How To Create Quickbooks Equipment Quotes

One of the easiest ways to increase your profit is to decrease the time you spend on your sales process. Small business owners, especially, can’t afford to waste time chasing down leads or, even worse, losing leads that have already been secured because you couldn’t follow up quickly enough. Quickbooks is a powerful tool to easily help automate this process, giving you back time that you can spend researching new leads, closing deals, or anything else you might need. 

There is an art to creating good estimates. You want the estimate to accurately cover everything you might need for the customer so there are no unexpected surprises when it comes time for payment. This can help build trust with your customers, turning your first-timers into your most loyal fans. Quickbooks estimates are used to generate bids, proposals, or quotes, which can then be turned into invoices or sales orders. Oftentimes, your estimate may include equipment costs that are being billed in parts across purchase orders. Here are some tips on effectively allocating these costs in Quickbooks, and creating accurate quotes for your customers. 

Step 1: Input Your Equipment Costs

Equipment should be recorded as fixed assets, for these are the items that you can’t immediately count as an expense when purchased. Even if you are purchasing equipment for one specific customer, it can benefit you to input these into your Quickbooks. To set up an asset:

• Select the Gear Icon at the top.
• Under Your Company, choose Chart of Accounts.
• On the top right, select New.
• Under the Account type, select either Fixed Asset.
• Select the detail type that best describes the asset, then click Next.
• Name the account.
• If you mark the Track depreciation of this asset box, the system will automatically create a Depreciation sub-account for the item.
• Fill in the original cost fields.
• Select Save and Close.

Now you should have everything in the backend, and you’re ready to create a customer estimate template. 

Step 2: Customize Your Estimate Template

Setting up your template ahead of time is crucial to the time-saving process. Make sure you add your logo, company information, and any other identifying marks now so you don’t have to upload them every single time you create an invoice. It can be important for your brand identity and recognition to have an estimate that matches your company! 

Step 3: Don’t Forget Any Line Items

Once your template is set up, you are ready to start creating estimates for your leads. Don’t let the process seem overwhelming – Quickbooks is great about walking you through the process. Here are a few things to remember as you start creating estimates: 

• Assign your estimate to a customer. You will want to be tracking all of these estimates for the future, even if they don’t immediately turn into sales! 
• Select your terms. Your terms may vary customer to customer – some leads could be worth a Net 60 arrangement, while others are cash upfront. 
• Assign sales tax. Don’t forget about this one! This can change the amount of your estimate drastically in some cases. 
• Add your line items + adjust quantity. Here is where you can allocate your equipment costs from a handy drop-down menu, because you have already added them as fixed assets. Nice! 
• Attach a customer message. A personalized note can go a long way in making a good first impression. 

If this all seems overwhelming, we can help! We have lots of solutions to automating and streamlining your business processes so you are free to focus on your passions. Contact Sawyer Solutions today for Quickbooks questions and more.