Estimates

Estimates let you propose pricing to a client before committing to an invoice. Once accepted, an estimate can be converted directly into an invoice.

Creating an Estimate

When you create a new estimate, the system auto-assigns an estimate number from your settings.

Adding Items

Add items in two ways:

• From your product catalog — select a product and the name, description, price, and tax rates are auto-filled. Adjust quantity as needed.
• Custom items — enter a name, price, and quantity manually for one-off line items.

Each item can have:

• Quantity — number of units
• Price — unit price (auto-filled from catalog or entered manually)
• Discount — optional per-item percentage discount (0–100%)

Customer & Contacts

Link the estimate to a trusted client to auto-fill the business name and choose from saved contacts. Or enter customer details manually.

You can add multiple contacts — mark one as primary to receive the email directly, with others on CC.

Discounts

Two levels of discounts are available:

• Item-level — percentage discount on individual line items, applied before tax
• Document-level — flat dollar amount or percentage off the subtotal

Shipping

Add shipping details if applicable:

Valid Until

Set a Valid Until date to indicate when the estimate expires. After this date, the estimate status can change to Expired.

Terms & Disclaimers

• Terms — payment or validity terms (auto-filled from your invoice settings, editable per estimate)
• Disclaimers — select from your saved templates or write custom disclaimers for this document

Disclaimers are snapshotted when added — editing a template in settings later won’t change existing estimates.

Automatic Calculations

The system automatically calculates:

• Subtotal — sum of all items (after item-level discounts)
• Discount — document-level discount resolved to a dollar amount
• Taxes — broken down by tax rate, based on each item’s tax category and location
• Shipping — from the shipping cost field
• Total — subtotal − discount + taxes + shipping

When you modify items, discounts, or shipping, everything recalculates automatically.

Sending an Estimate

When you send an estimate:

• A styled HTML email is sent to all contacts with a PDF attachment
• The estimate status changes to Sent
• The email includes a “View & Respond” button linking to a public page

The email is sent from your business name via Selflane, with replies directed to the email address in your invoice settings.

Estimate Statuses

Customer Response

Customers receive a link to view the estimate on a public page (no login required). From there they can:

• View the full estimate with all line items, taxes, and totals
• Download the PDF
• Accept — confirms the estimate and logs the acceptance
• Reject — declines with an optional reason, e.g., “Budget constraints — can we reduce scope?”

Converting to an Invoice

Once a customer accepts an estimate, you can convert it to an invoice. A confirmation dialog shows a summary before the invoice is created. See Invoices for details.

Duplicating an Estimate

You can duplicate any estimate to pre-fill a new form with the same items, contacts, and settings. This is useful when creating similar proposals for different clients.