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How Can I Create and Manage an Estimate?

← POS (Point Of Sale)

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Customers often contact you and inquire about how much a specific repair service/item will cost. Instead of verbally informing them over the phone, wouldn't it be more efficient to create Estimates for them and email them? In this way, you can also keep a track of those potential customers and can keep a record of leads. 

To assist you in this matter, RepairDesk allows you to create estimates for your customers. It's super easy and is just like creating a regular ticket/invoice. The cherry on the icing is that if the customer can approve the estimate so that you can proceed, you can convert it to a repair ticket in just one click.

Benefits of Estimate Module:

1. Involve customers which will increase their satisfaction level.
2. Automatic estimate approval from the customer.
3. Your customer can approve an estimate or request for changes.
4. Auto estimate conversion to ticket/invoice based on the business requirements.
5. The customer will be able to view the amount he needs to pay for the job.


Table of content :

1.How to create an estimate
2.How to send an Estimate  to customer manually 
3.How module configuration works for estimates
4.How email and notification section work for estimates
5.How customer portal works for estimates



1. How to create an estimate:

You can create an estimate in multiple ways. An estimate can be created from the POS screen or from the Manage Estimates section.

1.1Creation of the estimate from Manage Estimates:

Step 1. Go to the repairs section, click on manage estimate or click on + button to create an estimate.



Step 2. You can simply enter data in the fields and create the estimate. You need to select The Type before adding a product or service .if you select service then you need to select a device so that related problems can be populated. In the case of products you just need to add product and hit save to create an estimate.
You can also upload attachments with estimates.


Step 3. Once the estimate is saved based on a valid customer email, the estimate is sent to the customer for approval.

After the customer receives the email of estimate approval, he will click on 'approve the estimate.' It will redirect him to the customer portal where he can view, approve and request for changes (if he doesn't want that estimate.) 

Now, the customer has two options:
 either the customer can approve the estimate or he can ask for changes.
 If the user request for changes, he will click on the change request button. A popup will appear where he can type the request.

Pop up for Change Request:


Based on this request, an email will be sent to the store admin and when an employee will open that estimate, the request will be shown in a pop-up. 

After editing the estimate to cater the change request, once again customer approval will be required for that estimate.


Note: Every time the estimate is created, email will be sent to the customer for approval. if you want to disable the email then you can do that by disabling the emails from email and notification settings.

In order to know more about Email and Notification Click here.


1.2 Creating an Estimate from POS:

Step 1. Go to the Point of Sale (POS) screen.

Step 2. Select Manufacturer, Device, Problem, Part, and enter Details just like creating a repair ticket.

Step 3. Click on Make Estimate (button) on the POS screen.



Step 4. Once you create an estimate you can perform the following action as shown in the image below.


Step 5. Once the estimate is created, email is sent to the customer for approval.
Based on the customer's valid email address, the following email will be sent to the customer for estimate approval.
Once the customer receives this email and wants to approve the estimate, he will click on 'approve the estimate' button and he will be redirected to the estimate view page on the customer portal, from where the customer can either approve or request changes.


Based on estimate approval, its status will be automatically updated. You can then convert an estimate into a ticket or invoice. And if the customer has requested change then that request will be sent to the relevant person via email. The change request will be shown as a popup when the estimate is opened from manage estimates.

Step 6.if the customer has not given the email then the user can also approve the estimate from the view estimate page. You can approve the estimate by opening View Estimate pop up and clicking on the estimate ID.



When the user clicks on 'approve the estimate' he will have the option to create a ticket or invoice.

1.3 Viewing Estimate from POS:

Once the estimates are created you can also view them from POS. in order to view estimate you can click on 'more actions' and then click on view estimates. 


Once you click on view estimate, you will be able to view all the estimates which are created, approved, or awaiting a response. if the estimate is awaiting a response and user report the estimate on POS, then he will not be able to create a ticket or invoice for the specific estimates.




2. How to send an estimate email to the customer manually



Step 1. Email estimate from estimate listing  page:
When the estimate is created, you can send an email to your customer from the estimate listing page. Under the action button you need to click on email estimate.

Step 2. Email estimate from the estimate view page
You can also send a manual email from the estimate view page.


3. How module configuration works for estimates
 



You can access the settings by going through Settings => Module configuration => Estimates




You can customize the estimated receipt title, term, and conditions for both thermal receipts and service receipts.

