How to Create an Estimate in QuickBooks 2019 – Part 2

Watch this QuickBooks 2019 video tutorial, we will discuss the options found on the estimates screen and talk about its uses.

Now that you’ve seen how to actually set up an estimate. Let’s go ahead and talk about some of the things that you see on the estimate window that you’re going to see on other windows as well.

Let’s take a peek at the tabs you have running across the top of your window here. Most of what you’re going to use on a regular basis will be under the first tab that says Main. And a lot of these options you’re going to see when you get into other windows that are similar, like invoices.

The first thing you’ll notice is these arrows that go left or right. And these are going to allow you to search through the estimates going left or right. You can actually search for any estimate you like but remember that in QuickBooks everything is in date order. So hitting the left arrow may not give you the actual previous one that you think it does.

If you’re searching and you can’t find what you’re looking for use this Find option right here that will allow you to put in some criteria, like the customer and job name, for example, maybe a date range, an estimate number, or an amount of money.

Obviously, you’d have to know that information in order to type it in, but then you could hit this Find feature right here and it would search through the estimates for the one you’re looking for.

The next option says New. And this is actually going to save the estimate you’re currently in and put you on a new blank estimate. It’s the exact same thing as if you came to the bottom here and clicked on this button that says Save & New.

The next thing you see is the Save button. You can save this as an estimate or as a PDF file, which is very handy if you plan to email this out to someone and you don’t want them to make any changes to it.

Here’s where you would delete the estimate if you wanted to. Notice you could also create a copy. Basically, if you had to create another one similar to this the easiest thing to do would be to create a copy and then make the few changes that you need to make.

Let me mention the memorize as well and we’re going to do this in a later module, but if you have transactions that happen on a regular basis instead of typing them every single month you can actually have it memorize it and then you can actually make a copy come in automatically by double-clicking on the memorization. And I’ll show you how that works a little bit later.

You also have the ability to mark invoices and estimates as inactive. Basically, that means that they don’t show up on reports. It’s almost like they’re not there. They’re hidden so to speak. And when you want to activate them again you can just click the button and then they show up in reports again.

Here’s your print option. I showed you previously what this would look like if you previewed it, but I want you to notice also that you can go ahead and use this to print your estimate right here or to create an envelope.

This will do a mail merge with Microsoft Word and the envelope will actually come up already addressed, ready to go to Mr. Tom Allen. And there’s your option to save it as a PDF as well.

Here’s your email option. You have the option to email this directly to your customer if you like. When you email this you’re going to have a chance to put a little memo on the cover sheet as I call it and then you’ll be able just to send this right over.

The option that says Batch here. What that means is that let’s say you’ve got to send two or three of these. You can check the box here that says Email Later for each one that you do. And when you’re ready to email them you email the batch and it will send all of those over at once.
You can attach a file to this. Some examples might be maybe you got some bills in or some quotes from one of your vendors and you just want to attach it here.

It doesn’t necessarily go over to the customer if you email it. It’s just really more for you so you don’t have to get out of QuickBooks and go look and find that file.

You can also go ahead and invoice your customer from here, but chances are that you’re not going to be on this window when you’re ready to create an invoice, but you could if you wanted to.

Now let me just mention the Start Project. Intuit actually sells another software package called Maven Link. It actually is a partner to QuickBooks but it’s more of the customer side of things.

If you wanted to check it out you could click on Start Project and it would take you in and give you a 30-day free trial.

The next tab over is your Formatting tab. You already know how to preview this estimate. These three here we’re going to talk about when we get to the module where we talk about customizing your forms. That would actually allow you to customize the look of this estimate.
Here’s your spellcheck. Remember to always run your spellcheck.

You want to look professional and not have misspelled words when you’re sending out estimates for jobs.
Here’s a quick way to insert a line. It’s going to go above the one you’ve clicked on. Here’s a way to delete the line you’re clicked on or to copy the line you’re clicked on.

And here’s more options that have to do with customizing this particular estimate template.
The third tab over is your Send/Ship. These options here have to do with actually doing mail merges with Microsoft Word. We’ll do those in a later module.

And then there’s the Reports option here. I want you to notice a couple of these and they all have to do with estimates. One of them I want you to pay particular attention to is this Transaction History.

Now we don’t have a history right now but if we had already created an invoice based on this and maybe received a payment that would create a history we could go look at.

Your reports are your estimates by job, item estimates versus actuals, and your item price list. Like I said, most of the options you’ll use on a regular basis are under the Main tab.

Now if you look down at the bottom left you’ll notice there’s a place for a customer message. QuickBooks has some preformatted ones already set up. If you like one of these you can go ahead and just choose it, but you can also create your own by clicking on Add New.

Underneath that you’ll see a place for a memo and you can say anything you want in this little memo field. And also a place where it says Customer Tax Code. This has to do with sales tax. If your customer is subject to sales tax you would want to say Tax, if not you could say nontaxable sales.

Also over here, you’re going to have the subtotal, the markup, you’re going to have the tax if there was any, and the total.
Your options below that will be to Save & Close this, which means it’s going to save this estimate and close it and you’ll be on whatever window was behind this. You could save this and create a new one or revert. Revert basically means to clear everything out back to when you last saved it.

I’m going to go ahead and hit Save & Close and now you’ll see I’m back on the previous screen. If I wanted to go ahead and open this estimate again notice I’m in the Customer Center. I’m going to click on my customer, find my estimate, double-click, and I’ll be right inside that particular window.

That’s pretty much how estimates work. After you’ve finished estimating a job for a customer the customer is going to call you and ask you to do the work and that’s where the invoicing comes in because you will want to get paid for your work. Let’s move over into section three and we’ll talk about invoicing.

Cindy McGuckin

Cindy McGuckin is an IT trainer with over 20 years of experience. Cindy currently manages the IT Training Department at Trident Technical College, she's a Member of the Association of IT Professionals, Charleston, SC chapter and the Treasurer of the South Carolina Association of Continuing Higher Education. Cindy is a Microsoft Office and QuickBooks expert and her online courses have received hundreds of 5-star reviews. Her no-nonsense approach to teaching complicated topics makes her classes engaging and interesting.