how do you begin recording your contracts into
quickbooks online it all starts with recording the job estimates
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the time why do we make estimates in QuickBooks Online well estimates are documents that we give
to clients to clearly show exactly what they will be billed for in regard to completing the
agreed-upon job contract the copy of the contract can be attached to the estimate you record so
you can review the actual signed contract at the moment you view the estimate recording them into
quickbooks online helps you track the progress of the jobs completion please note however estimates
are not transactions making only an estimate does not affect your trial balance or chart of
account balances recording only an estimate does not affect the balance of the customer
job regarding what they currently owe and the estimates will only show up on specific reports
that we are going to view after our first two examples so for example let's imagine
on January 1 we made estimate number one for the Hanson place job under brown company we estimate
that we will need 25 units of carpentry at $60 each 25 units of electrical work at $80 each
25 units of replacement parts at $75 each and 25 units of steam cleaning at 55 dollars each
let's take a look at how to record the estimate now here we are in QuickBooks Online and to make
a new estimate we go to the top left and click new and in the left column regarding customers
click estimate now notice QuickBooks Online enumerates the estimates this way but you
don't have to choose their method of numbering you can make the estimate number anything you
want anytime you open it up now the customer is brown company but it is specifically the hands
and place job that were making the estimate for and the billing address is what we put in in the
previous video when we setup the jobs the date is January 1 and we will not be using this feature
in the course but you can put an expiration date if there's a cut-off as to the date that the job
must be completed by but this is just an extra piece of data this will not add a feature and it
will not prevent you from making invoices past this date so if you have a job expiration date
you could put it here but we don't now we did 25 units of carpentry electrical replacement parts
and steam cleaning so from the product pulldown list we click once to bring the arrow then we
click on the arrow and we choose carpentry and the quantity will be 25 I'm going to put in the
rates afterwards I'm going to click here 25 of electrical work so we click the next row and
you could type e L instead of you know choosing it from the pulldown it will filter 25 ok scroll
down and the next one is replacement parts so you could type in our e or you could simply choose it
this Way and 25 of the steam cleaning again it's nice to type in the first two letters and have
it filter don't forget to put 25 and of course now we'll come back and put in the rates 60 80
75 and 55 60 80 75 and 55 now the total estimate down here is six thousand seven hundred and fifty
of course we did not set up rates when we set up the items list because we need to be able
to charge different rates for different customers and jobs so congratulations you just finished your
first estimate let's click Save and new and let's make estimate number two notice quickbooks online
saw how you like to enumerate your estimates and accommodating you by suggesting the next
number in the pattern and the next estimate will be January to made estimate number two
for the Mockingbird Lane job same customer so we're going to put brown company but this time
it's the Mockingbird Lane job and that date will be January to notice it remembered the address of
the Mockingbird Lane job and the items that we will put on that estimate are 25 D winterizing
25 units of Mason work 25 units of replacement pipes and 25 units of steam cleaning and then we
will put in the respective rates so 25 units of D winterizing so we click here choose D winterizing
and put 25 to save a field you should push the tab key to move the cursor to the next
field and what's their 25 units of Mason work Mason work 25 then oops 25 units of replacement
pipes replacement pipes you have to be careful if two items sound very similar 25 units and 25
units in this estimate for the Mockingbird Lane of steam cleaning so steam cleaning 25
units now we'll go back and put in the rates 65 85 70 and 50 65 85 I believe it's 70 and 50
good now we have estimate number two for six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars now
we can click Save and close and now let's check the results of the estimate on there any of the
estimates on the reports that show only the estimates so there are two common reports
that show the estimates the transaction list by customer as well as the estimates in progress
invoice summary by customer now both of those reports are in our custom report list that we
set up in a previous video so we click reports now if you go to transaction list by customer
you'll see that only brown company has two jobs and that both of these are indented under Brown
company but all it says is the raw number for the raw document and this report doesn't really give
you any information but if you click here reports and go down to estimates and progress invoicing
summary by cut blend some kind of a long name they double click and you can see that it shows both
estimates but it also shows that they are both 0% complete because the percent complete depends on
what you've invoiced not what you've estimated so that's how you record estimates and that's how you
find the estimates in the reports you could always reopen the estimate and change or fix something if
you need to just by clicking on the line of the estimate so if I come to this line and I click I
can reopen the estimate and change anything I want to and the numbers would change accordingly if I
scroll all the way down and click the attachment paperclip this would be the place to click to
attach the copy of the actual contract if it would help you to see the contract while you're looking
at the estimate but we won't do that that's just a simple feature in QuickBooks Online