Estimates

An estimate is a quote for a client: a title, optional scope text, line items with quantities and unit prices, and an optional expiry date. You send it, the client accepts or declines it on a private page, and once it's accepted you create the project it describes, with its budget, billing type and milestones, in one click.

Who can do what: owners and admins create, edit, send, duplicate and delete estimates, mark them accepted or declined, and create projects from them. Members can open Estimates and read estimates and their PDFs, but don't see those buttons. Over an API key or the MCP server, creating estimates is for owner and admin keys only.

Who sees which estimates: owners and admins see every estimate. Members see every estimate that isn't tied to a project, and estimates tied to a project they can see. An estimate for a confidential project they aren't on is left out of their list, and its page and PDF read as not found.

How to write an estimate

1. Start a new estimate

   Go to Estimates in the sidebar and click New estimate.

2. Pick the client and, optionally, a project

   Choose the Client. Leave Existing project on None: a new project once accepted if the work is a new project. Pick one of the client's projects if you're quoting extra work on a project that already exists; then no project is created when it's accepted.

3. Add a title and scope

   The Title becomes the project's name. Scope is optional text shown above the pricing. Plain text works; you can also use simple markdown: # Heading, - list item, 1. numbered item, **bold**, *italic* and [link text](https://example.com). Only http, https and mailto links become links. Nothing else is interpreted, so HTML shows as text.

4. Set the dates

   Date is today by default. Valid until starts 30 days out; the client can accept through the end of that day. Clear it for an estimate that never expires.

5. Add line items

   Each line has a Description, Qty and Unit price; the amount is qty × unit price, rounded to cents. Click Add line for more. Set Tax (%) under the lines if you charge tax (it starts at your Default tax rate from Settings → General).

   Tick Becomes a milestone on a line to make it a milestone on the project. Then choose when it's due: No due date, Due on a date, or Due days after acceptance (for example 14 days after the client accepts).

6. Optionally, set the project's billing

   Under Project once accepted:

   • Billing type: Automatic (milestone-based if any line is a milestone, otherwise flat fee), Hourly, Flat fee or Milestone-based.
   • Hourly rate: for an hourly project.
   • Budget: defaults to the estimate's subtotal (before tax).

7. Save

   Click Create estimate. It's saved as a Draft and numbered EST-0001, EST-0002, and so on. Each organization has its own sequence, and numbers are never reused, so deleting a draft leaves a gap.

Estimates use your organization's Default currency.

Check it worked

The estimate opens with a Draft badge, its number and title at the top, and its lines and total. Click Preview PDF to see what the client gets.

How to edit or delete a draft

On a draft, click Edit, change anything, and click Save estimate. Click Delete to remove a draft. Once an estimate is sent it can't be edited or deleted: what the client accepts is what they were sent. To change a sent estimate, click Duplicate and send the copy.

How to send an estimate

You can email it from Consultainer, or copy its link and send it yourself.

Email it:

1. Click Email to client.
2. Tick who gets it. The list is the client's contacts with an email address; its primary contacts start ticked (or all contacts, if none is primary, or the client's own email if it has no contacts). Add anyone else, comma separated.
3. Optionally add a message, then click Send estimate.

The estimate is marked Sent. Replies go to your email address. Email has to be set up on the instance for this.

Copy the link: click Copy client link. On a draft this asks to mark it sent first. The link is long and random; anyone with it can view, accept or decline the estimate, so send it only to the client.

What the client sees

The link opens a page with your logo or name, the estimate's title, total, scope, pricing and expiry, and a Download PDF button. It shows nothing else from Consultainer: no project, team, notes, or other estimates.

While the estimate is open, the client clicks Accept estimate or Decline, types their name and an optional note, and confirms. Consultainer records the name, note, time, IP address and browser with the response. A second click, a refresh, or someone else opening the same link later can't record a second response: only the first one counts.

Once the estimate is accepted, declined or expired, the buttons are gone and the page says which.

Expiry

A sent estimate whose Valid until date has passed becomes Expired. That happens whenever the estimate is opened (in the app, the client page, the API or MCP) and once a day by the scheduler. An expired estimate can't be accepted from the client page. If the client still wants it, either click Mark accepted yourself or Duplicate it and send the copy.

You can't send a draft whose expiry date has already passed; edit the date first.

Marking accepted or declined by hand

If the client answered by email or on a call, click Mark accepted or Mark declined on the estimate. You can add who answered and a note. This works on drafts, sent and expired estimates, and can't be undone. You're recorded as the person who marked it.

Who hears about it

When an estimate is accepted or declined, from the client page or by hand, owners and admins get an alert in the app, and by Slack and email per Settings → Alerts (A client accepts an estimate and A client declines an estimate, both Slack + email by default). Whoever marked it by hand doesn't get the in-app alert. See Alerts and audit log.

How to create the project

On an accepted estimate that isn't tied to a project, a card at the top says what the project will be. Click Create project and confirm. The project gets:

• Name: the estimate's title, for the same client.
• Billing type: the one you chose, or Automatic as described above.
• Budget:
  • Flat fee: the budget becomes the project's flat fee.
  • Hourly: budget hours = budget ÷ hourly rate (no budget hours without a rate).
  • Milestone-based: one milestone per line, with that line's amount and (for lines marked Becomes a milestone) its due date. Days after acceptance count from the day it was accepted. Every line becomes a milestone, so nothing the client agreed to is left unbilled.
• Team: if you're the only person in the organization, you're added at the estimate's hourly rate (or your default bill rate). Otherwise add people on the project page as usual.

Lines marked as milestones only become milestones on a milestone-based project, because milestones are billed on their own and would otherwise bill the same work twice.

You land on the new project, which shows Created from estimate EST-… under its title. The estimate's Project card links back to it. Each estimate creates at most one project.

An estimate written for an existing project doesn't create a project or add milestones to it when accepted; the project page lists it under its title.

Duplicating

Duplicate makes a new draft with the same client, title, scope, lines and proposed billing, dated today, and valid for as many days as the original was. It keeps the project the original was written for, but not a project created from it. You land on the copy's edit page.

Over the API and MCP

GET /api/v1/estimates, GET /api/v1/estimates/{id} and POST /api/v1/estimates; see the API reference. MCP tools: list_estimates (any key) and create_estimate (owner and admin keys). Sending, accepting and creating the project are done in the app.

Troubleshooting

Message	What it means
Only owners and admins can manage estimates.	You're a member. Ask an owner or admin.
Only draft estimates can be edited.	It's been sent. Duplicate it and edit the copy.
This estimate's expiry date has passed. Duplicate it, or edit the draft's expiry date, before sending.	Set Valid until to today or later.
Email isn't set up on this instance. Copy the client link instead, or set up email under Settings → Integrations.	Use Copy client link, or set up email.
That project belongs to a different client.	Pick a project of the estimate's client.
Only accepted estimates can be turned into a project.	Mark it accepted first.
This estimate is already linked to a project.	It was written for an existing project, or a project was already created from it.
The client says the link shows a 404 page	The estimate is still a draft (send it or copy its link, which marks it sent), or it was deleted.