With webSAM, you can provide your customer with traditional paper-based quotes, or you can provide an engaging fully online estimate approval process where your customers can receive and approve or deny quotes on their phone or PC.


Note - some of the general steps of creating an estimate follow the same or similar process to creating a job (e.g. adding postings, sections, selecting the customer and vehicle etc). So if you are not yet familiar with those processes we recommend you start with the Creating a New Job KB before moving on to this article on Estimates.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Workflow Diagram

The following diagram provides an overview of the workflow of the webSAM Estimates system. It's fairly detailed, but don't let that scare you, the actual process of creating, sending and authorising approvals is simple and efficient, we think you and your customers are going to love it!

Set-Up


Before using the Estimate system, you should complete the set-up as outlined in this KB article:


 

Creating an Estimate


You will find Estimates under the Workshop dropdown menu:

The first screen you will see is the Estimate list, showing any previously created estimates. It is similarly laid out to the WIP and Invoice lists, with the exception of the status icons on the right-hand side. If you hover the mouse over an icon, a tip will display explaining what the icon represents:To start a new Estimate, simply click the add icon:

Time-Saving Tip: You can also quickly create an estimate from within a work in progress job, by clicking the Estimate icon at the bottom of the job. This will create a new estimate, and bring across the customer and vehicle from the original job.:


From this point, preparing an Estimate is a very similar process to creating jobs; essentially you select a customer and vehicle, then add parts and labour to the postings:


However, here are a couple of important factors to be mindful of:


Estimate Expiry Dates


When you create an estimate, the Expiry date is automatically set to one month from the current date. In the Customer Approval portal, customers will only be able to accept estimates that have not expired.


You can edit the Expiry date at any stage, and the customer will then be able to approve that estimate using the original estimate approval link they have been sent, you can re-send the estimate to the customer for convenience.


Job Templates & Job Sections are key to building your estimates.


The online estimates approval process summarises the estimate into separate sets of work that can be individually authorised or declined. These sets of work are grouped by each Job Section within the estimate (Job Templates are automatically placed into their own job section).


For more information on Job Templates and Job Sections please see the following KB articles:


?A great way to use this to your advantage is to add optional or suggested work to the Estimate in a specific job section, so the customer can choose to proceed with this work when authorising the job. You can see how this looks (including Mobile Images added to the Estimate) in the What your Customer Sees KB article


Converting Estimates from a Recommendation


Estimates can easily generated from the Recommendations feature where techs to log recommended work using the Technician Web App from a mobile device. Read more here:[webSAM] Convert a Recommendation to an Estimate


Sending Estimates via SMS


Click the SMS icon beside your customer's Mobile number in the Customer Details section of the Estimate:



This will present a message preview screen where you can modify the SMS message if necessary (do not change the URL link or your customer will not be able to open the link to the Estimate). Click Send to send the message.





Sending Estimates via Email


To send your Estimate to the customer, click the dropdown arrow beside the Printer icon at the top left of the Estimate screen:



Then click the Email option on the following window :



The next window to display will provide the option to check the recipient email address and view/modify the content of the message that will be sent - simply click the Send button when you're ready to proceed:



What your customer sees:


For an example of what your customer will experience from their end of the Estimate approval process; please see the following KB article:


Important Note: Once your customer has approved an estimate, they can only view a read-only copy of the estimate in the customer approval portal. They can make no further changes, so if they need to amend their choices, they should use the Contact Us button to contact you, so you can manually edit the estimate approvals.


Converting Approved Work to a Job


For instructions on how to convert work authorised by your customers online to a job, please see the Estimates - Converting Approved Work to a Job KB article.


Manual Approvals


If your customer(s) are not going to use the online approval system, you can manually approve the estimate and convert it to a job. To find out how, check out the Estimates - How to Manually Approve Work & Convert to a Job KB article.


 

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