Sending an estimate for a customer to approve

The Estimates add-on lets you send a customer or a prospect an estimate (you can call it a quote or a proposal in Estimates, then Settings) that they read and approve online. When they approve, PayMidWare makes the customer if they are new and an invoice for the work, with the lines they chose and the tax they saw.

To send one: open Estimates and choose New estimate (or open a customer, then the Estimates tab, then New estimate). Pick a customer or type a prospect's name and email, add a title and the scope of work, add your lines and tick Optional on any line the customer can choose to include, choose a tax rate, and then Save draft or Save and send. The customer gets an email with a link. If there is no email on file you are shown the link to share another way.

How the customer approves: by clicking a button and typing their name, or, if you choose Sign and have the e-signature add-on, by signing the estimate on the signing page. If they agree by phone or in person, open the estimate and choose Record approval, and say how and when they agreed.

Paying in stages: instead of one invoice you can split an estimate into stages, for example 30 percent to start, 40 percent at the midpoint and the balance at the end. The last stage is always the balance, so the stages always add up to the whole. A stage bills when the estimate is approved, or when you press Invoice now on the estimate's page. To ask for a deposit, make it the first stage.

Changing one that is out: Revise makes a new draft with the same number, and sending it replaces the old one. Resend emails a fresh link and the old link stops working. Extend moves the valid-until date. Withdraw cancels one that is not approved. An approved estimate is never changed.

If an approval shows Needs attention: the customer or the invoice could not be made yet, for example because two customers share the email or no payment gateway is set up. The estimate says why. Fix it and choose Try again.

Your dashboard has an Estimates card, and the Report on the Estimates page shows how many you sent, approved and declined, your win rate and the average days to approve.