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QuickBooks gives us a number of tools that we can utilize when selling goods and services to our customers. Of course, we know that we have our Sales Receipt that allows us to finish a transaction all at once and our Invoices that allow us to bill our customer and allow our customer the convenience of paying on time. What we'd like to talk about in this section is how we create these Invoices off of Sales Orders and Estimates. In addition, we'd like to talk about the Change Orders when putting together Estimates. First, though, I'm very commonly asked why would I use a Sales Order rather than an Estimate. Estimates are wonderful when you're generating Purchase Orders for individual items and when you're using progress invoicing along with quotations. The number one use of Estimates within QuickBooks is for quotes. I'd like to actually quote out a job, submit a Proposal to my customer and when the customer accepts, I'd like to track my actual charges against what I bid. That's our main purpose of use for an Estimate. Our Sales Order, on the other hand, comes in handy when we've made a sale but we do not have the goods on hand. If, for instance, I need to purchase a variety of different items for one particular job, I may find that they actually come from individual vendors. I may have a piece of furniture coming from one supplier, whereas I may have doors or trim work coming from yet another. I'd like to coordinate when all of these supplies come together for one particular job. That's where a Sales Order comes in handy. Our Sales Order will allow us to track these individual items. For instance, If I go into a Sales Order and go to a previous screen, you can see that there is a Packing Slip for the doors and the trim work for Heather. This allows me to be rest assured that I have ordered the material and track it within QuickBooks when it comes. You'll also notice that it immediately sends it to an Invoice. Now, compare this to an Estimate. If I close out of our Sales Order, I'm going to go to the Estimate Form and once again go previous. This is the quote I have not given to Albert for a job that I'm going to work on. The Estimate lets me see exactly what I bid out and shows me each of the phases for the billing. Again, as with Sales Orders, I can immediately turn it into an Invoice. A nice aspect of the Estimates, though, are Change Orders. Now, I want you to keep in mind for Change Orders that you must have the Contractor Edition or the Accountant's Copy. Earlier I made reference to the fact that very often we'll get the Accountant's Copy when we don't know which industry-specific version to go with. The Accountant's Copy covers a lot of these tools that are not necessarily in the Pro or the Specialized Edition; just something to keep in the back of your mind. Let's say for instance that there's a change to Albert's Estimate. I can no go into my Estimate, go down to a new Line Item and actually just place in some plans. As usual, I'll just put in the cost of the plans right within the Estimate. When I'm finished with my change, as normal, I'll hit Save and Close. It asks me if I'd like to record my changes and I'll say yes. You'll notice at this point a screen came up asking about my Change Order. It is here that I can accept the default or simply go in and type in my own information. This will clearly show on my Estimate. Let's add it. I'll skip the spell check and we're out of the Estimate. Let's go back into the Estimate, back to previous and you'll notice that it clearly stated my Change Order on the Estimate. Now, do keep in mind, this really did change my original Estimate. If I want an original copy for archives or historical purposes, what I should do is first right click on that Estimate. When I right click, I'll go down to Duplicate and make a copy of the Estimate before I change it. This is very, very useful when looking at history of each of your individual Change Orders. When I'm finished with the Estimate, as normal I'll be able to create an Invoice and make sure that I'm totally billed out at the end of the project. There's one last item I'd like to bring to your attention. Very often we go to customers and do not see the Sales Order. Do not panic. It's just not turned on. If you go to Edit Your Preferences, we'll need to remember to turn on Sales Orders and turn on Estimates. All the versions have Sales Orders and Estimates; it's just the Change Orders comes into play with the Contractor's and the Accountant. I'm going to go to Sales and Customers, Company Preferences and you will notice right off to the side is Enable the Sales Orders. Once that's checked, Sales Orders is turned on and you're in business.