Estimates

Build, edit, download, and activate Cost Estimates on a Job. Quote straight from the Job Costing, then turn an approved Estimate into live work in one click.

A Cost Estimate is what the client sees before the work starts. It is generated from the Job Costing, so the Tasks, Costs, rates, and descriptions on it are the same ones your team will deliver against.

Because Agencydesk was built exclusively for agencies, an Estimate is not a document you retype in a separate quoting tool. It is a view of the costing you have already built, and once the client approves it, one button turns it into live work.

The Estimates list

Open a Job and click the Estimates tab. Every Estimate raised on the Job is listed with:

Column	What it shows
CE	The Cost Estimate number, for example CE1437
CE Name	The name given when the Estimate was created, with an Activated tag alongside it once its items have been activated
Excl.	The total excluding tax
Incl.	The total including tax
Created	The date it was raised
Valid Until	The expiry date on the quote

Click + New Estimate in the top right to raise one.

Hovering a row reveals two icons on the right: a cloud-download icon to download the PDF, and a trash icon to delete the Estimate.

Multiple Estimates per Job

A Job can carry as many Estimates as you need, each drawn from the same costing but covering different parts of it.

Great for quoting options. From one costing you can raise CE1435 Monthly SEO, CE1436 Monthly Reporting, and CE1437 Monthly SEO/SEM + Reporting, then let the client choose between the retainer on its own, the reporting on its own, or the bundle. You cost the work once and present it three ways.

The activity log

Beneath the list, an Activity log records every Estimate action with the user, the value, and a timestamp: Cost Estimate created, and Cost Estimate activated.

Great for reconstructing how a client was quoted. When someone asks six weeks later which version was approved and when, the log answers it with a name and a time rather than a search through sent mail.

Creating an Estimate

1

Click + New Estimate. The New Cost Estimate popup opens.

2

Enter a Cost Estimate Name. This becomes the heading on the Estimate and on the PDF, so name it for the client, for example Monthly SEO/SEM + Reporting.

3

Set Valid Until, the date the quote expires.

4

Check the Payment Terms. These pull through from the Client's profile and can be overridden on this Estimate.

5

Edit the Description if needed. It pre-fills from the Job's description and appears under the heading on the PDF.

6

Under Select Items, tick what this Estimate covers.

7

Check the running Total at the bottom, then click Generate Estimate.

Payment Terms

The Payment Terms dropdown offers:

• Cash on Delivery

• Payment in Advance

• 7 Days

• 14 Days

• 30 Days

• 60 Days

• 90 Days

• 120 Days

• Custom, which lets you type your own wording

The Client's default is selected automatically, so you only touch this when a particular quote is priced on different terms.

Great for protecting cash flow on production-heavy work. A campaign carrying large supplier costs can go out on Payment in Advance or a deposit arrangement, while the client's standing 30-day terms stay in place for their retainer.

Selecting items

The Select Items panel lists the Job Costing exactly as you built it, Group by Group, with each line item's quantity, price per unit, and total billable value.

There are three ways to build the selection:

• Select All — the checkbox at the top right takes the whole costing in one click.

• By Group — the checkbox on a Group header takes every line item in that Group.

• By line item — tick individual Tasks and Costs.

The Total at the bottom updates as you tick, so you can see what the client will be quoted before you generate anything.

Great for phased work. On a website build costed as Discovery, Design, Development, and QA, quote Discovery on its own to get started, then raise the second Estimate for the remaining phases once the direction is signed off.

The Estimate detail page

Clicking an Estimate opens its detail page.

The header carries the Estimate number, a Show Hours on Pdf checkbox, an Activate Tasks button, and a Download button. Beneath it sit Date Created, Terms, and Valid Until, then the Description.

The Estimate itself is laid out Group by Group, matching the costing:

Column	What it shows
Group and item	The Group heading, then each line item with its status tag and description
Qty	Hours for a Task, units for a Cost
Price/Unit	The rate per hour or per unit, shown with /hr where the line is priced per hour
Billed Amount	Qty × Price/Unit

Each Group carries its own Total, and the foot of the Estimate shows the Sub Total, Tax at the Client's rate, and the Total including tax.

Line items keep their live status tag, Draft or Active, so you can see at a glance which parts of this Estimate have already been approved to proceed and which have not.

An Estimate is a snapshot

An Estimate holds the figures as they stood when it was generated. Later changes to the Job Costing do not flow back into it.

