Estimating your first project

Estimates are quotes for products or services that you plan to provide a client.

To create an estimate, use the CREATE menu, then select Estimate from your Cashboard home screen.

Introduction text

Copying intro text from another estimate

This area is for you to provide an introduction to your quote. People generally use it to provide a little background about their company and the work they're quoting.

You can copy introduction text from any estimate you've created before by using the Copy icon next to the title, as shown here.

This text area is very powerful, allowing you to format with simple Textile markup. Textile can be used to create bulleted lists, headings, and more.

Terms / Conditions

This section provides you a place to enter in terms of agreement or conditions that your client should be aware of. If you use this in conjunction with the Requires agreement preference your client will be prompted to indicate their agreement via a web form when viewing an estimate online.

Low - High estimates

Unlike many other software packages, Cashboard supports range estimates.

With this, you can specify a range of hours something might take (5-10) instead of providing just one number. Lots of companies use this for hourly work that they're unsure of how long it will take.

If you don't intend to use this feature simply enter your estimates in the Low boxes. Cashboard can handle it either way.

Adding items to your estimate

Estimate items inside Cashboard

Cashboard supports three types of estimate items

  1. Tasks

    Use tasks for hourly based work, or work that you intend to perform via flat fee.

  2. Products

    Products are for physical goods that you will be selling to a customer.

  3. Custom Items

    Custom items are things not covered by the two previous items. Use this for estimating stuff like freelance writing (500-1000 words).

Billing for estimates

Cashboard supports invoicing from an estimate directly, or you can convert your estimate to a project, and then invoice for that.