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Approve an Estimate
lterenzi
Member Posts: 2
I moved over to Wave after a decade with Harvest. I loved what they did but I wanted it all under one roof. For the most part I am happy with the switch. But I miss the ability for a client to actually approve an estimate. This would let me know we are ready to go and it would take the estimate out of the estimate lists and categorize it as "Approved" and the date. Then I would convert to invoice and send. Love to see this in Wave.
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Hi, @lterenzi.
A few people have been asking for additional features for estimates.
Can you tell us a bit more about your business and how you currently handle estimate approval? While it's easy to see how a feature like this one could benefit Wavers, I'm curious to see how it fits in the specific context of your business.
Hello, I have the same issue. I send out Quotes/Estimates to clients, the estimate states that a retainer is required before the work is carried out. When a Client approves the estimate, it should automatically be converted into an invoice. Do you know if this feature is coming anytime soon? I am having to go meet with the client face to face now to sign at the button of the quote and it is not professional. I believe this issue is common among professional service providers. I believe invoiceninja has this feature already implemented and its open source if that helps?
Hi, @reality.
Thanks for your feedback. Building this feature isn't currently on our roadmap, but we are hearing your feedback and are paying attention.
I can't make any promises that this feature will be built for Wave, but I will make sure to forward your suggestion to our Product Team.
In the business world, estimates are only valid once they have been approved by the prospective client, otherwise, it's worthless. We love the way Wave allows for estimates to be created but it is significantly lacking in that you do not even allow for a signature area on the estimate that is created. I can accept not allowing for digital signature, you'll get there someday, but finish off the professional estimate with the ability to provide someone an area to sign and date it. They can download or print it out and then send it back to us.
I would like to add my request to the others for a signature line in the estimate form, even if an electronic signature or approval button is not possible right now. I am a freelance web designer and builder, and have been burned in the past by clients who, for a variety of reasons, disagree with the terms of the estimate after they approved it verbally. As a result, I have had to struggle to get paid for work the client later claimed they didn't approve. A formal approval by the client of the estimate/bid/proposal is standard in every business I've been involved with.
I just signed up for Wave at the recommendation of a Shopify guide. I have been pleased with Wave's user friendliness and lack of feature bloat I've seen in other accounting software, but this particular feature is a must-have. A stop-gap measure would be to add another field just above the footer. Then we could use the footer to include language to the effect that "signing means you understand and agree to the project requirements . . . " and so on.
Thank you for your feedback @affluent_roofer and @Birddog. I'll make sure to pass it on.
Thanks, Alexia. While you're passing on our comments, please pass on the suggestion that your people do some user testing with actual business people, rather than relying on users to spend considerable time trying to educate your team on the basics of doing business that involves estimates - especially if you are unwilling to anything more than "pass on the feedback."
Hi, @Birddog.
You're always welcome to share feedback on the Community. Members of our Product team, as well as of other teams at Wave HQ visit the Community on a regular basis looking for ideas and suggestions.
If you'd be interested in participating to one of our informational interviews, I'd be happy to arrange that. If you want to participate in our research process in a different way, you can register as a Wave Innovator here.
I send an estimate and we will go back and forth and having that final approval with a button pressed and something telling me approved allows me to easily move on to the next step without missing an email from the client. In the estimate view have an approved tag along with Sent, Viewed and Expired would be great to scan and see what my close rate is as well. This was a GREAT feature in Harvest and so many other softwares have it as well. I miss it and it has slowed down my workflow and billing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to give us more information about how this feature would improve your workflow, @lterenzi!
I don't really have much to say in addition to what was already said. I just started using Wave and made the assumption there was some sort of approval process. Just curious...and I mean this seriously, not trying to be snarky... from the developers perspective, how do they see the estimate/invoice process working. Would you be able to provide a brief overview/flow chart? I'm just wondering if there is some sort of feature or integration we are just missing? I'm figuring they must have some sort of feature for 'approvals', even if it isn't called that or work the way we expect.
I'll add my name to the list of people who need an estimate approval button. I will likely be switching to another service if this is not on the roadmap.
I agree. Allowing clients to approve Estimates would be fantastic! I wouldn't "wave"r in my support if this were to be a standard feature. I'm sure lots of businesses would k"wave" this kind of functionality. Your own company would ascend new heights of b"wave"ry.
OK. I'll stop now.
Thanks.
I'll add my name to the list for this feature request too. Currently transferring from Harvest too and the "Accept Estimate" feature is one that is making me second guess the decision to move away from Harvest (as much as I love Wave).
Thank you, everyone, for your feedback! I'll be sure to pass it along!
@mrlunt, those were great! You'd fit in perfectly at Wave HQ
@Alexia - glad you enjoyed. Have a great rest of your week. Cheers.
