How do you close a old estimate?

Hello ambermillwork,

Welcome to the QuickBooks Online community! It's great to have you here with us. I'll go over how to close the old estimate in your books.

Estimates are non-posting transactions that allow you to send information to a customer to give them an idea of what the product or service will cost them. From an estimate, you can create an invoice, and you can change the status of the estimate to show it's been accepted, rejected, or closed. Here's how to change it to closed.

1. Hover over the Sales menu on the left.
2. Choose Customers.
3. Click the customer in question.
4. Find the estimate.
5. Click the down arrow in the Action column.
6. Choose Update status.
7. Choose Closed from the drop-down.
8. Click OK to save.

This can also be changed by opening the estimate up and changing the status drop-down under the customer's name. It's pretty easy once you know how to do it! For your reference, here is our article about estimates: Set up and use estimates

Let me know if you have more questions. I'm here to help!

I am using Premier Professional Services Edition 2019 R8P.  I don't have an Action column or a down arrow to update status.  How would I close old estimates?

Hi Diane18,

Thanks for sharing which product you're using. The above instructions are for QuickBooks Online, which is why you're not seeing the steps outlined there in Premier. Here are the options in your version of QuickBooks.

The first option is to mark the estimate as inactive. It's as simple as clicking the option Mark As Inactive from the transaction screen when you're looking at the estimate. Marking it as inactive keeps it in your books, but doesn't factor the numbers into reports. You can also go back and make the estimate active again if you'd like. Just reopen the transaction and click the Mark As Active button to do so.

The second option, if you don't need or want to keep a record of the estimate, is to simply delete it. To do this, click the Delete button on the estimate form. This will completely remove the estimate from your books.

I hope that helps. Enjoy your week!

Thank you.

You're welcome. Feel free to stop by again!

We invoiced only 50% of the estimate, can we delete or mark it as inactive so the 50% remaining estimate will no longer appear in the books?

Hi mrafael,

Great question. Thanks for sharing a bit about what you're looking to do with your estimates in QuickBooks. I'd be happy to go over this with you. Since we've touched on both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop on this thread and I'm not sure which you're using, I'll go over both again.

In both versions of the program, estimates are what are called non-posting transactions. This means they don't count against your books or factor into your reports. They're instead a way to communicate with your customer about what they can expect as a charge for the products or services you're selling them before actually initiating the invoice or charge.

That being said, it's possible to close, make inactive, or even delete an estimate that was only 50% invoiced without impacting the invoice. It may be good to simply close or mark the estimate as inactive to keep a record of it in your books, but if you'd like to delete it, that's an option as well. For QuickBooks Desktop, the option to delete is at the top of the estimate window. For QuickBooks Online, select More at the bottom of the estimate window and then Delete. If you're not sure whether closing or deleting an estimate is better for your books, I recommend connecting with an accountant.

An accountant will be able to advise you on what records you should be keeping in your books in case at any point you get audited. Although a non-posting transaction like an estimate doesn't impact the overall reporting, it may still be a good idea to keep that in your books. To find out, here's how you can connect with an accountant.

For QuickBooks Online, there's the My Accountant tab. You can use it to invite your accountant as a user to your account if you'd like to grant them access to your books or there's the Find a pro to help button if you don't yet have an accountant.

QuickBooks Desktop users can use our Find an Accountant page to search for accountants in their area. This is the same database as the Find a pro to help button; it's just not built into the software like QuickBooks Online has.

I hope that helps! Feel free to ask more questions if you have them.

I can't seem to edit any estimate from a previous year. When I try to edit, there is a pop-up (see attached screenshot) saying that it is from a previous/closed year and to enter a password. I should be able to edit any estimate, since it is not a transaction and doesn't affect the books, correct?

Hi KHuihui. Thanks for providing the screenshot. I see that the transaction you're trying to edit is part of your closed books and in order to edit it, you'd need to enter the password. I encourage you to check out this article here with more info on how to: 

Edit your closed books. Feel free to ask other questions, I'm here to help. 

When I mark an estimate as inactive, it does not remove the aging. How can I remove this or turn it off?

Hi coastalerica1,

Thanks for reaching out with your question in the QuickBooks Community. QuickBooks Desktop is a powerful program with many options. Making changes to your reports is only one of them. I can guide you down the right path.

You can filter your reports by using these basic steps:

1. Go to Reports.
2. Select the type of report, and then the report.
3. Once the report is open, click Customize Report at the top.
4. Choose the Filters tab.
5. You can choose what filters you want on your reports.

If you'd like to review the details, check out this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you have any other questions, please reach out. Have a good evening!

It appears that a recent update to QuickBooks Online has removed the "closed" status from the available choices. Now when I click Update Status, the only choices to select from are: Pending, Accepted, and Declined. How do I manually close an estimate? Thank you.

Hi matma92ser,

Thanks for joining this thread. QuickBooks Online is a great program that gives you the ability to create estimates to keep track of your books. I'd be glad to help.

This type of issue can be caused by browser cache and cookies as they can prevent the system from functioning effectively. I encourage you to refer to the following steps to complete some browser troubleshooting.
 

• Clear browser cache.
• Try in a private browser window.
• Use another browser type.
• Make sure you're using supported browsers.
• Turn off any ad and popup blockers temporarily.
   

If the steps provided above don't work, I recommend that you contact our customer support team. They'll be able to take a closer look at your account. Here are some options available to reach out to our team.

• Phone: Call us at 1-855-253-1536 from Monday to Friday between the hours of 9 AM and 8 PM EST.
• Schedule a Callback: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback.
   

Let me know if you have questions, I'll be happy to help.