Estimates — User Guide

Who can use Estimates

Your workspace must have Invoices installed first, then the Estimates module (both free from Marketplace). Marketplace blocks installing Estimates until Invoices is entitled. Your role must include the relevant permissions (view, create, update, delete, restore, force.delete, assign, send, accept, convert as needed).

Without assign, you only see estimates assigned to you.

List & table

Open Estimates from the sidebar (Billing, after Credit Notes). Search by title or number, filter by status or assignee, toggle My estimates, and switch KPI cards (Total, Mine, Draft, Sent, Accepted, Accepted value) to quick-filter the table. The table shows the latest note and a Converted badge once an estimate has produced an invoice.

• Users with restore can filter Active / Include deleted / Deleted only, then Restore a soft-deleted estimate from the row menu
• Delete permanently requires estimates.force.delete — granted to the workspace owner by default

Create an estimate

1. Click New estimate
2. Optionally choose an Opportunity first — use New beside the picker when Opportunities is installed and you have opportunities.create; selecting an opportunity auto-fills Contact, Company, and Assignee when those are set on the opportunity
3. Linked quotation: if the opportunity has exactly one quotation it is selected automatically; if there are multiple, pick one manually (or leave none)
4. Enter a title, currency (defaults to your workspace currency; full shared currency list), valid-until date, notes, and optional Terms & conditions (rich text — headings, lists, bold/italic/underline)
5. Adjust contact/company/assignee if needed (when those modules are installed — New beside Contact/Company creates and selects inline when you have create permission)
6. Choose a shared line discount type (none, percent, or fixed), then add lines. When Products is installed, optionally select a product to auto-fill name, details (from the product description), and unit price — you can still edit those fields. Lines also include Qty, Discount value (when type is not none), Tax %, with optional rich-text Details under each row — subtotal, discount, tax, and total update automatically. Tax is applied after line discounts.
7. Save

Edit from the row menu or the record page while the estimate is still Draft. Editing replaces the full line-item list. After Send, content is locked; use status actions and assignment instead.

Status workflow

An estimate starts in Draft. Move it forward with:

• Send (draft → sent) — marks the estimate as sent to the customer (does not email the customer by itself)
• Accept (sent → accepted) or Reject / Expire via the status action

Invalid transitions (e.g. accepting directly from Draft) are rejected with a validation error.

Download PDF

Download PDF is on the estimate record page and the row menu. It generates a branded PDF using your Settings → Branding button color, logo (when uploaded), and company profile — plus line items, discount/tax/total breakdown, and the memo notes. Long notes and terms continue across as many pages as needed.

Email customer

After you Send the estimate (status is Sent, Accepted, Rejected, or Expired), use Email customer on the record page (estimates.send). The dialog pre-fills the linked contact or company email when available; you can add CC recipients, edit the subject and message, and choose whether to attach the PDF. Delivery uses your workspace email configuration and appears in Settings → Email logs.

Convert to invoice

Once an estimate is Sent or Accepted, use Convert to invoice from the record page or row menu:

• Creates a new draft invoice with the same title, notes, terms & conditions, currency, line_discount_type, contact/company, quotation link, assignee, and a copy of every line item (name, body, discounts)
• Marks the estimate Accepted automatically if it wasn't already
• The estimate record page then shows a link to the converted invoice
• An estimate can only be converted once — the action is hidden once a converted invoice already exists
• Convert is also blocked if the estimate’s linked quotation already has an invoice (from converting that quote, another estimate, or billing a contract that copied the quotation). Use a new estimate or invoice from scratch if you still need another bill

Assignment

Users with assign can set or clear the assignee from the record page or the create/edit form. The assignee receives an in-app notification when someone else assigns them.

Notes & activity

• Overview — shows the estimate memo from the create/edit Notes field (also printed on the PDF)
• Notes tab — internal activity notes the team adds after the estimate exists (not the same as the memo)
• Activity — timeline of create, update, assignment, status change, conversion, note, and delete/restore events

Related records

Every estimate record page shows its linked Contact, Company, Opportunity, Quotation, and — once converted — the resulting Invoice, each with a link to jump straight to that record's detail view.

Ask EloSync

With the AI Assistant module installed, Ask EloSync can fetch an estimate and propose status changes, assignments, or timeline notes. Nothing is saved until you confirm the suggestion. Moving to Sent still needs send; accepting needs accept. See AI Assistant.