The Estimates module lets you create a priced quote for a client, send it through a secure link, and track whether they view, accept, decline, or download it — without the Client needing an Office-X account.
Good to know: Estimates is part of the CRM feature set, which is available as a paid add-on. If your company’s plan doesn’t include CRM, you can purchase the CRM add-on from Business → Billing & Payment. Once added, Estimates and the other CRM features become available.
Two Sides to Every Estimate #
Every Estimate has two very different people looking at it:
- You (the Subscriber Admin, or an employee with the right Estimates permissions) — build the quote, decide the price and validity window, and send it.
- The Client — the person you send it to. They never log into Office-X at all. They open an emailed link, look over the numbers, and respond.
Example, start to finish: Sarah Mitchell needs a follow-up home cleaning visit, and you’re quoting her for it. Here’s exactly what happens on each side:
| Step | You (Admin) | Client |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create an Estimate for Sarah — one line item, Home Cleaning Service, Quantity 2, Unit Price $300, Tax Rate 20% — which comes to a Grand Total of $720. Set Valid Until two weeks out. | — |
| 2 | Click Send. | — |
| 3 | — | Sarah receives an email with a secure link, no Office-X account needed. |
| 4 | — | Sarah opens the link. Office-X automatically marks the Estimate Viewed. |
| 5 | — | Sarah reviews the total, is happy with it, and clicks Accept. |
| 6 | You see it’s Accepted the next time you check the list. | — |
Good to know: If the Client declines an Estimate, you can edit it to adjust the offer. This automatically reopens the Estimate and sends the Client a new link so they can review it again.
Who Can Use This Feature #
Subscriber Admin can always create, view, edit, delete, and send/resend any Estimate, without needing any specific permission.
Employees need one of the permissions below, each controlled independently from Admin → Permission → CRM – Estimates:
- Create / Duplicate Estimate
Required action: Create
Covers both creating a brand-new Estimate and duplicating an existing one — there’s no separate permission just for duplicating. - View All Estimates
Required action: View - Edit Estimate (For All)
Required action: Update - Delete Estimate (For All)
Required action: Delete - Send / Resend / Void Estimate (For All)
Required action: Update
Covers sending, resending, and voiding — there’s no separate permission just for voiding.
These permissions can be assigned directly to an employee, or to an entire team at once. See the Permissions Management guide for how to assign permissions.
The Estimate List #
Route: Dashboard → CRM → Estimates — this is what you land on first when you open the module.
The table shows: Estimate ID, Client, Title, Amount, Status, Sent date, Created date, Valid Until, and an Action column. Any column except Action can be shown or hidden via the Columns option.
- Search — by Estimate ID or title.
- Filters — by Status.
- Sort — Estimate ID, Amount, Valid Until, Status, Created date, or Sent date.
Results are paginated (10, 20, or 30 per page).
Void means cancelling an Estimate, so it is no longer active. It keeps the Estimate record for reference but prevents it from continuing as a live offer.
Creating an Estimate #
Click Add Estimate and fill in:
- Client — required, search and select from your Active Clients.
- Title — required, up to 100 characters.
- Line Items — at least 1, up to 100. For each line, search and pick an Item (which pre-fills Description, Unit Price, and Tax Rate from that Item’s own settings — you can adjust all three afterward), then set Quantity (at least 0.01) and, optionally, a Discount % (0–100).
- Currency — optional, from your company’s configured currencies.
- Valid Until — required, must be a date in the future.
- Notes and Terms — both optional, up to 2000 characters each.
- Attachments — optional, up to 5 files, 5 MB each (images, PDF, Word, or Excel).
A new Estimate is created in Draft status — nothing is sent to the client yet, and no document is generated until you send it.