I add my name to the list too. It's the only feature that we miss. A button to accept or refuse on the client view would be a must. But at least the possibility to change the status of the estimate. Because we end up with many estimate that are expired, some of them accepted.
thank you !
Thank you for adding to the discussion, @Nic0.
Could you tell us a bit more about your business and how your use estimates? In what industry do you work? Do you use estimates for just about every job? How do you manage this approval process right now?
We work in IT. We use estimate for every project we do. For now, we send the estimate and after we discuss with the client about the approval. When we finish the project, we create an invoice from this estimate.
Would be nice to have the status "accepted" and "declined". Like that we can keep different versions of the estimate and see which one was accepted. And it would be awesome to have the amount of the accepted estimate included in the chart "Profit & Loss". To be able to make a projection of our finance.
What do you think ?
Thank you for following up, @Nic0, and for sharing more details.
It's unlikely that it would appear in your reports since the P&L report only shows the income and expenses that were added to your accounting. Income or expenses are added when invoices or bills are created and estimates are explicitly made to not affect those numbers. With that said, I can see what use you could get out of a report that covers estimates.
I would like to add my name to the list for having an approval button on the estimate. You need to have that confirmation or binding agreement you and your client that they accept your proposal of goods or services you are providing. It would make the whole experience of doing business with you seamless and easy. This process could have an approve or decline button on the estimate that and it would send an email back to the person and have a status field updated in Wave. It would be nice if it would then automatically convert the estimate to an invoice if approved. If not, baby steps, us wavers can manually convert to invoice until it can be automated.
I'll join the list of users who would like a way for customers to sign and approve their estimate. Our company provides FREE estimates to customers and often they obtain 2-3 other estimates for the job. When they contact us to accept our estimate and "lock in" the price offered, we need their signature. The signature represents their acceptance on the estimated price and also authorizes us to begin the work. We do not send out the invoice until all work has been completed. So while I find the estimate and invoice features on Wave nice, their needs to be a connecting piece that includes some type of response from the customer whether it be a signature line, e-signature response or ability to respond back by email to accept or decline estimate. Not sure what the developers thought process is that a business would send out an estimate and then convert it to an invoice without some type of response or documentation back from the customer.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you for chipping in, @mclune!
Can you share a bit more about how you use estimates right now? What field do you work in? Can you run us through the process of invoicing a client, starting from the creation of your estimate? Do you use estimates for a majority of your clients?
The more information you can share, the better we'll be able to understand your needs and see how a feature like this one would impact your day-to-day, as well as other users. This can help us tremendously when we choose what to build next for Wave.
I do business coaching, talent development, and training. All of our programs are customized for our clients. We send out estimates for every one of our coaching or training programs. If the proposal is acceptable to our clients and to quickly keep things moving, the acceptance button would be our trigger to move forward with the program. We want to be easy to do business with so having an accept button would clearly communicate they accept the terms and it would kick off the planning phase of the program. Same would be true if there was a decline button with a message box to communicate what they do not agree with about the estimate. This could be a trigger on our end to then reach out to them by phone and further discuss. We all handle enough emails in a day, eliminating where we can is productive for all. Thanks
Hi, @mclune,
Thanks for following up with more information. While I can't guarantee that this feature will make it to Wave in the foreseeable future, feedback from our users counts for a lot in how we choose what to bring to Wave next. Thank you for taking the time to share yours.
I would have thought estimate approval buttons would have been a standard as a part of any system that offers quoting. From a clients perspective, it's extremely productive to just hit an "accept" or "reject" button.
From a business owners perspective, it cuts out a lot of work following up a client or sifting through emails and text messages to see if the client approved the quote, and if so, which one?
Today's workforce is all about workflows - they need to be seamless with a tonne of integration. Taking a quote, adding the ability to approve, reject or comment, pay a deposit upon approval or adding a contract along with it, then taking all of that and converting it to an invoice means it has a traceable paper trail. It also covers the business owner if the client chooses to argue something they approved.
I imagine a TONNE of self-employed, contractors and freelancers use Wave - its a HUGE feature missing from a tool that is so heavily utilised in this market.
I am gonna just add myself to this list — I am in the process of choosing a new software to manage estimates and invoices, and this feature is missing in my opinion. I would even pay for it.
I feel like I've been very patient in regards to "waiting" for this basic feature. I love Wave!!! However this is a standard need of Small to Large Business Owners. Looking like I'm going to have to switch again and I'm going to try out "AND CO" since they seem to have all the features Wave has plus what I'm missing and they are also free..
Sad, because I really do like Wave a lot! That doesn't help me with work though...
Will be using both until I can decide what to do.
I need this feature too
Agree that this feature would be extremely helpful. Also, if something like agree.com could be integrated into Wave that would be AMAZING! Then clients could sign off on the estimate, sign the contract/agreement and pay the invoices all in the same place.