Send Estimates & Quotes

Quote Before You Bill

Some jobs need a price estimate before the customer commits, especially larger projects like master key systems, access control installs, or whole-building rekeys. KeyBolt's estimates feature lets you send a professional quote the customer can approve, and then convert it into a job with one tap.

Creating an Estimate

1. Go to the Estimates tab and tap "+ New Estimate".
2. Select the customer or create a new one.
3. Add line items, description and price for each. This works exactly like the invoice builder: you can use templates as a starting point or build from scratch.
4. Add any notes visible to the customer (e.g., "Price assumes standard pins. High-security cylinders quoted separately").
5. Tap "Send Estimate".

What the Customer Sees

The customer receives an email with your shop name, the line items, the total, and a Valid Until date, plus one button: Review Estimate. That opens a page with big Approve and Decline buttons. If they approve, you get an instant notification in KeyBolt. If they decline, you're notified and can follow up to negotiate.

Converting to a Job

Once an estimate is approved:

1. Open the estimate from your Estimates tab (estimates have an "EST-" prefix).
2. Tap Create Job. If the estimate came off a job you already had, the button says Apply to Job instead.
3. KeyBolt asks you to confirm, then builds the job and its draft bill in one step, using the line items, pricing, and customer from the estimate.
4. It opens the new job for you. Set the schedule and dispatch a tech from there.

The estimate is linked to the resulting job and invoice, giving you a clean audit trail from quote to payment.

Customer Approval Flow

When you send an estimate, the customer receives an email with your shop name, the line items, the total, and a Valid Until date. It has one button, Review Estimate, which opens a page with big Approve and Decline buttons. No login or account required, they tap a button and it's done. While you're waiting on the customer, the estimate shows as "Pending Approval"; the moment they tap, it changes to "Approved" or "Declined." You can track the current status from the Estimates tab at any time.

Manual Approve or Decline

If a customer responds by phone or in person instead of using the email buttons, you can record the answer yourself. On the Estimates list, find the estimate's row and tap Manual Decision. It expands to Approve, Decline, and Cancel. Pick one and the status updates.

There's no note field on the decision. If you need to record why or when ("approved by Dave on the phone 3/15"), put it in the Colab or the customer's notes.

Convert to Job

Once an estimate is approved, whether by the customer or manually, a Create Job button appears on the estimate detail page. Tap it, confirm, and KeyBolt builds the job and its draft bill in one step from the estimate's line items, pricing, and customer, then opens the new job. The estimate, job, and invoice are all linked for a clean audit trail from quote to payment.

If the estimate was raised off a job you already had, the button says Apply to Job instead. That puts the approved work onto that job's bill rather than making a second job for the same visit. If the bill had already gone out, KeyBolt prepares a corrected or extra draft and leaves the original alone. Nothing reaches the customer on its own.

Create Job will refuse in three cases, each with its own message:

• The estimate is past its Valid Until date. Change the date, or write a new estimate.
• You already made a job from it.
• The customer has no street address, city, and state saved. Fix the customer's address first, then try again.

Notifications

When a customer approves or declines an estimate, you'll receive an in-app notification immediately: the bell icon badge in your header will update. If you've enabled email notifications for estimate responses in Settings > Notifications, you'll also get an email with the details. This means you can respond to approvals quickly and follow up on declines while the conversation is still fresh.