Estimates are designed to allow you to build flexible pricing options for your clients.

They're perfect for work where you may have a ballpark figure but need to build in some flexibility so when it comes to billing for the work the client's expectations have been managed.

Let's take a closer look at Estimates and how they work.

Estimates behave much the same way as On Completion service in that they can be billed at a later date once the work has been complete. Just like On Completion service, the estimated price can also be amended before invoicing.

When building a proposal, Estimates can be selected as a service billing type. Selecting Estimates will present you with some billing options.

There are two estimate options: Price Range and Unit Rate.

Price range allows you to set a minimum and an optional maximum price.

Depending on how this information is entered, Ignition will tailor the presentation to your client.

For example, if you enter a minimum price of $400 and a maximum price of $600, the service will be presented as "Priced from $400 to $600".

If only a minimum price is entered the presentation will remain open, ie; "Priced From $400".

Unit Rates allow you to enter in various unit-based billing (e.g. charged per day, hour, employee, transaction, entity, person, bill, and item).

For example, if you charge $100 per day, this will be presented to your client as "$100 per day".

As Estimates are variable by nature, they don't form part of the proposal value displayed under Clients > Summary. If the proposal contains other priced services the total value displayed will exclude any Estimated services.

The service summary and price breakdown that you see in Ignition is the same breakdown that your client will see when they are sent the proposal.

If you are looking to invoice the client for this estimated billing type, please refer to this article for the process!