How does one do an estimate with different options?

For example, I want to throw a client an estimate that says:

- you can choose option A (900)
- you can chhose otions B (1200)
- or you can choose option C (1500)

at the moment it seems quite clunky due to:
- tasks, these just add up (low – high) and I don’t want a final tally as this can freak out a client if all that adds up
- general flat fee, these still add up at the bottom. Misrepresenting the quote.

thanks

There’s no “slick” way to do what you want at the moment.

I see two ways you could do things.

• Modify the template not to show the “total” at the top and bottom
• Create 3 items: Option A, Option B, Option C

• Try creating 3 different estimates.
• You can copy items between them all using the import feature after they’ve been created.

This is the one thing that limits me using estimates as well. Unfortuntely I can’t use your first option as I break the project down into stages to explain why it costs what it does, but I don’t really want to provide them with three different invoices either.

It could be done through liquid, but it wouldn’t look pretty in Cashboard. You could list all three estimates in the same estimate, but put a blank line item inbetween each one. Then as you loop through each line item in your template, you add each line item together manually in a running total. When you hit a blank line (the divider), you close the table with the total row using the current running total from the line items, put in a page break, reset the running total back to zero, and start a new table on the next page.

Although that would work for your clients, it would make your estimate like three times more expensive than it should be…

so if I change my template for invoicing, doesn’t that change them all? or can you start creating separate templates for the same thing (eg. invoice1, invoice2, etc)

both of these solutions sound quite clunky.

ta

or sorry, for estimating I should have said above… but this concept translates to both anyway :-)

Changing the template changes them all.

Cashboard was not designed with this workflow in mind, so yes – the solutions presented are clunky.

I don’t know how applicable this scenario would be to all of our customers or potential customers, so I’m uneasy in including it. However I will think about it when moving the product forward.

Gleddy, you can have multiple templates, but its a bit of a hack. With some help, I found a way to dynamically apply a different template depending on the situation.

Using what I mentioned above, and the multiple templates liquid, you could create something that could work for you. Instead of checking for whether it has a flat fee or hourly rate for an invoice, you could check if it has a line item called ‘break’ or something like that to see if it needs to be a multi-optioned estimate tempplate or the normal template.

cool, thanks for that. haven’t had time to start getting familiar with the liquid syntax and get my hands dirty. but if I could set up a hack and not have to worry from then on it would be something to look into.

cheers

ooh! this is exactly what i signed up for this forum to learn about!

no comments in 7 months makes me a little nervous, though. any progress?

just to add my 2 cents…

I offer a number of options on an estimate. A simple example would be the option to pay for hosting on a month-to-month basis or annually at a small discount. I also offer 2 different maintenance plans my clients can choose from.

I’m new to CB and even newer to this forum, so if I have missed this solution in another post, please point me in the right direction! thanks!!

Hi Steph, this feature is not in progress.

For new feature requests please see our official feature request site

If you suggest this feature and it gets a lot of votes we’re more likely to include it. Right now it doesn’t seem like a huge win for us to implement it immediately.