Estimates

Estimates (Service desk group, owners and admins) are quotes for a customer or a prospect.

Build one

New estimate: a title, who it goes to (one of the customer's contacts), an optional valid-until date, and lines. Each line comes from the catalogue or is typed in, is billed once or every month, and can have a discount in percent. The estimate shows what's due once and what's due every month, before tax: tax is added on the invoice by your accounting system.

Send it

Send emails the contact a link to the estimate. Anyone with the link can see that one estimate and approve or decline it, without signing in; nothing else of yours is visible there. Just make the link marks it sent without an email, to paste the link wherever you like.

Editing a sent estimate makes it a draft again and stops its link; send it again for a new one. Sending again also replaces the link.

The customer's answer

• Through the link: they type their name to approve, or decline, with an optional note.
• In the portal: portal users see their organisation's estimates under Estimates and answer there.
• Another way: Record an answer when they said yes or no on the phone or by email.

A decision is final. The team hears about it if they turn on "Customer approved or declined an estimate" in their notification settings. After the valid-until date, an unanswered estimate is expired and can't be answered.

After approval

An approved estimate's Next steps, each once:

• Open a ticket for the work, listing the lines.
• Charge the one-time lines: they go on the customer's next one-off invoice draft. A prospect has to be converted to a customer first.
• Propose a contract from the monthly lines: a proposed contract, not billed yet. Make it active on the Contracts page when it starts.

With RevoCRM on, link the estimate to an opportunity and its approval can mark the deal won (quotes on an opportunity).

Approved estimates are kept: they're the record of what the customer agreed to.