Automatic closing estimates

Hi @DJ33,

I'll share insight on your query about estimates in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

Estimates in QBDT aren't marked as inactive as soon as it's converted to an invoice. You'll have to manually mark it as inactive so it won't appear in your reports anymore. 

What you can do is check for converted estimates. So it would be easier for you to know which estimates are supposed to be marked as inactive. 

Here's how:

1. Go to the Customers menu.
2. Select Customer Center.
3. Hit the Transactions tab.
4. The default filter is All Estimates and All for the Date. Change if necessary.
5. View the Active Estimate? column, as well as the Open Balance column.

An estimate is a part of the Accounts Receivable workflow. See this article for other workflows available in QBDT: Get started with customer transaction workflows in QuickBooks Desktop. 

Let me know if you have other questions by leaving a comment below. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Thanks for this, Ryan, but I'm afraid it doesn't help much.

I've followed your instructions, but every estimate shows an open balance of the same amount; even ones that I've confirmed WERE converted into invoices and paid by customers.   I'm assuming that the open balance on this report should be zero if the estimate was converted and paid, right?  Is there a step I'm missing to get the info to show correctly?  Or is there another report to view converted estimates, rather than having to look at each customer's transactions manually?

Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for getting back to us and following the steps provided by my colleague above, @DJ33.

An open balance will show in the report if the entire amount of the estimate was not used to create an invoice (Progress Invoicing). For example, when you create a 500 worth of estimate and convert only half of it to an invoice. The uninvoiced balance will reflect on the Open Estimate report since a remaining amount is waiting to be converted into an invoice.

If you still see an open balance in this report, we can use it to convert another invoice. This way, it will zero out the remaining balance on your Open Estimate report. 

In case you need to customize your transaction reports in the future, you can refer to this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you ever have other questions we can help you with, feel free to swing by the Community!

Thank you, Reymond, but you've identified the exact problem I am having.  ALL estimates continue to show an open balance even when the full amounts HAVE BEEN converted to invoices.  I understand that these amounts should zero out (or be reduced) when an invoice is created, but that is not happening.  Not a single estimate that I've ever created shows a reduced/zero open balance.  According to what I understand from your answer, this is not correct and doesn't seem like an issue of customizing a report.

Is there a setting somewhere that I need to check?

I can help you sort this out, @DJ33.

Let's first run the verify and rebuild utility tool to isolate this concern for possible data damage. Once completed, let's try to create a dummy estimate and convert it into an invoice using progress invoicing.

To run Verify Data utility: 

1. Select File menu.
2. Choose Utilities. 
3. Click Verify Data. 
4. If there are issues found, you’ll be prompted to Rebuild Now.  

Here’s how to run the Rebuild utility: 

1. Click the File menu.
2. Select Utilities from the drop-down option. 
3. Choose Rebuild Data. 
4. Click Ok on Rebuild has completed. 

Once completed, let's restart your computer to ensure that all components are updated. You can try creating an estimate and convert it into an invoice.

1. Create the estimate.
2. Click Create Invoice button.
3. Choose to Create an invoice for the entire estimate.
4. Review the details of the invoice.
5. Click Save and Close. 

To pay the invoice, here's how:

1. Open the invoice.
2. Click on Receive Payments.
3. In the Customer Payment window, review the payee information.
4. Put a check mark on the invoice that will paid.
5. Click on Save and Close. 

On the other hand, I've added these articles for more insights on the different available workflows to track your income and expenses in QuickBooks:

• Customer transaction workflows in QuickBooks Desktop
• Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop

Don't hesitate to get back to me if there's anything else you need while working with backups. I'm here to keep helping.

I have the exact same problem. I have run rebuild numerous times in the last 10 years and the problem persists. Estimates NEVER become inactive unless they are manually marked as such. It would also be helpful if estimates automatically became inactive after a certain period of time - 3 months, 6 months or

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@IamjuViel wrote:

I can help you sort this out, @DJ33.

 

Let's first run the verify and rebuild utility tool to isolate this concern for possible data damage. Once completed, let's try to create a dummy estimate and convert it into an invoice using progress invoicing.

