Availability of Estimates and Job Tracking

Estimates and Job Tracking XE "job tracking" are provided in all versions of QuickBooks? Pro. Estimates state a proposal for work or other delivery of value to a customer. Invoices can be generated from estimates, XE "estimates" by a process that is essentially copying. Progress Invoicing was added (as an option) in QuickBooks? Pro 5. Invoices can be generated to bill fractions or elements of the work quoted on an estimate. That is the obvious and expected difference. A less evident addition in version 5 is the linking of invoices with estimates.

Progress invoicing allows full control of automatic invoice generation. Billing can be for a percentage of the proposed work, even more than 100%. The second choice allows selective billing for a percentage of each individual line item. Or, you can just copy the whole thing.

Job Tracking Reports generally run along the lines of one customer:job. Profitability reports compare invoiced amounts with estimates, or show profitability on the basis of costs versus estimates. QuickBooks? Pro (3.1) and QuickBooks? Pro 4 have a Job Administration Report which shows a wide variety of job status issues, limited principally by page width.

Instructions in this chapter are generally specific to QuickBooks? Pro 5, but can be readily followed in the earlier versions. In a few cases, separate instructions are given for the earlier versions.