Estimates

Estimates (also called quotes) are pre-invoice documents you send a client to get sign-off on price and scope. They don't post to your books — an estimate is just a saved PDF and a status. When the client says yes, you convert it to an invoice in one click.

Creating an Estimate

Go to Estimates in the sidebar and click + New Estimate. Pick a client, set issue and expiration dates, and add line items the same way you would on an invoice. The estimate number is auto-generated using the prefix in Settings → Company Info (default EST) followed by a zero-padded sequence.

Save it as a draft and you can keep editing. Once you send it to the client, mark it sent.

Status Flow

Status	What it means	Next step
draft	Working on it	Edit, send
sent	Out to the client	Accept, decline, expire
accepted	Client signed off	Convert to invoice
declined	Client said no	Leave it or copy to a new draft
expired	Past expiration date	Re-issue if needed
converted	Already became an invoice	Frozen, read-only

A daily cron flips sent estimates whose expiration date has passed to expired. You can also flip statuses manually from the estimate detail view.

Convert to Invoice

Open an accepted estimate and click Convert to Invoice. Geekonomics atomically creates a new draft invoice with the same client, line items, totals, and notes, then marks the estimate converted and links it to the new invoice ID. The estimate is now frozen — no further edits — and the invoice picks up where you left off.

This is one transaction at the database level, so there's no scenario where you end up with a half-converted estimate.

PDF Export

Estimates export to PDF the same way invoices do. The PDF picks up your branding settings — logo, primary color, footer text — from Invoice Branding.

What's next

Invoices — where the conversion lands.