 

To run Verify Data utility: 

1. Select File menu.
2. Choose Utilities. 
3. Click Verify Data. 
4. If there are issues found, you’ll be prompted to Rebuild Now.  

Here’s how to run the Rebuild utility: 

1. Click the File menu.
2. Select Utilities from the drop-down option. 
3. Choose Rebuild Data. 
4. Click Ok on Rebuild has completed. 

Once completed, let's restart your computer to ensure that all components are updated. You can try creating an estimate and convert it into an invoice.

1. Create the estimate.
2. Click Create Invoice button.
3. Choose to Create an invoice for the entire estimate.
4. Review the details of the invoice.
5. Click Save and Close. 

To pay the invoice, here's how:

1. Open the invoice.
2. Click on Receive Payments.
3. In the Customer Payment window, review the payee information.
4. Put a check mark on the invoice that will paid.
5. Click on Save and Close. 

 

On the other hand, I've added these articles for more insights on the different available workflows to track your income and expenses in QuickBooks:

• Customer transaction workflows in QuickBooks Desktop
• Accounts Payable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop

Don't hesitate to get back to me if there's anything else you need while working with backups. I'm here to keep helping.

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a year.

Thanks for joining this thread, rmmack.
 

Since you've performed IamjuViel's troubleshooting steps, but your estimates continue showing open balances after being converted to invoices, I'd recommend getting in touch with our Customer Care team. They'll be able to pull up your account in a secure environment, conduct further research, and create an investigation ticket if necessary.
 

They can be reached while using QuickBooks.
 

Here's how:

1. In the top menu bar, go to Help, then QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us.
   
3. Enter a brief description of the issue in our Ask a question (or tell us what's wrong) field and hit Continue.
   
4. Select We’ll contact you for a callback or Message Us to start an instant messaging session.

Be sure to review their support hours so you'll know when agents are available.
 

As for your feature request, I can certainly understand how an automated ability for making estimates inactive after a certain period of time could come in handy and have submitted a suggestion about it as of today. For the time being, you'll have to use your Mark As Inactive option on your estimate transaction screen. Selecting this will manually mark a record as inactive.

You can also submit your own suggestions while using QuickBooks.
 

Here's how:

1. In your top menu bar, go to Help, Send Feedback Online, then Product Suggestion....
2. Choose a Type of Feedback and Product Area (optional) from the available drop-down menus.
3. Enter any suggestions/feedback in your Here is my suggestion: field.
4. If you'd like, include your name/email in the My name is: (optional) and My e-mail address is: (optional) fields.
   
5. Select Send Feedback.
   

Your feedback's definitely valuable to Intuit. It will be reviewed by our Product Development team and considered in future updates. You can stay up-to-date with the latest news about your product by reviewing our QuickBooks Blog.
 

I'll be here to help if there's any questions. Have a wonderful day!

We are having the same issues with our estimates still showing remaining balances.  This recently started AND we have already contacted QB Support AND ran the Verify/Rebuild several times.    

Why are my estimates NOT clearing open balance once converted to invoices?  They did do this before and would show record of the invoice as a related transaction.  It stopped that.

I can show you other troubleshooting steps, 

QuickBooks will only recognize an estimate as closed if you've linked it to an invoice. If you want to get rid of these transactions, we'll have close or delete them. Since these are non-posting transactions, eliminating them won't affect your books. 

Looks like the same thing happens even after linking them to an invoice and running the verify and rebuild process. We can update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release and then run and install the QuickBooks Tool Hub to help fix company data damage.

Check out this article that will guide you in splitting an estimate into as many invoices as you need: Set up and send progress invoices in QuickBooks Desktop. It also contains information that will help you track how much you invoice for each estimate.

Don't hesitate to visit us again with all of your QuickBooks-related concerns and questions. The Community is always here to help you succeed.

All our estimates have been converted to invoices, but continue staying with open balances.  We have already called support on this twice.

Hi there, @ljw8.

I appreciate you for getting back and performing the troubleshooting steps suggested to isolate the issue you had with your estimates and invoices. I want to ensure you'll be able to get a resolution to close the open balances after converting your estimates.

