There is an abundance of estimating software on the market today, but few are as inexpensive and user friendly as estimating features in QuickBooks®. This being said, we still find many business owners are under-utilizing this key business tool. If you do project costing or job costing, then it is very important that you understand how to estimate in QuickBooks. If you do not have a clear comprehension of how to work with estimate templates in the software and if you have additional questions once you have read this article, call our QuickBooks ProAdvisor® in your area for help and training.

If the estimates you prepare are relatively simple, then the regular estimate form should work for you. Enter the anticipated costs of various items, add your mark up and come up with the number you will charge your client. An estimate is actually a budget for a job and it is easy to review if it is entered in QuickBooks. Because costs are already being entered in the software, by including the estimate as well, you can run “Cost to Complete” and “Estimated vs. Actual” reports. If you do that elsewhere, it can be extremely time consuming and create twice the work. Also, you can drill down to more detail if needed.

If all of your costs are showing as “No Item” rather than different materials and services, your costs are not being correctly entered. If you are using other estimating software your estimate still belongs in QuickBooks. Also, even if you give a customer fixed pricing, you still need to put your estimate in QuickBooks.

In many situations, a customer decides to make changes in the course of the project. QuickBooks allows you to do a change order and tracks all changes for you. This allows you to easily create an invoice from the estimate, order needed materials or enter an order for work to be sent to a sub-contractor. Once you have entered the estimate, other pieces fall in place and can be accessed with a click.

Here are a few ways to enter your estimate:

• Enter just as you would for an invoice
• Use “Item Groups” for rapid entry
• If you typically use the exact same format and Items, then you may want to memorize an estimate so the next time you only have to pop the numbers in and simply change the Customer:Job and then edit Items and numbers accordingly.
• In some cases you can utilize an import utility to move an estimate from a spreadsheet into QuickBooks. This depends on how the spreadsheet was setup and our QuickBooks trainers can show you how.
• If you are using a third party estimating software, frequently a ways exists to export an estimate, and then go on to import it into QuickBooks.

We hope this helped you to effectively estimate in QuickBooks! If you still have questions regarding estimations, pick up the phone and CALL NOW to speak to a highly skilled QuickBooks trainer in your area.