On estimates we recommend not to use long texts. With long texts it might happen that the format going to be messed up. When you need to have long texts on your estimates, we recommend to use interactive proposals ➝

Create a new estimate

To create a new estimate go to, Sales ➝ Estimates ➝ Create Estimate ➝ fill fields ➝ click “Preview” or “Activate and Send”.

You can also find the “Create a new Estimate” feature in the Quick Toolbox:

View or edit an estimate

You can view an estimate by clicking on its name on the grid (Sales ➝ Estimates).
This will show you the view your clients will have of the estimate and it is how it will look like if printed.

To edit an estimate, click on the pencil icon in the estimate preview or open the “Edit” link from the row end menu on the grid.

Estimate data – description

When you open an estimate page – you’ll see the following data and customization:
Estimate title – this may simply be an internal note and will be displayed on the Estimate Grid:

…Or it can be used as a text under the estimate name on the final version of the estimate document.

If you wish to include the title in the final version go to Settings ➝ Preferences ➝ Invoices & Estimates ➝ check the checkbox “Show invoice/estimate title in preview” (more here).

Estimate Number: – You can check/un-check the ability to update the estimate number here: Settings ➝ Invoices & Estiamtes ➝ checkbox “Allow editing invoice/estimate number”.
Change the estimate number format, go to: Settings ➝ Number Groups. More here

“Valid for”, “Valid until” – this field shows the client how long your estimate is valid for.

Note: the default ‘Valid for’ applied to all estimates is 4 weeks, but you can choose another period.

“Term” – means how many days from the invoice based on this estimate will be valid for payment.

More options:
“Language” – the language used in the estimate document
“Currency” – the currency of the estimate

Estimate items – this is the body of the invoice. You can choose tasks or items from the existing product list or create new product point.

Notes:
“Internal note” – a note which will only be visible whilst you are editing the estimate
“Client note”, “Terms and conditions” – these will be displayed on estimate preview.

Send an estimate to a customer

You can send an estimate by clicking “Activate and Send” on the create/edit estimate page.
You can also send estimates by clicking “Send to client” on the row end menu.

…Or by clicking ‘Send to client’ on the bulk actions

Note: If it’s important for you to have a Quote, not an Estimate, you can change it with our Template Editor.

Here is  How to rename an Estimate to a Quote video.

How do I find a required estimate?

You can quickly find required estimates by using the search feature.

You can filter estimates by a client, an estimate titel, an estimate’s number, a date, an amount of the estimate, status, and currency.

Bulk Actions

You can use bulk actions for estimates by marking the check-boxes on the grid.

Available bulk actions:
– archive – archive the estimates
– delete – delete the estimates
– send to the client – send the estimates to the related clients
– approve an estimate – change the status of the estimates to ‘accepted’
– print
– create PDF

Row End Menu

The row end menu includes next estimates actions:

• Edit – open and edit page
• View estimate – open an estimate’s preview
• Create a PDF
• Print estimate
• Send to the client – send by e-mail to the client’s contacts
• Approve estimate – accept or reject (if the status is accepted then this option is available)
• Mark as activated – change the status of an estimate to ‘activated’ without sending to a client or turn it back to ‘unapproved’ (this option is available when the status of the estimate is ‘accepted’)
• Clone estimate – create a new estimate with the same data
• Convert to project – create a project based on this estimate
• Create Purchase Order – more here
• Generate invoice – create an invoice based on this estimate
• Make recurring – the system will automatically create the same estimate after the chosen period of time
• Print Order Confirmation
• Send Order Confirmation
• Archive – move to ‘archived’ page
• Delete – move to ‘deleted’ page

Estimate replying and commenting

Before approving an estimate, your clients may reply to further discuss.

In order to reply to your estimate they need to open the estimate preview  (Sales -> Estimates) -> by clicking on estimate name on the grid➝ click ‘Message History’ ➝ insert their comment and click ‘Send’.

The account owner, admins, and leaders can respond to client comments in the same way.

They can also comment on an estimate in the estimate’s history at the bottom of the estimate preview page. Click on ‘+ Add Comment’ ➝ enter your comment and click ‘Add Comment’.

These comments will be visible to all users of your account (account owner, staff members, clients, tax consultant)

Estimate approving

Estimates can be approved by the client, account owner or team leader.

To approve estimate an estimate check the boxes of the required estimates on the grid ➝ then click ‘Approve Estimate’

Once you click ‘approve’, the status of your estimate will then be changed to ‘accepted’ and the client will no longer be able to reply to this estimate. If you still need to discuss it with the client – mark it back to ‘activated’:

Converting an estimate to an invoice

You can easily create invoices based on your estimate data.

To convert an estimate to an invoice go to the estimate’s grid and choose ‘Generate Invoice’ on the row and menu.

After saving your invoice, the estimate status will be changed to ‘invoiced’.

Difference between deleted and archived estimates

You can delete or archive estimates.

Archived estimates – do not allow you to make any further actions and the client will no longer see these estimates in their profile. However, data from these estimates will continue to be included in your reports.

Deleted estimates – do not allow you to make any further actions and the client will not see deleted estimates in their profile. Data from these estimates will not be included in your reports.

However, you are able to reactivate archived or deleted estimates at any time.

Convert estimate to a project

You can easily convert an estimate to a project via the dropdown:

Please note that you can only create one project out of one estimate (1-1 relation). Also, you cannot convert estimates to project if the estimate is already invoiced.