How the Totals Are Calculated
For each line item: Line Subtotal = Quantity × Unit Price. The Discount % is applied to that subtotal first, then the Tax Rate is applied to what’s left after the discount — tax is never charged on the discounted-away portion:
- Line Discount = Line Subtotal × Discount %
- Line Tax = (Line Subtotal − Line Discount) × Tax Rate
- Line Total = Line Subtotal − Line Discount + Line Tax
Worked example: an Estimate titled “Home Cleaning Service — Follow-up Visit,” sent to the Customer Sarah Mitchell, has one line item — Home Cleaning Service, Quantity 2, Unit Price $300, Tax Rate 20%, no discount:
- Line Subtotal = 2 × $300 = $600
- Line Discount = $0 (no discount)
- Line Tax = $600 × 20% = $120
- Line Total = Grand Total = $600 + $120 = $720
Estimate Lifecycle #
An Estimate moves through these statuses:
- Draft — being put together, not yet visible to the client.
- Sent — you’ve sent it; the client has a link but hasn’t opened it yet.
- Viewed — the client has opened the link at least once.
- Accepted or Declined — the client responded. Declining requires them to type a reason.
- Expired — the Valid Until date passed while the Estimate was still Sent or Viewed with no response.
- Voided — you withdrew it while it was Sent, Viewed, or Declined. Final, like Accepted and Expired — see Voiding an Estimate below.
Good to know: A Declined Estimate isn’t necessarily final. Editing it automatically changes it back to Sent and generates a fresh link, so you can update the offer and send it again without creating a new Estimate.
An Estimate is also automatically marked Expired once its Valid Until date has passed. Office-X checks this both when someone opens the link and through a daily background check.
Sending an Estimate #
From a Draft Estimate, use the Action menu’s Send option. This:
- Generates a secure, one-of-a-kind link for the client, nobody can guess it.
- Emails the client that link, using your company’s “Estimate” email template if you’ve customized one (see the Email Templates guide), or Office-X’s default design otherwise.
- Generates a PDF snapshot of the Estimate as it stands right now.
Once an Estimate has been sent, you can use Resend to email the Client a new link. The old link stops working as soon as you resend it.
Resend is available for Sent, Viewed, or Declined Estimates. It does not create a new PDF, so if the Estimate has not been changed, the Client receives the same document as before.
Good to know: You cannot Resend an Estimate after its Valid Until date has passed. First, edit the Estimate and extend the Valid Until date, then resend it.
The Client’s link also stops working after the Valid Until date, with a short grace period of about one week. However, the link will never remain valid for more than 180 days from the date it was sent.
What the Client Sees and Can Do #
Opening the link shows the client the full Estimate — line items, totals, notes, and terms — with no login required. From there they can:
- Accept or Decline — only available while the Estimate is Sent or Viewed. Declining requires typing a reason.
- Download the PDF — available at any time, even after the Estimate has been Accepted, Declined, or Expired.
- Leave comments — open while the Estimate is Sent, Viewed, or Declined (so a client can explain their decline, or ask a question before deciding); closes once Accepted or Expired. Up to 5 attachments per comment (images or PDF, up to 2 MB each).
- View a history panel showing every viewed/accepted/declined/downloaded event on this Estimate, with who and when.
Good to know: re-opening the same link after already viewing it doesn’t add a duplicate “viewed” entry — only the very first open is recorded that way. Downloading, on the other hand, is logged every single time.
Viewing an Estimate (Your Side) #
Clicking View from the Action menu (or clicking the row itself) opens your own internal look at the estimate, at Dashboard → CRM → Estimates → [that estimate] → View — separate from the secure link your client uses. Top to bottom, it shows:
- Basic Info — Estimate ID, Status, Title, Valid Until, Sent At.
- Client Details — name, Client ID, type, designation, company, website, email, phone, mobile number, and both addresses.
- Line Items and the same Subtotal / Discount / Tax / Grand Total breakdown the client sees.
- Terms & Notes, if either was filled in.
- Attachments, if any were added when creating the estimate — click one to open or download it.
- Activity Timeline — a more detailed version of what the client sees. Alongside every viewed/accepted/declined/downloaded event, it also shows exactly when the estimate was created and sent, naming the team member who did each — and if someone on your team edits it, this timeline names that person specifically. The client’s own copy of this history never reveals which of your team members made a given edit.
