QuickBooks 2013 For Dummies

Creating a Job Estimate

In QuickBooks, job costing starts with an estimate. An estimate is just a list of the estimated costs you’ll incur for some job you’ll perform for some customer.

Assuming that you already created a job and told QuickBooks that you use estimates, here are the steps that you follow to create an estimate:

1. Choose Customers⇒Create Estimates.

QuickBooks opens a Create Estimates form (see Figure 16-2), which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Create Invoices form that you’ve seen if you’ve worked with QuickBooks at all. (See Chapter 4 for more information about the Create Invoices form.)

Figure 16-2: The Create Estimates window.

2. Start filling in the blanks.

Choose the appropriate Customer:Job from the drop-down list at the top of the form. QuickBooks automatically fills in as much information as it can — usually at least the Name/Address text box — on the form.

If you configured QuickBooks to track classes (described in Chapter 3), the appropriate drop-down list shows up in the top center of the form. Go ahead and use the box, if appropriate.

Feel free to change the default settings — the Date and Estimate #, for example. The Date Setting tricks that you can find in Chapter 4 and on the online Cheat Sheet can be found at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/quickbooks2013 ...