Creating and Managing Estimates

Overview

This guide walks you through creating and managing estimates with QuoteScope. Unlike quotes that focus on itemized pricing, estimates help you provide time-based project scopes with feature breakdowns, importance levels, and feature types.

Our Approach to Estimates: Time-First, Flexible Pricing

At QuoteScope, we've designed estimates with a distinct philosophy to empower different roles within your team and provide clarity to your clients:

• Estimates Quantify Time, Not Just Money: Unlike quotes that directly itemize costs, our estimates prioritize quantifying the time required for each project feature. This allows team members most familiar with the actual work—those who best understand the effort involved—to contribute their expertise by focusing solely on time, without immediately needing to translate that into a final price.

• Decoupled Time and Pricing for Strategic Flexibility: The total project price you present in an estimate sheet is intentionally uncoupled from the individual feature time estimates. There's no rigid, built-in formula dictating how time converts to cost. This empowers your sales, finance, or management teams to take the comprehensive time breakdown and determine the final project price according to your business strategy. They can apply a direct time-to-cost conversion (like an hourly rate, as shown in our "Advanced Estimate" template example) or incorporate other crucial factors such as project management overhead, risk buffers for uncertainty, strategic value, or other business considerations.

• Relative Sizing with "T-Shirt Sizes" for Client Clarity: To help clients intuitively grasp the scale of each feature, QuoteScope automatically converts the time estimates into relative "T-shirt sizes" (e.g., Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large). This provides an at-a-glance understanding of which features contribute more significantly to the overall project effort, aiding in discussions about scope and priorities.

• Simplifying a Complex Process: Project estimation can be inherently "fuzzy" and challenging. Our goal is to provide a tool that simplifies this process by:

  • Making it easy for your technical team to quickly outline features and assign realistic time estimates.
  • Allowing your commercial team to apply your unique pricing methodologies flexibly.
  • Offering clients clear, interactive estimates that help them understand the relative impact of different features on the project's scope and potential cost.

This approach aims to streamline your internal estimation workflow, improve collaboration between technical and commercial roles, and enhance transparency with your clients.

Creating a New Estimate

Setting Up Your First Estimate

1. Open Google Sheets and go to Extensions → QuoteScope → New Estimate
2. Choose a template - select either a blank template or one of the pre-built templates

Understanding the Estimate Structure

An estimate is organized into features and sub-features, with flexible columns:

• Feature ID (optional): Used for display and grouping, e.g., "1", "1.1", "2.2.3". Leave blank if not needed.
• Feature (required): The name of the feature or task.
• Description (optional): Details about the feature.
• Importance (optional): Priority label for display ("must have", "should have", "could have").
• Low/High (optional): Time estimates for the feature. If one is filled, the other should be as well.
• Type (optional): Choose one of:
  • required: Always included in the estimate.
  • optional: Can be toggled on/off by the client.
  • multichoice: Part of a group where only one can be selected.
• Selected?: For "optional" and "multichoice" types, set to "yes" or "no" to indicate if the feature is included by default.
• Assumptions (optional): Key assumptions for this feature.
• Notes (optional): Any extra notes.

Tip: Use blank rows between major sections or between multichoice groups to improve readability and control grouping.

Multichoice Grouping

• Any consecutive rows with Type set to "multichoice" are grouped together as a single multichoice group.
• If there is a blank row or a non-multichoice row between multichoice rows, they will be treated as separate groups.
• Only one feature in a multichoice group can be selected at a time.

Adding Features

1. Enter feature information in the sheet using the columns above.
2. Only the Feature and Type columns are required; others are optional but recommended for clarity.

Setting Importance Levels

Each feature can be assigned an importance level to help clients understand priorities:

• Must Have: Essential features that are critical to the project
• Should Have: Important features that provide significant value
• Could Have: Optional features that would be nice to include if budget allows

Note: Importance levels are color-coded in the estimate (Must Have = green, Should Have = violet, Could Have = blue).

Time Estimation Format

When entering time estimates in the Low and High columns:

• Use formats like 2h (2 hours), 30m (30 minutes), 1d 4h (1 day 4 hours)
• Be consistent with your formatting to ensure accurate calculations
• If you enter a value for "Low", you should also enter a value for "High" (and vice versa)

Customizing Your Estimate

Business Details

1. Open the Settings Sidebar:

   • Go to Extensions → QuoteScope → Settings

2. Configure Business Information:

   • From (Your business): Name, company, address, phone, website, email
   • For (Your client): Name, company, address, phone, website, email

3. Set Estimate Parameters:

   • Quote/estimate number
   • Issue date
   • Expiry date

4. Upload Your Logo:

   • PNG or JPEG format (under 200KB)
   • Will appear at the top of your estimate

Final Customization on QuoteScope

After publishing your estimate from Google Sheets, you'll receive an edit link where you can make final adjustments before sharing with your client.

Publishing Your Estimate

Publishing an estimate follows a multi-step process:

Step 1: Initial Publish from Google Sheets

1. In Google Sheets, go to Extensions → QuoteScope → Publish Estimate
2. This creates an edit link on QuoteScope where you can make final adjustments
3. At this stage, the estimate is not yet visible to clients

Step 2: Final Review

1. On the QuoteScope edit page:

   • Review all estimate details
   • Update and publish the sheet again from Google Sheets if you want to make changes

2. Click Preview Estimate to see how your estimate will appear to clients

Step 3: Generate Client Link

1. Return to the edit page and click Publish Estimate
2. A unique client link will be generated
3. Important: Once published, the estimate becomes locked and cannot be edited further

Note: If you need to make changes after publishing, the recommended workflow is to duplicate the Google Sheet, make your changes, and publish a new version of the estimate.

Client Experience

When clients receive your estimate:

1. They see a professional, interactive estimate with your branding
2. Features are organized by importance levels with clear time estimates
3. They can review assumptions and notes for each feature
4. They can provide feedback on specific features or the overall estimate
5. All feedback is captured in your QuoteScope dashboard

Managing Estimate Activity

Tracking Engagement

1. Track when estimates are opened (Pro plans)
2. Receive notifications when clients provide feedback

Handling Client Feedback

When clients review your estimate, they can:

1. Select/deselect optional features
2. Choose one option from each multichoice group
3. Leave comments on specific features

You'll receive notifications when clients submit feedback, allowing you to respond quickly.