Billing Manager Blog

Many of our users mentioned a need to send estimates to their customers. Although there were many similarities in their needs, there were also several differences in how they handled their estimating process. To address this we decided not to build a rigid work flow into the estimate feature, hopefully allowing you the flexibility to work the way you want.

Here is one of the ways we see the estimate feature being used. Let’s say you need to create an estimate for a customer so you click the Estimates link on the left side of your screen. This opens the estimate folder where you can view you existing estimates or create a new one. You click on the Create an Estimate link, that will bring up the Create an Estimate screen.

Similar to an invoice, there is an estimate number field that is automatically populated which you can change if you’d like. We added a status drop down to allow you to control the work flow of the estimate, more on that in a minute. And, we’ve added an optional expiration date field. With the exception of the private notes field in the Products & Services and Estimate Notes sections, everything is basically the same as creating an invoice.

After filling in the estimate details, you can e-mail the estimate by clicking the Send by E-mail button. As with invoices, this will send an e-mail to your customer notifying them that the estimate is ready for their review. When the estimate is sent, the status will change from “Draft” to “Open (Waiting)”. The e-mail they get will look something like this:

After your customer reviews and approves (or declines) the estimate, you will be sent an e-mail. The next time you log into Billing Manager you will also see a message in the Since Your Last Visit area letting you know that the estimate was approved. At this point the status of the invoice has been automatically set to “Open (Approved)”.

When you’re ready to invoice, simply click the Convert to an Invoice link. That will update the status of the estimate to “Invoiced” and copy all of the relevant information from your estimate, creating a new invoice. In the history section of the invoice you will see an entry letting you know which estimate was used to generate the invoice.

There is a similar entry in the estimate history showing you the invoice number that was created.

Now, lets say that estimate was to cut you customers lawn and you now need to invoice them for the second cut. One way to do that is by going to the original estimate and using the Convert to an Invoice link. Even though you’ve already converted the estimate once, you can convert it as many times as you need to.

Getting back to that status drop down on the estimate page. Notice that it is editable and that you can change the value at any time. One thing that we attempted to do is have the value automatically set to right value at the right time. If your needs are different, go ahead an change the status. For example, if you like to paper mail your estimates instead of e-mailing them, you can print the estimate, mail it, and manually set the status to “Open (Waiting)”. If you don’t like setting an expiration date on your estimates, don’t. But, if enough time has passed an you no longer want the estimate in an “Open (Waiting)” status, change the status to “Expired”.

We hope that this new feature works for you. If it does, please let us know. If it doesn’t, please let us know. If it kind-of works for you, please let us know. Basically, we’d love to hear any feedback you have so we can improve this feature to better meet your estimating needs.

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This entry was posted on July 16, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under New Features. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.