Estimates

An estimate is a costs preview emailed to the client: here’s what this will run, itemized, with tax. It sets expectations early, which is cheaper than managing surprise later.

Building One

From the matter’s Billing > Estimates, create an estimate. It starts pre-loaded with the matter’s not-yet-invoiced receipts, and you can adjust from there:

Add Existing Item pulls in a receipt already on the matter.

Create Custom Item adds a projected charge that doesn’t exist as a line item yet: description, amount, taxable.

Totals (subtotal, tax from the matter’s tax jurisdiction, total) recalculate as you edit. Add at least one recipient email address; that’s who it goes to.

Sending

Send Estimate emails each recipient an itemized summary. Two things happen at that moment that you should know before clicking:

Custom items become real. Every custom item on the estimate is converted into an actual receipt line item on the matter. The dialog warns you; believe it. The estimate stops being hypothetical the moment it’s sent.

The estimate freezes. Sent estimates can’t be edited, can’t be deleted, and lock in the tax rate as of sending. Re-send Estimate sends the identical original document again; it does not pick up later changes to the matter.

If circumstances change after sending, create a new estimate. That’s not a workaround; it’s the design: each estimate is a dated, immutable record of what the client was told.

What Estimates Are Not

There’s no accept or decline button and no client portal view; the estimate is a one-way communication by email. And there’s no automatic conversion to an invoice. The bridge is subtler: sending created real receipt line items, and those are exactly what you’ll put on the invoice later.