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Sj Hux
October 14, 2021
Question

Where do I put the date the job is due for completion on an Estimate?

  • October 14, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Hi,

 

Hoping someone can help. We are a small manufacturing firm and just starting using Quickbooks Online (used Sage previously).

 

So at the moment, we send out an Estimate to a customer when they have requested a quote. This has the Estimate Date (the date we did the estimate) and the Expiry Date (quote expires in 30 days). When the customer then comes back to us to accept the estimate, we change the Estimate status to accepted and fill in the "accepted date" and "accepted by" fields. However, we would also like to put when the customer would like the job for (ie. 2 weeks, 3 weeks) but cant see a field for this? Surely "shipping date" is literally that, the actual date we ship the item out and we dont want to create an invoice until the job is actually completed and ready to be invoiced. 

 

When I look at All Sales (invoices, estimates and payments) there is a Due Date column but it seems that for Estimates this is the Estimate Date rather than an actual due date for the job.

 

Ideally we would like to be able to see, for instance, all the Accepted Estimates that have jobs due for completion in November. Do I need to create a custom box for this?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1 reply

L
LeizylM
October 14, 2021

It's a pleasure to have you here, Sj Hux. 

 

I'm here to ensure you're able to create a custom field for the actual date in QuickBooks Online. 


You can create a custom field for the Actual date so you can manage them easily.  

 

Here's how:
 

  1. Go to the Gear icon.
  2. Select Custom fields under Lists.
  3. Select Add custom field.
  4. Enter Actual Date on the Name field.
  5. Select the All Sales forms checkbox.
  6. Select Save.

 

Once done, go to the All Sales tab then add this category to appear on the form.

 

 

 

After an estimate is accepted, you can easily turn it into an invoice. Check out this article for the steps: Convert an estimate into an invoice in QuickBooks Online.

 

Please let me know in the comment section below if you have any other issues or concerns about estimates. We're always right here to help you.

S
Sj HuxAuthor
October 14, 2021

Hi,

 

Thanks for you reply. Ok, well thats pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking. the only slight downside with this that ive found is the when you try and sort data by this is doesnt recognise it as a date so sorts it by the day rather than the month so it would sort 05/10/21 then 07/09/21, 10/07/21, 12/10/21 rather than 10/07/21, 07/09/21, 05/10/21 then 12/10/21. Maybe I'm just asking too much of Quickbooks but for manufacturing firms its quite an important thing to be able to see whether you are getting the jobs completed in the lead times/required time given to/specified by the customer as well as keeping track of turnover/work flow for the next few months.

G
GeorgiaC
October 14, 2021

Thanks for getting back to us, Sj Hux! This will be because the field is simply read as text rather than as a date, if you could please pop the option to add a custom date field as feedback over to our developers by going to the Cog > Feedback in your QuickBooks then this is certainly something that would be useful for their consideration. 🙂

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