Once you've converted an estimate to an invoice, then the estimate should be closed with no open balance displayed. In your case, a company issue may affect this behavior. As an additional fix, I recommend repairing your QuickBooks Desktop. Once done, review the balances showing up on your account.

In case you're getting the same result, I would suggest deleting your estimates and invoices. This way, you can re-convert your transactions.

Here's how:

1. Locate the invoice transaction from your customer profile.
2. Open the transaction.
3. Select Delete to remove the transaction from your record.
4. Do the same steps for other entries and as well as with your estimates.

Once done, create invoices from your estimates again.

For more tips while handling your customer workflow in QuickBooks Desktop, you can open this article: Get started with customer transaction workflows in QuickBooks Desktop.

Additionally, you may run your reports to review the transactions you've added to your file. You can use this link as your guide: Understand reports.

If you have any other follow-up questions about your invoices or estimates, let me know by adding a comment below. I'm more than happy to help. Have a good one!

We had already repaired our QB twice and balances were there.  I manually closed and zero'd them all out from 2021 (~12).  We cannot just delete our new invoices and estimates and redo.  They are very involved and we have multiple users.  Do you have another solution?

Good afternoon,

Thank you for joining the QuickBooks Community, ljw8. Since you have already repaired your QuickBooks twice, I suggest contacting our Support Team to investigate this matter further. They have the tools even to set up a screen share in a secure environment. Here's how to connect with us:

1. Within your QuickBooks Desktop, click Help at the top menu bar.
2. Enter a brief description of your concern, then click Contact Us.
3. To the correct support expert, we need to know what type of question you have. Give a brief description of your issue and click Continue.
4. We'll provide you with a few options. Choose the callback option.

Should you have additional QuickBooks concerns, please let me know. Have a good one!

This is definitely a bug in QuickBooks.  It does not close out automatically even when the box is checked and the full workflow is done.  The support people don't realize this is happening and probably have never used QuickBooks themselves.  They think verifying and rebuilding the file will fix the issue. It will not. It just doesn't work!

I can share additional insights about your estimates issue, jeff Siegel.

I've tried it on my end, and the estimate doesn't automatically show inactive or close even after I converted it to an invoice.

That said, you may consider sending this idea to our product engineers. They look through submitted feedback for future product enhancements.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to the Help menu at the top.
2. Select Send Feedback Online.
3. Click Product Suggestion. 
4. Click on the drop-down for Type of Feedback and select Product Suggestion.
5. Select the Product Area.
6. Enter your thoughts and suggestions.
7. Click Send Feedback.

 Also, I encourage you to visit the What's New section on your account. This way, you can view our product vlogs, latest news, and updates: Product Updates.

As always, the Community is open if you need more assistance.

Four years later...  How's everyone doing with this?  A recent similar experience caused me to find this post and I was wondering if there has been a cure or a work-around.  Even marking the Estimate "inactive" does not work, it still shows as active.  Can estimates be zero'd out with a credit entry to a line item?  It's definitely a brain teaser.  Let me know if you found any answers.

Automatically closing estimates would simplify tracking the stages of your sales processes, PJBooks. Let me share some details about managing estimates in QuickBooks Desktop.

There's a setting within the Preferences menu that allows estimates to be automatically closed after they have been invoiced. This eliminates the need to add an additional line item to zero it out.

Let me show you how:

1. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences.
2. Look for Jobs and Estimates from the left menu.
3. Proceed to the Company Preferences tab.
4. Check the box for Close estimates after converting to invoice.
5. Click OK.

After that, the system will automatically close out the estimate after invoicing. This helps keep your estimate status up to date and shows that the estimate is completed after billing the customer.

I'd also like to recommend some additional resources in case you might need them:

• Some Sales Orders Or Estimates May Be Incorrectly Marked As Closed
• Customize Customer, Job, And Sales Reports In QuickBooks Desktop

Please don't hesitate to reach out to the Community if you need any other assistance interpreting reports, setting preferences to streamline workflows, or any other questions about using QuickBooks. We're available 24/7 to provide you with the support and help you need.