You can also enable/disable triggers in order to use the estimate module. 

4. How email and notification section works for estimates
  

Once the estimate is created, an automatic email is sent to the customer for its approval.
if you don't want to send an automatic email to customers upon estimate creation.
once the customer approves the estimate confirmation email is also sent to the customer and concern person.
You can either update the email template or if you don't want automatic email, simply turn off the automatic emails from 'email and notification'.
 



5. How customer portal works for estimates


Customer Portal Dashboard
Customers can also view their estimates from the customer portal. Once the customer login to the portal, he can view all the estimates created against him/her.



Customers can view all the estimates and approve them but they cannot create an estimate from the customer portal.

View Estimate:

Customer can select an estimate from the estimate listing page in the customer portal and view the specific estimate and its current status.


Once the customer clicks on the estimate ID, he can view the current status. If the estimate is awaiting a response then he can either approve or request changes (as per requirement).

Estimate View Page:
The customer can view the estimate details but he can not change them.



In order to know how customer portal works click here to view details.  

Frequently Asked Questions


Q. How can I add internal notes on an estimate?

A. You can add the internal notes in estimates for your employees as you add them in the ticket section. What you need to do is, you have to go to the estimates section and you have to create a new estimate.

Note: You can also add the internal notes on already existing estimates

Manage estimates > Create estimates or update estimates


After adding the internal notes, you can view them or edit them by clicking on the estimates from the listing.

After selecting the estimate from the listing page, you can see the added internal notes under the private comments tab at the bottom of the screen.

If you want to restrict your employees from changing the internal notes, you can also do that.

In order to restrict your employee from changing the internal notes, you have to disable the permission against your employees by going to the roles and permission section.

Settings > Employees > Manage Roles and permission > Estimation > Change internal notes

After disabling the permission, your employee wouldn’t be able to edit the internal notes.

Q. Can I make customer approval mandatory?

A. Yes, you can enable a trigger from module configuration >> estimates. Based on that trigger customer approval will be made mandatory.


Q. How can I add a signature while approving estimates?

A. Yes, you can add a signature while approving estimates by enabling the trigger from module configuration >> estimates.


Q. Can I create an invoice from an estimate?
A. You can not directly create an invoice from an estimate. To create an invoice, first convert the estimate to repair ticket. Then you can create an invoice against a repair ticket. 

Q. Can I create estimates for Trade-In items and accessories?
A. Definitely! The same procedure is applicable to create estimates for Trade-In and Casual Items. You can also convert this estimate for these items as a repair ticket. 

Q. Can employees approve an estimate if customer approval is marked as mandatory?
A. NO, if customer approval is marked as mandatory then the employee can not approve the estimate. Only customers will be allowed to approve that estimate.

Q. Can I create an estimate from the lead section?
A. Definitely! You can create an estimate from a lead. You can also email the estimate to customer directly from lead and download as a PDF as well.
To do this, simply open a lead. Click on Email to email estimate to the customer. Click on Download Estimate to save a copy of the estimate as PDF file on your system. 



To know more, please click here. 

Q. Is there any option through which I can manually change the estimate status?
A. NO, you can not change the estimate status manually. Status is action-based and once you perform any action, status is changed automatically.

Q. How can I manage estimate status?
A. You can view estimate status from settings under the order status tab. You can view all the staus being used in the estimate module. Plus, if you want to translate, you can change the name of the status as per your requirements.


Q. Is there any option to create estimate form tickets?
A. Yes you can create an estimate from a ticket but with the following limitaion.
1.if any invoice is attached to a ticket then the user will not be able to create its estimate.
2.if the ticket is already created from estimate then the user will not be able to create an estimate again.

The following are the steps to create estimates from tickets.
if you want to create an estimate from a ticket then goto to the ticket (against which invoice is not created), you can either create an estimate for a single device or for multiple devices. once an estimate is created you have no option to edit the device status and create an invoice against that ticket.

Once an estimate is created  Via ticket, the estimate will be sent to the customer for approval and once he approves the estimate then the user will be able to edit and update that specific ticket.

Q.Once I update an estimate do I have to send the estimate for approval again?
A. It depends on your choice, once you update the estimate system give you the option to send an estimate or proceed without customer approval.

Q.Is there any option to disable estimates from the tickets section?
A. Yes you can disable this option  by store settings=>module configuration=> Tickets 



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