New estimate

You can use FreeAgent to create estimates, quotes and proposals to send to your clients, then change and build those estimates.

To start creating a new estimate, quote or proposal, from the Work menu, choose Estimates.

On the side menu you can see that you're now on the All Estimates screen. Click Add New Estimate.

Or, you can quickly start setting up a new estimate by clicking New Estimate from the Quick Links menu on the Overview screen.

Or, if this estimate is part of a client project, you can choose Estimate from the Add New menu on that project's screen.  This is the only way to create estimates for projects with a status of anything other than Active.

Or, if this isn't your first estimate, you might want to duplicate an existing estimate.  To do this, click that estimate from the list on the All Estimates page, click the More button, and choose Duplicate Estimate.

This menu also has another option to let you create a new non-duplicate estimate, as you can see here.

1. Estimate, quote or proposal?

First, choose from the drop-down menu whether this is an estimate, a quote or a proposal. This will change the text on the final page. For this article I'll create an estimate.

2. Contact and project

Choose which client this estimate is for. If it's a new client, you'll need to enter them as a contact first, by clicking the "Add a new Contact" link. You can also create new contacts either by manually entering them, importing them from an e-mail package, or importing them from Basecamp.

I can't see the contact.

If the contact is hidden, you won't see his/her name on this list.

If you're producing this estimate as part of a project, choose which project it's for. If it's for a new project, you can either set that project up before you create your estimate, or, if you prefer, you can finish creating the estimate first and then create a new project from the estimate.

Give the estimate a reference number. By default FreeAgent picks the next number in sequence, and uses a different sequence from your invoices.

3. Date, currency and additional information

Enter the estimate date, and which currency you want to issue the estimate in.

Then put any additional information into the big box, for example a note for the client such as "As discussed". This information will be displayed on the estimate, so don't put here anything that you don't want your client to see!

If you want the same information to appear on every estimate, you can set up default text.

4. More Options

Underneath these details, you'll find More Options. Click the More Options drop-down arrow to look at these.

Here you can put in a different individual contact name for the client, for example if your usual contact is the purchase ledger clerk and you want to send the estimate to the finance manager, you would put in the finance manager's name here.

You can also tick the "Use Letterheaded Paper" box, which will, as explained here, omit your logo and company address details from the estimate.

And you can show the project name on the estimate if appropriate.

Click Create New Estimate to save your changes and create the new estimate, or Cancel to close this screen and abandon the estimate.

Your new estimate

If you click Create New Estimate, you'll then see the newly created estimate on the screen.

You're then ready to add figures to this estimate and send it to your client.