- Comments — the same thread the client can post to, open only while the estimate is Sent, Viewed, or Declined (closed once Accepted or Expired, same rule as the client’s side). Posting a comment here needs the Edit Estimate (For All) permission — there’s no separate comment-only permission. Whatever you post shows up to the client under your company name, not your individual name.
- Created By — who created it, with their photo and email.
Good to know: This page is view-only. You cannot Edit, Send/Resend, Delete, or download the PDF from here. To perform any of these actions, go back to the Estimate list and use the row’s Action menu.
Editing an Estimate #
Use the Action menu’s Edit option. What you can edit depends on the current status:
- Draft — freely editable, nothing is tracked yet since the client has never seen it.
- Sent, Viewed, or Declined — still editable. Saving changes regenerates the PDF snapshot and records exactly what changed (title, valid-until date, currency, notes, terms, or line items) in the Estimate’s history — visible to you and, via the history panel, to the client too. Editing a Declined Estimate additionally reopens it to Sent with a fresh link and a new notification email, as mentioned above.
- Accepted, Expired — locked; no further edits.
Good to know: Editing a Sent or Viewed Estimate does not email the Client or change their existing link. The Client will see the updated version when they open the same link. If you want to notify them, use Resend to send a new email.
A Declined Estimate is different — editing it automatically emails the Client with a new link.
Also, extending the Valid Until date automatically extends the existing link’s validity, so you don’t need to resend it.
Duplicating an Estimate #
Use the Action menu’s Duplicate option, available on an Estimate in any status. This opens the same form used for creating a new Estimate, pre-filled with the original’s Client, line items, currency, Notes, and Terms, and the Title set to “<original title> (Copy).” Valid Until is pre-filled with the original’s date if it’s still in the future, or 30 days from today otherwise. You can change anything before saving — nothing is created until you submit the form.
Good to know: attachments are not copied over — if the duplicate needs the same files, you’ll need to add them again. The result is always a brand-new Estimate in Draft status, completely independent of the one you duplicated it from.
Voiding an Estimate #
Use the Action menu’s Void option, available on a Sent, Viewed, or Declined Estimate — this is how you withdraw an Estimate the client can still act on, since Delete only works on Drafts. After you confirm, the client’s link stops working immediately, and the Estimate moves to a final Voided status.
Good to know: voiding is permanent — there’s no way to reopen a Voided Estimate the way editing reopens a Declined one. If the client still needs a quote, create a new Estimate instead.
Deleting an Estimate #
Use the Action menu’s Delete option — but this is only offered on a Draft Estimate. Once you’ve sent an Estimate to a client, it can no longer be deleted, so it stays on record: “Only draft estimates can be deleted. Sent estimates are kept for record-keeping.”
How Estimates Connect to the Rest of CRM #
- Clients — every Estimate is created for exactly one Client, who receives it by email. Only Active Clients appear in the picker, and a Client who’s already on an Estimate can no longer be deleted.
- Items — each line item is normally picked from your Items catalog, which pre-fills the description, price, and tax rate for you to adjust as needed. Only Active Items are offered, and an Item that’s already been used on an Estimate can no longer be deleted.
Activity Log #
Alongside the per-estimate Activity Timeline on the View page, your company’s central log records every Estimate created, edited, sent, resent, voided, and deleted — with who did it and when. You’ll find it under Dashboard → Admin → Activity Log, filtered to Estimate. See the Activity Logs guide for how to search it. The client’s own actions — opening, accepting, declining, downloading — live in the estimate’s own timeline rather than the admin log, since they’re not done by anyone on your team.
Summary #
Estimates let you quote a Client, send them a secure no-login-required link, and track every view, accept, decline, and download automatically. Totals are always recalculated server-side so they can never drift from what the line items actually add up to. Only Draft Estimates can be deleted — once sent, an Estimate is kept for the record permanently, though you can still edit it (or reopen a Declined one) right up until it’s Accepted or Expired.
