In this installment of our QuickBooks 101 series, I'm going to provide a step-by-step guide for creating an estimate - an important step for managing your small business in QuickBooks Desktop
What is an Estimate?
In essence, an estimate is the presumed price for a product or service you will provide to a customer. Sometimes the estimate really is an educated guess. Other times an estimate functions as an offer. In either case, it's important to keep track of the estimates you've sent to customers, because they are in effect a promise you've made - and good businesses always make good on their promises!
How do I create an Estimate in QuickBooks Desktop?
- Under Jobs and Estimates, make sure the Estimate feature is turned on
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Go to the Customer menu and click Create Estimates
- Select a Customer from the drop down list
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Enter the line items
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Adjust the exchange rate if your customer uses a currency different than your home currency
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Change any sales tax information (if necessary)
- Enter the class information for class tracking if you want to track this estimate by location, subsidiary, group, etc
- Click Save & Close or Save & New if you want to create another Estimate.
Can I create an Estimate in Method:CRM that will sync with QuickBooks?
Create an Estimate in Method:CRM:
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From Method:CRM, go to Customers > Estimates.
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Choose the appropriate Customer or Lead from the Customer:Job drop down menu
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From the Date drop down menu, choose a date for this estimate. The default will be today's date.
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In the Line Item grid, choose the items that will be included for this estimate by using the Item drop down menu(s). Click New Line Item to generate further lines. Choosing these items will auto-fill the Description, Quantity, Amount, Cost, and Tax fields in the grid.
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Click Update when you're done filling in line items to generate a total.
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Click Save at the bottom of the screen
If you're new to QuickBooks and Method:CRM, I hope you have found this post helpful :)
Have specific questions you want answered? Please leave a comment below or tweet me
@MethodCRM.
Lynda