If you convert an estimate to a project, a window opens where you can enter basic informations for the project. Also you get a prompt feedback wich tasks and items will be created in the project:

You also see on the project dashboard how many items and tasks are in a project based on the number besides the tab:

You will also see in the estimates history who created a project out of a estimate:

If the project is using a flat project amount as billing method the estimate net amount (subtotal without taxes) will be used as flat project amount.

1. Draft
2. Activated
3. Viewed
4. Replied
5. Accepted
6. Invoiced
7. Expired
8. Converted to Project

You can see the status of an estimate on the estimate grid:

1. Draft
This status appears if you click “Preview” after estimate creation:

2. Activated
This status appears if you click “Activate and Send” after estimate creation…

OR if you send to your client the “Draft” estimate or you “mark as activated”.

3. Viewed
If the client has opened (viewed) received the estimate in zistemo via the client’s account

4. Replied
If the client has replied (commented) on the estimate (more here).

5. Accepted
If the client has approved the estimate in zistemo via the client’s account

Or if you did it by yourself.   

6. Invoiced
If you have generated an invoice based on this estimate. Note: If an Estimate is already Invoiced then it can’t be edited anymore (neither changed back to activated nor approved).

7. Expired
The estimate is no longer valid, since the date of validity is expired.

8. Converted to Project
The estimate was converted to a project. You can convert an estimate into a project on the line end menu “Convert to Project”. Please note that you can only create 1 project out of 1 estimate (1-to-1 relation).

If you want to know which project it is you can review more details in the estimate history where you also see who converted the estimate and when.

Either if you print or send an order confirmation you can enter a “new” intro text to the oder confirmation: Just click on “print order confirmation” or “send order confirmation” and a new window will pop up where you can manage the order confirmation intro.

You can create several text templates for order confirmation intro to select afterwards from your templates. Learn more about text templates here.

After you click on save, the order confirmation intro will be inserted into the document:

Whether you print or send the order confirmation, this event will be included in the Estimate history:

Click on ‘Connect estimate’ and choose one or several estimates (this list include only the estimates created for this project’s client):

Click ‘Connect’ and from now on, you will see these Estimates’ activities on the ‘Project Activity’ tab:

Connect invoices

You can also connect invoices with projects in the same way as you did with the estimates. These invoices should be paid and not assigned to any other project.

If the invoice is connected you’ll see the amount on the sales chart as “manual hours”:

Please note that no hours from the project wont be marked as billed when connecting an invoice manually to it. Further, for projects with flat amounts as billing method no it wont calculate the amount from the connected invoice as billed amount from the flat amount.

You can disconnect the manually attached invoices at any time.
But in this table you will also see invoices that cannot be disconnected – these invoices have timesheets/expenses attached related to this project. Therefore, if you attached such timesheets/expenses (more here) to the invoice and pay this invoice – it will be displayed here automatically.

Subtotals

When creating invoices/recurring invoices/estimates/purchases, you will see the total amount at the end of the document’s table.
But zistemo also helps you use ‘subtotals’. It’s very simple: add some items to your document and click ‘Add Subtotal’:

If you wish, you can enter a name for this subtotal header and description (or leave it empty) and you will see the total amount of previous items:

In case you change your mind, you can delete this line by clicking ‘Delete’ in the line-end menu:

If you leave the “Subtotal” line, it will be displayed on the invoice/estimate/purchase preview (therefore on the document which will be sent to your client):

The format of the invoice with subtotals will indented differently for a better overview.

Page Breaks

Sometimes an Invoice, Estimate or a Purchase can be really long. For example: You want on the first page a specific product group and not more – you should use the option “page break” to break the page.

If you create your Invoice/Estimate/Purchase, just click on the right arrow and choose “add page break”

You will see the added page break:

If you take a look into the “preview” you will see the page break:

Text Blocks

You can also add pure text fields without quantity or prices to your invoice, estimate and purchase order.
You able to create, load, save, delete and move text blocks instead product lines.

To create a text block either you go to “Sales” -> “Product List” -> “Text blocks

or create directly the text block in the process of the creation from the invoice, estimate, etc..

Do not forget to press “save text block”:

The already created text blocks you can simply choose via the dropdown:

Enjoy!

This means your estimate will include active project’s tasks – tasks with logged hours in the timesheet. Therefore, in this estimate, you will see the task name, the total of hours spent on it, the hourly price as well as the total amount.

If the tasks don’t have any logged hours or if these hours are already billed (included to invoice – more here), such tasks will not be included in the estimate.
Also, if you are using the “Approve timesheets” feature (more here), only the “approved’ tasks” hours will be featured in the estimate.

First you need to activate this option. It is by default deactivated!
Go to: Settings -> Preferences -> Invoices and Estimates 

When adding an item to your estimate you can mark it as Optional. Also, you can choose if this item should be active or inactive by default in the estimate. If you mark the item as Active it will be included into the totals calculation.

Note: If you mark an estimate as optional you and your customer can activate and deactivate this item until it is accepted.

On the estimate your customer/client can switch this item on or off

If the customer decides to enable the optional items, the option will be crossed out:

Note:

• When estimate status is not approved = optional line items are italic
• When estimate is approved = line items are crossed out

For example:
– You send an estimate with the number AN-189, to your client.
– Client wants changes, you add the changes and send it again as AN-189.1
– Client wants to have a better price, you change the prices and send it again as AN-189.2

To enable or disable go to “Settings” -> “Preferences” -> “Invoices & Estimates” ->

The Estimate needs to be in “activated” status. After editing your estimate to the new details, you need to “send” the new estimate to the client, otherwise zistemo does not add the sub-number.

Or here:

Afterwards your will see, that the estimate-sub-number is automatically added: