Reorder Estimate Line Items
d0paminefiend
Member Posts: 1
I would like to be able to reorder line items on estimates.
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Is it possible to rearrange items within Estimates? I see the option for Invoices but not for Estimates. It's really frustrating having to remove items and add them back just to have everything in my preferred order.
Hi @chrisP.
Unfortunately, it isn't currently possible to move items on an estimate. I do empathize with your frustration on the matter.
You can move things around after transforming an estimate into an invoice, however. There has been a lot of talk on improving estimates on the Wave Features category. If you'd like to add your voice to that, I recommend that you do.
Hi @d0paminefiend.
Thank you for your feedback! We can imagine how useful being able to reorder items on estimates would be for some of our users.
While I can't guarantee anything, I can tell you that feedback from our users has a serious impact on how we choose what to build next for Wave, so I thank you again for taking the time to provide us with yours.
This! Yes. This capability would make a huge difference. When I'm providing a customer with an estimate with multiple line items I like to order them in a chronological order so the customer can understand the scope of work. Occasionally I need to reorder them. This is much needed.
Thank you for adding your voice to this discussion, @TreeAndIron!
Agreed, the lack of this feature is the most frustrating part of using Wave for me. Adding this ability would be amazing!
Thank for your feedback, @jmhinde!
I know the estimates have a few less features than invoices (like not being able to duplicate or save as a different file name), but is there a way to move the line items on an estimate? I would like to group similar line items (labor, materials, subcontractors) together for ease of client understanding. Often times, I am working on a bid and still waiting for numbers from subs or the client might add something to the job, I can't always know when to include a line beforehand, so can I rearrange them like in an invoice?
Hi, @TAAConstruction,
No, it isn't possible to do this right now. The only way to rearrange items on an estimate is to remove them, and then add them again in the right order. It's not the most convenient process, but it's the only option for the time being.
I can't guarantee a timeline, but I'll be sure to pass your feedback along to our product team. Feedback from our users has a significant impact on what we choose to work on next, so thank you for taking the time to share yours!
When creating an estimate or invoice it would be a nice touch if you could then drag and drop the order of the products.
It would be much better this way as sometimes additional products may be ordered last minute and so added.
Not having those products nested near similar products on an invoice or estimate that may well be at the top of the products list,
Is, in my opinion, not great, makes an otherwise smart invoice look unorganised.
Hey @merl,
Thanks for taking the time to voice that feedback! You're right; that type of editing interface would definitely be helpful in those last-minute cases. Is this a consistent step you find yourself facing before sending invoices? If so, what causes this? Are they primarily last minute requests from your customers, or are there other factors that we should be considering?
Hello Ryan
These days things are far less fixed and subject to change, more so in some businesses than others but still, it applies to anyone really.
Last minute adjustments to add new products to an invoice or estimate in the correct place and not to the end of a list like some muddled afterthought makes sense.
But it makes more sense to have this function to boost the overall usability of wave so that users can quickly create an invoice or estimate. Swap the products around quickly in order to present the invoice or estimate in the most relevant way,, in relation to that specific customer's order.
Ordering may not be just grouping some products with others from the same category but with products from other categories to show different sub groups of products such when the order is related to multiple projects each requiring a particular group of materials.
So imagine your creating one invoice or estimate, it serves several projects for the same customer, so has several groups of products. If you need to add an item to the list for the first project and can only dump it at the end it makes no sense.
In my mind it makes sense if a customer can look at each project related section and see what products they're buying for it.
While some might say just create separate invoices for each project I say why, why waste more of my life.
Generally, if I comment about anything wave it relates to these types of usability issues.
Wave is great, but it's not yet outstanding & it isn't because it's not yet 100% a pleasure to use.
To be a pleasure it should set people free not bind them into more work, for lack of a few simple alterations to the way wave works.
I think for wave to be outstanding it should allow its users to do twice as much in half the time, it's as simple as that.
Allow estimates or invoices to be saved as templates so they can then be opened adjusted and then saved as either a new template or saved as a new estimate or invoice.
Make adding products seamless with a bulk product upload option.
Add the option to enter bill and sale prices to products so accounting takes place more automatically.
& as suggested make the creation of estimates or invoices more creative with the ability to present the contents of the product list appropriately.
I can't speak for how much these steps would improve other users experience but for me, it would make for a much better process.
Make wave customers enjoy the experience of using the software, make it a pleasure and they will tell people because people like to share pleasure, rather that than people saying yeah waves great.
But it doesn't do this, or that's not quite right.
No!
Wave is a pleasure to use, that's what people should be saying.
Or at least if I were running wave that's what id expect and demand from the software, haha
HI @merl
Thanks for the feedback. This is actually possible in our invoicing app
If you click and drag on the dotted lines on the side of each product line, you can drag and drop them in any order so you can re-arrange as you described above.
Are there any other groupings that would be useful for you to create "sections" of content on the invoice that may have their own columns or subtotals associated?
Estimates do not have this functionality, however, as we modernize our platform, this functionality will become standard!
Hi Wave Team,
A (hopefully) new customer here! We run a small, but quickly growing services business and send out quotes/invoices daily.
In testing out the estimates section, I noticed the line items we're moveable/can't be rearranged. Any chance this might be implemented in the near future?
I'm going to be coming over from Freshbooks and the movable line items was a HUGE feature for our workflow. Here it appears that if you don't get the exact order you want, you need to redo the whole ordering from scratch.
Is this a feature that's on the radar and/or incoming soon? Would love to jump ship over to you guys if so - everything else looks so dreamy a nice to use
Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
I came to community area to post this exact same suggestion and found it already here!
Upvoted!
P.S.: Thanks to Wave team, I really like your product features.
@DecodeDigital @VivaMediaInc Welcome to the Wave Community!
I'd love to here more about some of the specific uses for this type of functionality. Are there specific reasons where having line items in a specific order would be necessary? I mostly ask because I'd love to share this insight with our Product Development Team. Having context really helps move things along when the Team is organizing feature requests and how soon they are addressed.
We are a small website development firm. While creating an estimate, I usually start from the most important line items and the least important ones at the end.
Now sometimes I remember/realise that I have to add a new line item specific for a project. But until then I already have added other line items and since I can't move them, I have to delete those and re-add again.
I too would really appreciate if this feature could be added. When creating an estimate, I tend to add everything to it as I think about it or as I am discussing with a client. However, I then need to group items in a more logical customer-focussed order so the client can make sense of the information. At the moment, the only way to do this is to delete items, which requires re-typing the information. Is there any plan or date in mind to introduce this feature please? Many thanks.
Thanks for all the feedback all! This is one we know will help and we have it on invoices today. As we modernize our estimates product, this will be a feature we bring to life!
Are there any other features you'd love to see with estimates that can help you win more business?
Thanks,
Rahim
Hey Jordan,
For us, we sell a service that's workflow dependant. As a video production agency, all our projects go through four respective stages - pre-production, production, post-production and delivery.
Each of these stages have unique elements that are grouped together with their respective associated items on the quote document. A client is able to browse and view the quote; easily looking at each respective section.
With wave, it looks like we have to PERFECTLY build out the project on the first go without ANY movement of line items. This makes things. difficult since with a service-based business (especially in the creative space) as the project scope/scale shifts in discussions with the client, the quote document shifts as well. As we get approval on different areas of the quote, items are added or taken away accordingly.
Sometimes this means we have to add in a line item in (for example) slot 3 of the quote document, but currently, that would involve us taking out everything below line item #3, adding in that new addition, then re-add all the previously noted line items from scratch again- which can be a hugely time-consuming, counterproductive and tedious process.
That feature alone (especially for a growing service business like ours), is the primary reason we haven't made the leap over yet, as it would be a backward step in productivity from the platform we use currently that allows us to move line items at will.
Hope that helps! Eager to make the leap one day
@DecodeDigital @VivaMediaInc thank you for your feedback! I certainly see the value in a feature like this, so thank you for helping us bring this up to the team with some supporting arguments for it! While I can't make any promises myself, I'll be sure to add your insight to the conversation
Any movement on this? It is a basic need that should be addressed. Plus you can do it in an invoice, but not in an estimate?
Any timeline on adding this feature?
This would be very useful for me. I spend time having to redo estimates in order to have the items finalised as an easy to understand chronological workflow for the client. Being able to easily re-order the items on the estimate with a drag and drop, for example, would be a huge timesaver.
Another useful feature would be a column to allow me to clarify on an item-by-item basis whether the rate is daily, hourly, fixed fee or fixed expense. As it is right now, my clients have to decipher it themselves... not ideal... or I have to add extra information in each description field.
@ChickweedArts No timeline as of yet.. but we are definitely going to be looking into the Estimates page in 2019 to see what areas could be improved, so your feedback here is highly appreciated!
Jamie & Wave co:
I've officially been driven to look into other options due to lack of some basics like this. Unfortunately it's just unprofessional to send out estimates where any revisions to the estimate, can't even be organized to grouped various related line items together. I also strongly suggest estimates and invoices automatically saving on the fly--I can't count the number of times I've spent 10-20 minutes on something and the page accidentally goes back, or refreshes or whatever, and I've had to completely start over... nothing is more agitating and this just shouldn't be the case in the age of web-based email and cloud documents that save as you go.
I remember months ago reading on these forms that Estimates was one of a few things scheduled to get an overhaul soon. I've even sent in email feedback about this several times over the past 2 years since I switched to Wave. Yet it's still untouched, with only baseline functionality even though Invoices do at least the the basic things we need Estimates to do.
Wave's integration with banking and accounting is pretty well done compared to some of the other options, but otherwise I keep running into these kinds of frustrations and basic limitations, that have eventually drove me to once again, look elsewhere and consider the hassle that is switching to something else.
I hope the team takes stories like this into account and works to overcome these small, but important, workflow-related deal breakers.
Best,
Agreed - this is an absolute must.
Thanks for the insight @Jglubke_73 !
I did not realize that it was possible to do that on the invoice side of things. That's very good to hear as it means there is no need to build it out as a "new feature" but rather enable that feature on the "estimate" side of the product.
What do you think @Erik ? Is that possible within the near future? Currently, this is the biggest pain-point in our wave workflow and would save us a BOATLOAD of time!!
Hi chrisP: I've been looking for how to rearrange line items in an invoice and your post said that you've found the option to do that in invoices. I can't seem to find that option. Could you tell me how to do that or tell me where I can find the explanation? Thanks! Rebecca