Quotes/Estimates

You build a quote or estimate by adding Tasks and Task Items to a Job and then providing estimates for each task item.

Once all of the Tasks and associated Tasks Items have been entered you can create a Quote or an Estimate from the Job card and then send a PDF version of the quote to your customer.

When creating a Job you need to select the billing type - Fixed Price or Time and Materials.

The difference in billing type is somewhat self explanatory.

• Fixed Price - you quote the customer a fixed price and that is how much they are charged regardless of the actual effort or materials used. For a fixed Price Job you generate a Quote.

• Time and Materials - you charge the customer for the work that you do (at an agreed hourly rate) and any materials that you purchase with a possible mark up. When working on the Job you use the Task time tracker to recording the hours you work and then generate invoices for those hours and any materials (or possibly tools) you used during the job. For a Time and Materials job you generate an Estimate.

Generally you set the billing type for the Job and all Task use the same billing type but you can change the billing type on a per task basis.

If you have tasks with mixed billing types then you will need to generate both a Quote (for the Fixed price tasks) and an Estimate (for the Time and Materials Tasks).

Most of us will use a single billing type for each Job.

The generated Quote and Estimate are essentially the same document except for the disclaimer displayed on each document. For an Estimate you may not even send the Estimate to the customer as it is primary for your purposes - be careful sending an estimate to a customer - many will take it to be a fixed price quote!