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# Estimates: quote it, then turn it into an invoice

An estimate is a quote.

|| An estimate stays off your profit and loss, your balance sheet, and what customers owe you. Converting creates a draft invoice. Nothing posts until you finalize that invoice.

## Write one

1. Open **All pages** in the left sidebar, then click **Sales** and **[Estimates](https://app.booksgpt.ai/go/estimates)**.
2. Click **New estimate**.
3. Pick the **Customer**, set **Issue date** and **Valid until**, and enter **Description**, **Qty**, **Unit price**, and **Tax**. **Add line** adds a row. **Add details** is the note under the name.
4. Click **Save estimate**. Leave before that and BooksGPT asks **You have unsaved changes**.

|| Estimates cannot collect stock lots or catch-weight quantities. For those stock products, create the invoice directly and enter its stock details. Ordinary stock without either setting can still be quoted.

A typed description is not a saved product.

## Send it

1. Click **Send**. On a saved draft it is the filled button when your role can send. Changes you have not saved are saved first.
2. **To** comes from the customer's email. You can change it.
3. Check **Subject**, for example **Estimate 12 from Northshore Builders: $4,200.00**, then click **Send estimate**.

![The Send estimate dialog](https://booksgpt.ai/help/estimates/send-v2.png)

From the email they can **Accept estimate** or **Decline**. You can click **Accept** or **Decline** yourself.

## Turn it into an invoice

Click **Convert to invoice** when you want to bill, even before they accept. Once the estimate is sent, viewed or accepted, it is the filled button when you can edit. While you have unsaved changes, **Save estimate** is the filled button instead. Unsaved changes ask first.

![A sent estimate with Save estimate, Send, Accept, Decline, and Convert to invoice as the filled button](https://booksgpt.ai/help/estimates/actions-v2.png)

- Lines copy onto a new draft invoice. Nothing posts, and stock does not move.
- If a product on the quote cannot be used, conversion stops. Create the invoice directly, or pick an active item. See [Customers, vendors, and products & services](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/customers-vendors-and-products-services-2u0blz/).
- Click **Save as final** or **Save & send**. See [Create, send, and get paid on an invoice](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/create-send-and-get-paid-on-an-invoice-92ng65/).
- With costing on, BooksGPT may refuse a date that would sell stock before it arrived. The message offers a date that works, or says to contact support. See [Sell inventory and post cost of goods sold](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/sell-inventory-and-post-cost-of-goods-sold-19kvll5/).
- The estimate stays **Converted**. You cannot edit it or accept it again. Its button is then **Open invoice**.

## Track where each quote stands

Use the status chips.

![Estimates status chips, with Sent selected](https://booksgpt.ai/help/estimates/statuses-v2.png)

- **Draft**: not sent yet.
- **Sent**: with the customer.
- **Accepted** or **Declined**: their answer, or yours from **Accept** or **Decline**.
- **Converted**: now an invoice.

## Good to know

||| **Valid until** is a date printed for your customer. It does not expire the estimate or stop you converting it after that date.

- On a phone, a bar at the bottom of the screen keeps the estimate total and the filled button, when there is one, in reach.
- **Send** shows only when your role can email estimates.
- An estimate does not collect payment. See [Get paid by bank on your invoices](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/get-paid-by-bank-on-your-invoices-15tes7e/).