How to Turn an Estimate Into a Sales Order in QuickBooks Desktop

Before you start

• Sales orders are only in QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Enterprise. Turn them on with Enable Sales Order at Edit > Preferences > Sales & Customers > Company Preferences.
• Estimates have their own switch at Edit > Preferences > Jobs & Estimates > Company Preferences. Sign in as Admin to change it.
• Progress invoicing is on the same screen. Intuit's steps have you switch to single-user mode first, at File > Switch to Single-user Mode.
• Set up the items you quote. When you pick an item, its description and amount fill in from the item's setup, and you can change them on the form.
• Customer price levels fill in on estimates and sales orders, but not on invoices created from estimates.
• If you track jobs, attach the estimate to the job before you create progress invoices.

Step 1: Turn on estimates

1. 1Go to Edit > Preferences.
2. 2Select Jobs & Estimates, then the Company Preferences tab.
3. 3Answer Yes to Do you create estimates?
4. 4To bill in stages, also answer Yes to Do you do progress invoicing?
5. 5Select OK.

Step 2: Create the estimate

1. 1Go to Customers > Create Estimates, or select Estimates on the Home screen.
2. 2Choose the customer or job in Customer:Job. Select Add New if they aren't set up yet.
3. 3Check the date and estimate number at the top.
4. 4Add each item and quantity you're quoting. Edit the description or amount on a line if needed.
5. 5To offer a discount, add a Discount item line. Create the Discount item in Lists > Item List first if you don't have one.
6. 6Select Save & Close.

Step 3: Turn the accepted estimate into a sales order

1. 1Open the estimate. You can find it on the customer's page in the Customer Center.
2. 2Select Create Sales Order.
3. 3To make the estimate inactive, select Also mark this estimate as inactive.
4. 4Review the sales order and change anything the customer changed.
5. 5Select Save & Close.

Intuit suggests this path when you don't have all the materials on hand yet. The sales order tracks the items on backorder, and you invoice from it.

Step 4: Invoice from the sales order

When you've filled the order, open the sales order and select Create Invoice. Choose Create invoice for all of the sales order(s), or Create invoice for selected items. Then enter a quantity in the To Invoice column for each item, or 0 for items you aren't invoicing. The full steps are in how to turn a sales order into an invoice.

Step 5 (optional): Invoice the estimate in stages

Progress invoicing splits one estimate into several invoices. Intuit's steps start from the estimate, not from a sales order.

1. 1Go to Customers > Customer Center and select the customer.
2. 2Open the estimate from the customer's page.
3. 3Select Create Invoice on the toolbar.
4. 4Choose what to bill: a percentage of the estimate, or set amounts for selected items. Select OK.
5. 5Finish the invoice and send it to the customer.

The estimate itself doesn't change. QuickBooks warns you if invoices would go past 100% of the estimate, but lets you continue. To see every invoice made from an estimate, open it and check Related Transactions on the Transactions tab.

Skip the sales order: invoice the estimate in one go

1. 1Open the estimate and select Create Invoice at the top.
2. 2Or go to Customers > Create Invoices and choose the customer, then pick the estimate in the Available Estimates window. Each invoice can take one estimate.
3. 3Review the invoice, then select Save & Close.

Without progress invoicing, QuickBooks offers to mark the estimate inactive when you invoice it. This path also works in Pro, which has no sales orders.

Track open estimates and progress

• Reports > Jobs, Time & Mileage > Estimates by Job lists active estimates by customer or job. Select Customize Report and add Open Balance to see what's still outstanding.
• Job Progress Invoices vs. Estimates, under Jobs, Time & Mileage in the Report Center, shows how much of each estimate you've invoiced.

Things that trip people up

• Price levels don't fill in on invoices made from estimates. Check the rates before you save.
• Creating a sales order doesn't make the estimate inactive unless you select Also mark this estimate as inactive.
• Intuit says a price change only affects new transactions. Check open estimates and sales orders after you change an item's price.

In QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 24.0 release R9, you can also create a purchase order from the sales order, with each line linked. That's covered in how to handle backorders and partial shipments.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• When a customer accepts a quote, someone has to find the estimate and select Create Sales Order.
• If the customer changes the order, someone has to edit the sales order by hand.
• To see what's still open, someone has to run and customize the Estimates by Job report.
• Each progress invoice is created by hand from the estimate.

How Logistify helps

Logistify doesn't create estimates or invoices. The Sales Order Service enters customer orders that arrive by email, PDF, WhatsApp, SMS, voicemail or paper into QuickBooks Desktop as sales orders. A person reviews the exceptions. We explain the job in what is sales order entry.