include as many items as you want/need to on this grid, as well as the pertinent information associated with each.
For each item, the following fields can be filled out:
Item: This is a drop down list generally populated from your associated QuickBooks account. Choosing from this list will automatically fill out some of the following fields, depending on what information is associated with the item. You can also make a New item by clicking on the ellipses button (...) which will open the New item screen.
Description: This is, simply, a description of the item.
Quantity: The quantity is usually measured in items (for products) and events (for service).
Cost: Typically this refers to the amount per quantity (for example, one hat costs $10, therefore the cost would be written in as 10).
%: This denotation is typically used for discount items. Please see our Items documentation for more information.
Markup: This amount refers to how much the item will be marked up, in dollars.
Markup %: Clicking the percent check box will change the markup from dollars to a percentage of the cost (e.g. from $10 to 10% of $200 = $20). Updating the grid will reflect these changes.
Amount: This is the total for each line item, as determined by the value multiplied by the number of goods or services ordered (e.g. if the client has ordered four items at $30 apiece, the total will express as $120). When you click Update, a total amount for all line items will be tallied at the bottom of this column.
Tax: This drop down menu allows you to apply tax (or not) to this line item.
Delete: Clicking this will delete the selected line item. This cannot be undone.
Below the Line Item grid is a tertiary section dedicated to additional information. When you click Save, a subtotal will be generated in the Subtotal field. Depending on whether or not you have made the items taxable, a Tax amount will also appear, followed by a Total for the estimate. On the left-hand side of this section there are several other options. Let's take a look!
Customer message: This drop down menu allows you to choose from several pre-built messages to include with the invoice (e.g. "Thank you for your business!") This option can't be edited in Method, but it can be edited from your QuickBooks account!
Memo: This writable field allows you to include any additional information that wouldn't fit anywhere else on the estimate (think of it in the same way as the "memo" space on a check).
Opportunity #: This drop down menu allows you to associate this estimate with a saved Opportunity within Method. You can also search for a specific number by typing it into the writable field. When saved, this estimate will now appear in the Estimates grid in that Opportunity.
Campaign: This drop down menu allows you to associate this estimate with a saved Campaign within Method. Please see our documentation on Campaigns for more information!
There are also several additional options that can be clicked. They are as follows:
To be emailed in QuickBooks: Checking this option flags this record in QuickBooks as "to be emailed", which will allow you to group and email en masse from QuickBooks at a later time.
Wait for sync approval: If this option is checked, this estimate will not be pushed over to your QuickBooks account until you manually uncheck it.
Email notification when saving?: Checking this option means any contact on this account that has opt out of billing unchecked will receive a form email notifying them of the estimate. This email is sent when you click Save & Email. Please see our Customer documentation for more information.
Estimate is active: If this option is checked, this estimate will appear in the Active estimates filter in the Existing estimates grid.
At the bottom of each screen you will see the same set of buttons: More actions, Document, Print Preview, Save, and Save & Email. This is a breakdown of what they do.
More actions: This button gives you several separate options.
Choose email template: This option allows you to choose which email template will be used when you select Email notification when saving. Please see our documentation on Email templates for more information.
Clear / New: This option will clear the fields above in preparation for a new estimate.
Create sales order: This option will open the New sales order screen and pre-populate the requisite fields with the information contained in this estimate (please see our documentation on Sales orders for more information).
Customize print templates: This option will open the Customize templates screen (please see our documentation on Email templates for more information).
Delete estimate: This will delete the current estimate. You will be prompted with an "are you sure" notification because this can't be undone.
Document: This option allows you to Link an existing document, Upload a new document, or View existing documents for this estimate. Please see our documentation on Documents for more information!?
Print preview: This option opens a PDF of what your Estimate will look like when printed.?
Save: This button saves your changes to Method CRM.
Save & Email: This button saves your changes in Method, and will send out the notification email if you have chosen that option above. If you have not, this button will be called Save & New and will save the changes to the fields before clearing them in preparation for a new estimate.
