Estimates, Material Orders, Invoices and Payments are a part of your financial process. The process starts with proposing work to a customer and getting them to sign off on an estimate. After that, order materials from a supplier. Then the customer is invoiced for their completed job. Finally, a payment is collected from a customer for a job completed.
The most common process is: 1. Estimate 2. Material Order 3. Invoice 4. Payment
The interface for Estimate, Material Order and Invoice are very similar. Each of these financial records can be converted to other records to save time. They also can be emailed. Estimates, Invoices, and Payments have the ability to sync to Quickbooks.
The best way to set up Estimates, Material Orders and Invoices is:
- Add products and services to your account
- Set up a template in settings
- Create a saved template with products
- Proceed to a contact or job.
- Select the financials tab
- Select “+Add Estimate/Material Order/Invoice”
- Add products select “Save as Template”
- Refresh browser
- Template will appear in “Saved Estimates/Material Orders/Invoices”
Estimates: Estimates are the beginning process in getting agreement from a customer on work to be completed. They are also called bids, quotes or proposals. Estimates are located on the financials tab on a contact or job.
Material Order: Material orders are a list of supplies that are needed to complete a job. They are sent to suppliers so that they can fulfill the products needed to carry out a job. JobNimbus does integrate with Beacon a top roofing supplier, where you can order materials with a click of a button.
Invoice: Estimates are often converted to invoices. Invoices are sent to a customer when work is completed so that customers know to pay for the work that has been done.
Payment: Collecting payments are a final important step in closing out a job. Payments are applied to an outstanding invoice.
Template 1:
The example below illustrates an estimate template. Invoices and Material Orders have very similar functionality as well and these instructions will work for those records.
Templates are where you can change contract or legal language. You can also change what displays internally for your company and what the customer sees. You may change the name of an estimate in templates. You may call it a “bid” or “proposal” by editing the name. You can also add any custom language to your estimates such as phone numbers or messages. Through insert template field you can automatically tie in certains fields on the contact into your estimate template.
To edit a template:
- Proceed to “Settings”
- Templates
- Estimate Templates “Edit”
Control what shows internally and to your customers, then select “Save Template”. Change the title of “Estimate” to “Bid” if desired.
Change details of contract language or what fields display through hovering over the grey boxes and editing. Remember to select “Save Template” to save changes.
Product Template 2:
The example below illustrates an estimate template. Invoices and Material Orders have very similar functionality as well and these instructions will work for those records.
The second kind of template is a product template which has your products and services added to it and is saved for later usage. This can be very time saving instead of building a new estimate for each job. First add your products and services, then you will be ready to create a template.
Create an estimate template
- Select a contact or job
- Financials Tab
- Add Estimate
- Add your products and select “Save as Template”
After saving a template refresh your browser. Then you should see your template in “Saved Estimates”. Select your template and it will load into the browser. Select the pencil icon to edit your template at a later date. You can delete you template by choosing the trash can icon.
Control what shows internally and to your customers, then select “Save Template”.
Change details of contract language or what fields display through hovering over the grey boxes and editing. Remember to select “Save Template” to save changes.
Payments: After creating an invoice, you are ready to accept a payment. Select “Add Payment” and find the correct invoice to apply it to. The payment amount should be entered on the “Payment amount” field. Remember to put in a reference number and record your payment method (cash, check etc…).
- Select a contact or job
- Financials Tab
- Select “+Add Payment”
- Save Payment
Emailing: You can easily email estimates/invoices or material orders by clicking on the record in the financials tab.
- Double click on the record in the financials tab
- Select the “ellipse” (three dots)
- Select “Email Estimate/Invoice/Material Order”
If you would like to email multiple documents you can email through “Add note” on the activity tab.
Email multiple documents or attachments:
If you would like to email multiple documents you can email through “Add note” on the activity tab.
- Activity Tab
- Add Note
- Type “Email”
- Select “Attachments” in blue
- Check off the attachments that are needed
- Add subject and who to send to
- Create Note
Converting: Converting records saves time so that you don’t have to re-create them. Hover over the ellipse (three dots) and you will see how to convert a record to another. Estimates, Material Orders and Invoices have this functionality. Often estimates are converted to invoices. After converting, the original estimate will stay where it is. A second record will appear as an invoice with the same product data.
- Select a contact or job
- Financials Tab
- Select the ellipse
- Convert to
- Choose record to convert to
