Building an estimate on the office web page
On the office web page, open a customer and click New Estimate (or Open on a draft in their estimate list).
- Title and who it's addressed to; Rates if you need the other customer type's rates.
- What we're cleaning:
- Measured rooms — tick rooms measured in the app; each becomes a floor line with its measured sq ft (repeated rooms multiply).
- + Floor for a room you type in, + Stairs, + Upholstery, + Add-on (use carpet sq ft fills in the carpet total), + Other for a typed charge.
- Untick a line to leave it off without deleting it. Note / price adds a note for the proposal or a typed price.
- Extra charges, Travel miles, Promo code, and Sales tax (from the customer's state; change the rate or mark tax-exempt).
- Save Estimate. It's a draft on the customer — the app opens the same estimate.
Prices come from the same pricing engine as the app, checked against the same sample jobs.
Sending from the web
Click Send to Customer… (under the price, on either tab). It saves the estimate, then:
- Pick who it goes To (the person it's addressed to is ticked; billing contacts go in CC), or type another address.
- Change the Subject and Message if you like.
- Commercial customers: tick Attach our W-9 and certificate of insurance to send them along.
- Send Email. The customer gets your message, the proposal PDF and a Review & accept button. Replies come to you.
The PDF is made from the preview, with your letterhead, scope of work, prices, wording and the accept link. Just Make the Link makes the link and PDF without emailing — copy the link or use Open in My Email. (Until your company's email is set up, Send Email does the same and opens your own email with the link filled in.)
The estimate turns Sent. When the customer accepts or declines, you get an email and the app and web page update.
A sent estimate
Opening a sent or accepted estimate shows its status, the accept link, View PDF, Copy Link, Send Again (same link and PDF) and the QuickBooks buttons. To change the prices, click Make a New Version — that's a new draft; the customer's copy stays as it was sent.
Still in the app
Measuring, photos and floor plans on the proposal, service plans and per-location proposals. Anything set there is kept when you save on the web.
Preview & Edit
Click Preview & Edit at the top to see the estimate the way the customer will: letterhead, scope of work, prices, wording, perk code and Follow us. Change it right on the page:
- Click any text — the title, opening paragraph, a line's name, How to prepare, Not included — and type. A + note under a line adds a note the customer sees.
- Type over a price to set it by hand (clear it to go back to the calculated price).
- – leaves a line off (it stays on the estimate, crossed out); ↺ puts it back; ✕ deletes it.
- + Add charge / − Add credit for anything extra or a goodwill credit.
- Print / Save as PDF prints the page or saves it as a PDF from your browser.
Then Save Estimate. Build switches back to the full builder.
In the app, the proposal preview has an Edit button with the same changes (title, opening, each line's name, price, note, leave off, add a charge or credit, promo code, wording); closing it rebuilds the PDF.