So a Task quoted at 12 hours that later picks up a one-hour Amendment still reads 12 hours on that Estimate, while the Job Costing now carries 13. That is the correct behaviour, since the Estimate is a record of what the client was actually quoted on that date.

When the scope moves, delete the Estimate and generate a fresh one, or raise a second Estimate covering the additional work. Which one you choose usually depends on whether the client has already seen the first.

Non-billable lines

A line item marked non-billable still appears on the Estimate, with its quantity and rate shown and a Billed Amount of zero.

Great for making goodwill visible. A line reading Non-billable Changes, 1.00, R1,050.00/hr, R0.00 tells the client exactly what a round of revisions is worth and that you are not charging for it. Value the client can see is worth more than value you absorb silently.

Editing an Estimate

Hover over the Date Created / Terms / Valid Until row on the detail page and a pencil icon appears on the right. Click it to edit the Estimate.

You can change the Cost Estimate Name, Valid Until, Payment Terms, and Description. Click Save.

Line items cannot be edited on an Estimate. The quantities, rates, and descriptions come from the Job Costing, so that is where they have to be changed.

This keeps the quote and the costing in agreement. An Estimate that could be edited independently would let you quote one number while the Job was built on another, which is exactly how scope arguments start.

To change what an Estimate covers, adjust the Job Costing and raise a new Estimate, or delete this one and generate it again.

Activating Tasks from an Estimate

When the client approves the quote, click Activate Tasks.

This activates every item on the Estimate in one action. The Tasks move onto the Tasks tab, become bookable on the Resource Planner, and inherit the Job's start and end dates. Costs move onto the Costs tab, ready for Purchase Orders. The Job itself moves from Draft to Active.

The Estimate is then tagged ACTIVATED, shown in green beside the Estimate number on the detail page and alongside the CE Name on the Estimates list. The status also carries through to the Active Jobs Report, so approved work is visible at agency level rather than only inside the Job.

Once an Estimate has been activated, the header shows only the Download button. The approval has already happened, so there is nothing left to activate.

This is why every Job requires a start and end date. Because the Job carries the range, activating twenty Tasks at once gives all of them a workable date range without anyone setting dates line by line. Approval becomes one click instead of an afternoon.

Great for the moment a pitch converts. The costing was built to price the campaign, the Estimate went out as the quote, and the client's approval turns the whole thing into scheduled studio work without anything being rebuilt or retyped.

Downloading the PDF

Click Download on the detail page, or the cloud-download icon on the Estimates list.

The PDF carries:

• Your agency logo, name, address, VAT number, and contact details, from Company Settings.

• The Cost Estimate number and date.

• The Client's code and Job number together, for example THE001 / JB1057, plus their VAT number and address.

• Attention, Valid until, Terms, and Account Manager.

• The Estimate name, description, and every Group with its line items and subtotals.

• Total, Tax, and Total Incl. Tax.

• Your Bank Details, with the CE number as the payment reference.

• A Terms and Conditions footer, editable under Company Settings > General and applied to every Cost Estimate you generate.

Show Hours on Pdf

The Show Hours on Pdf checkbox on the detail page controls how much detail the client sees.

• Ticked — hour-based lines show their Qty and Price/Unit alongside the price. SEO Management (DM), 12, R1 050.00, R12 600.00

• Unticked — those columns are left blank and only the price shows. SEO Management (DM), R12 600.00

The setting only suppresses hours. Unit-priced Costs keep their quantity and unit price either way, so a licence quoted at 3 units of R550.00 still itemises even with hours hidden. Descriptions, subtotals, and totals are unaffected throughout.

Great for clients who buy outcomes rather than hours. Some want to interrogate the hours line by line, others read an hourly breakdown as an invitation to negotiate the rate down. The same Estimate serves both, and you decide per document rather than per agency.

Groups costed as a unit

Where a Group has Cost Group as Unit switched on, it compresses to a single line on the Estimate PDF: the top item's title with the Group's total as the amount, and no hours, units, or breakdown beneath it.

So a brand identity package built internally as twelve Tasks across design, copywriting, and account management reaches the client as one line with one price, while your team keeps every Task it needs to schedule and measure the work.

Deleting an Estimate

Hover the Estimate's row on the list and click the trash icon.

Unlike an Invoice, an Estimate can be deleted outright with no conditions attached. An Estimate is a proposal rather than a financial record, so nothing needs voiding and no audit trail is broken.

CE numbers are still consumed. Deleting CE1437 does not release that number for reuse, so a gap in the sequence simply means an Estimate was raised and later removed. Generating a few versions before the client settles is completely normal.