How to add advance on Estimate?

It's great to see you here today, @accounts368. 

I'm here to provide the three options regarding your concern. 

If you want to request partial payments from your customers in advance, I'd suggest using the progress invoicing feature. It lets you split an estimate into as many invoices as you need. Let's enable it in the settings. I'll guide you how. 

1. Go to the Gear (⚙) icon and select Account and settings.
2. Select Sales.
3. Click Progress Invoicing. 
4. Turn on the Create multiple partial invoices from a single estimate feature.
5. Choose Save.
6. Select Done.

The screenshot below shows you the last five steps. 

Then, perform Steps 2 - 5 through this article: Set Up and Send Progress Invoices In QBO. 

If your customer paid the total estimate amount in advance, convert it into an invoice. The system will automatically mark it as Closed. 

If you want to create an estimate in advance, you can click Make recurring at the bottom of the page (see the screenshot below). You'll first have to turn on the Recurring Transactions feature to complete this task. It helps you save time from recording it in the program.

Lastly, I recommend running the Estimates by Customer report from the Reports menu. It helps you see the status of all your estimates and their associated invoices. 

I'll be around to help if you need anything else. Keep safe always.