Build an estimate and add estimates to opportunitiesLast updated on 05/03/2023

When you create an estimate, you’re also creating an opportunity if you don’t sell the estimate immediately. Opportunities support multiple estimate options. This helps to better support your sales methodology for Good, Better, Best, or custom options as add-ons. For more on managing opportunities, see Follow up on opportunities.

1. After you create an estimate, the Build Estimate screen opens. Click the Business Unit dropdown and select a business unit (BU) for the estimate. 

2. Click + Build Estimate.

   Create Estimate screen opens. Note: You can use existing Proposal templates, created in your Pricebook, to generate your estimate. Select the ones you want to use and click Done to build the estimate with the existing template(s).

3. Enter estimate details in each section as needed:

   1. Customer and Locations: Confirm that the Service Location and Billing Location details are correct.

   2. General Details: Enter general details about the estimate:

      1. Name: Enter a unique name that will help you identify this estimate. 

      2. Project Label: If you’re adding this estimate to a project and the estimate represents a project phase or change order, select a project label. This helps ensure that your expenses are reflected accurately for the project. For more, see Create project labels.

      3. Business Unit: The BU under which this estimate is reflected in. Note: After the estimate is sold, the sales from the estimate report under the selected BU. For best practice, create the estimate under the Construction BU to ensure accurate reporting.   

      4. Summary (optional): Enter a summary for the estimate. This prints on the customer’s view of the estimate.

   3.  Price Details: Review follow up and pricing details:  Note: The fields in the Price Details section are updated as the estimate is built so you don’t need to add values when creating the estimate.

      1. Follow Up On: Enter the date on which you plan to follow up with the customer for this opportunity. For more, see Use the Follow Up screen. 

      2. Rate Sheet: If you want to apply a rate sheet to your estimate, select a rate sheet from the dropdown. For more, see Apply client-specific pricing rate sheets on an invoice or estimate.

      3. Subtotal: The total cost of the estimate, excluding taxes, which is calculated after items and tasks are added to the estimate. 

      4. Tax: If your tax is not automatically calculated from your taxable items, enter the dollar amount for the tax that is expected to be collected.

      5. Total: The total cost of the estimate, which is calculated after items, tasks, and tax are added to the estimate.

   4. Sale Information: Enter details for how the estimate is sold: 

      1. Sold By: The employee who sold the estimate.

      2. Sold on Date: The date on which the estimate is sold.

      3. Sold On Time: The time at which the estimate is sold. Note: Sale Information is auto-populated when the estimate status is Sold.

4. When you’re finished, click Create. 

The Estimate screen opens and is linked to your job or project, depending on how you created the estimate. You can now add items and sell the estimate. For more on adding items to your estimate and selling it, see Sell estimates in ServiceTitan.

Use project opportunities to add estimates to a project. This ensures that the items are accurately attributed to the right expense type and phase of the project. It also ensures that the items are displayed correctly in the Budget vs Actual and Expense Detail tables.

Note: Add costs to equipment or services that account for labor, but don’t add a price to these items. This ensures that revenue and expenses are reflected accurately in your project. Once you sell the project estimate, the Project Summary, Budget vs Actual, and Expense Detail tables populate.

If you’re building a new estimate for a project, you can add the estimate to an existing project opportunity you have.

1. After you create an estimate, the Build Estimate window opens. Select the Project Opportunity you want to add to the estimate.

   Tip: Click the Arrow to see the estimate’s details.

2. Click Next. 

3. From the Add to Existing Opportunity tab, click the Business Unit dropdown and select a business unit (BU) for the estimate. Continue building the estimate by following the steps in Build a new estimate and opportunity. 

You can add items and tasks to an estimate by project total, project phase, or line item.

Add items and tasks to an estimate by project total

If you created an estimate for your project outside of ServiceTitan, you can enter the final amount in your ServiceTitan project estimate and use the bid project total to ensure your expenses for the project are tracked in ServiceTitan. For more on adding project total to an estimate in ServiceTitan, see Set up a bid by total project.

Add items and tasks to an estimate by project phase 

If you plan to bill your customer based on the phases of a project, add items and tasks to your estimate by line item to ensure that each billing phase has the correct expenses captured. For more, see Set up an estimate by project phase.

Add items and tasks to an estimate by line item

If you plan to bill your customer based on tasks completed, add items individually to your estimate. For more, see Set up an estimate by line item.

You can add a budget for approximate labor costs:

1. In the estimate, click + Task.

2. From the dropdown field, select the labor service you created in the pricebook that you want to add to the estimate.

3. In the Quantity column, enter the number of hours you plan to use for this labor.

4. Update the Estimated Labor Cost field as needed.

5. When you’re finished, click Save. Note: Do not add a Unit Price to the labor service.

To update project opportunity status:

1.  Under the Opportunity field, click the Opportunity Number.

   The Project Opportunity Follow-Up screen opens listing the estimate you just created. 

2. From the Project Opportunity Follow-Up screen you can click:

   1. Sold/Convert to convert and sell an estimate. Note: When you sell the estimate, all estimate items will be reflected in the Budget column based on its project and category label.

   2. Add Estimate to add more estimates to the project opportunity.

   3. Dismiss for an estimate if a customer doesn’t accept the estimate.

   4. Delete for an estimate if you want to permanently remove the estimate from ServiceTitan

3. Click View Project at the top of the screen to go back to the project for which you just created a project opportunity.

• Visit ServiceTitan Academy and enroll in Office Estimate Redesign

• See Project job costing report template

• See Sell estimates in ServiceTitan

• See Manage Estimates in ServiceTitan