Estimates & Quotes

Create professional estimates and convert accepted quotes to invoices.

Creating an Estimate

1. Go to Estimates in the sidebar
2. Click Create Estimate
3. Select the Customer
4. Set Estimate Date and Expiry Date
5. Add line items (see below)
6. Review totals
7. Click Save (draft) or Save & Send

Line Items

Add products or services to your estimate:

• Description: What you're quoting for
• Quantity: Number of units
• Rate: Price per unit
• Amount: Auto-calculated (Qty x Rate)
• Account: Income account (used when converted to invoice)

Sending Estimates

Email estimates directly to customers:

1. Open the estimate
2. Click Send Estimate
3. Review the email preview
4. Click Send

The estimate will be emailed as a PDF attachment.

Online Signing & Acceptance

Skip the print-sign-scan loop. BizBooks Pro can email your customer a private link that lets them review the estimate and sign off on it from any browser. The signature is captured electronically together with the signer's IP address, browser fingerprint, timestamp, and a SHA-256 hash that locks the record against tampering. This satisfies the legal threshold under the federal E-SIGN Act and the state-level UETA for binding electronic agreements on commercial estimates.

How to Send a Signing Link

1. Open any estimate from the Estimates view
2. Click the Send for Acceptance button
3. Confirm the recipient's email address (defaults to the customer's saved email)
4. BizBooks Pro emails the customer a tokenized link with a 30-day expiry window

What Your Customer Experiences

The link opens a mobile-friendly page showing your branded estimate -- company info, line items, totals -- exactly as it would appear on a printed quote. Two action buttons sit at the bottom: Accept & Sign or Decline.

Selecting Accept opens a short form where they enter their name, optional title (such as Owner or General Manager), and email, then pick a signing style:

• Typed -- the page renders their name in flowing cursive
• Drawn -- they sign with a finger on mobile or a mouse on desktop
• Checkbox-only -- a single agreement checkbox for the fastest path

After they submit, a confirmation banner shows the audit hash, and the estimate status updates to Accepted on your end within seconds.

Reviewing the Signed Estimate

Every accepted estimate displays a green Accepted & Signed panel in the detail view, showing the actual signature image, the signer's identity, IP address, exact timestamp, and the audit hash. This panel is the legal record of the agreement and can be reviewed at any time.

Capturing Declines

If the customer chooses to decline, they are prompted for an optional reason. Knowing whether you lost the deal on price, timing, scope, or to a competitor is genuinely useful sales data -- the reason is stored on the estimate and surfaces in the detail view.

Audit Trail Detail

BizBooks Pro maintains a dedicated audit log for the acceptance workflow. Every view of the link, every accept, and every decline is logged with timestamp, IP, and browser. The cryptographic hash is recomputed from the estimate's amount, signer details, IP, and timestamp; if the underlying estimate body is altered after acceptance the hash no longer matches, providing built-in tamper detection.

Estimate Status

Converting to Invoice

When a customer accepts your estimate, convert it to an invoice with one click:

1. Open the accepted estimate
2. Click Convert to Invoice
3. Review the invoice details (all line items transfer automatically)
4. Adjust dates or terms if needed
5. Save the invoice

Payment Schedule (Draws / Milestones)

For projects billed in phases, you can attach a payment schedule to any estimate. This is ideal for contractors, builders, consultants, and any work delivered in stages.

Adding a Payment Schedule

1. When creating or editing an estimate, check Payment Schedule (Draws / Milestones) at the bottom of the form
2. Click + Add Draw to add payment milestones
3. For each draw, enter:
   • Description: Name of the milestone (e.g., "Foundation Complete")
   • Amount: Payment amount for this draw
   • Due Date: When payment is expected (optional)
   • Condition: A milestone trigger instead of a date (e.g., "Upon completion")
4. Use Split Evenly to divide the total equally across all draws
5. Use Auto-fill Remaining to assign the balance to the last draw

Converting to Invoice

When you convert an estimate with a payment schedule to an invoice, the entire schedule carries over automatically. Each draw's status, amount, and due date are preserved on the invoice.

Editing & Deleting Estimates

• Draft estimates: Can be freely edited or deleted
• Sent estimates: Can be edited (sends update notification to customer)
• Converted estimates: Cannot be deleted (void the linked invoice instead)

Estimate Reports

Track your quoting performance:

• Pending Estimates: All estimates awaiting customer response
• Total Value: Sum of all pending estimate amounts
• Acceptance Rate: Percentage of estimates that convert to invoices
• Estimates by Customer: Filter to see quotes for specific customers