Solved: Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Printer Rob · ‎September 07, 2021

I am not sure if an adequate solution has been presented (no time to read all responses), but I had the same issue and found a simple work around.

1. Go to Customer Center, select Transaction Tab.

2. Filter by Open Estimate

3. Right Mouse Click to View as Report.

4. In the Report, select Customize Report > Select Filters Tab and search on & select Estimate Active > Select Yes. (this is a screen shot of the filters you should have selected)

The report should show you only Active Estimates and doesn't require you to delete anything, nor invoice direct from estimates (i.e. you can make a sales order).

I hope this helps you.

PS I understand the frustration of all the people on this post. I see no reason that estimates, sales orders, invoices, and PO's cannot be linked to each other. You should be able to link these transactoons manually too. Sometimes you delete an item on invoice and it doesn't link back to SO. QB needs to do better. They are busy solving the problems of few and forgetting the customers that got them there (small business)!

MAUL21 · ‎October 07, 2021

I am in the same position. Has there been any new developments or are we all still in the dark?

ZackE · ‎October 07, 2021

Welcome to the Community, MAUL21.

As detailed in Mark_R's post, closed estimates will only be recognized if they're linked directly to an invoice. Since you're converting estimates to sales orders, then creating its invoice, it will still show in your Transactions tab.

To get rid of these estimates, you'll have to make them inactive. Detailed steps for doing so can be found in Kristine Mae's post.

I can certainly understand how an ability to have these estimates not show up in an Open Estimates report without inactivating them could be useful and have submitted a suggestion about it as of today.

You can also submit your own feature requests while using QuickBooks.

Here's how:

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

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any questions. Have a lovely day!

NayeiryB · ‎January 11, 2022

Can quickbooks automatically make an estimate inactive when is converted into a sales order

MJoy_D · ‎January 11, 2022

I can share some information on what happens after creating a sales order out from the estimate, @NayeiryB

Your estimate will still be active after creating a sales order out from it. However, you can go back to that estimate to mark it as inactive. QuickBooks will keep a record of it but will not be included in your reports.

You can go to the Transactions tab of the customer's profile, find that estimate and mark it as inactive manually.

Refer to the following steps:

Go to the Customer menu and then Customer Center.
Click the customer's profile and then proceed to the Transactions menu under the Customer Information window.
Find the estimate and click the Mark as Inactive button.

For more information about turning on the sales order feature, creating one out from scratch, and from an estimate, see this article: Create a sales order.

You can now create an invoice out from that sales order, receive the invoice payment and record it as a bank deposit.

Let me know if you need further information about estimates and sales orders. I'm always here to assist. Have a wonderful day!

michelledmarciano · ‎April 25, 2022

Hi SaulA,

I'm with you. I really wish this workflow would work and in my mind it seems pretty simple. I already called but unfortunately, Intuit seems to do its best to not understand and not address the issue.

The fact of being considered a non-posting transaction shouldn't mean that estimates and sales order needed to behave how it does or simply seem to be a disconnected part of the flow. Honestly, it seems like you have a separate Excel sheet where you work with unintegrated, not centralized and very prone to errors.

That said, I don't really understand why they do not verify the simplest customer needs as this one and worse than that, keep giving completely nonsense answer to us when we ask about this. I called and the answers are the same.

Let's try to clarify the issue one more time.

I will take our case, where we are contractors performing/selling services.

We send an estimate to our customers to sometimes be awarded the project months or even a couple of years later. After the project is awarded to us, it still takes normally a few months for us to start.

Our ideal workflow would be:

- Create an estimate with as many items as are needed, save and wait until it's approved or rejected.

- If it's rejected, the user should mark as inactive (or we could call "not approved").

- If it's approved, fully or partially, create a sales order with the items that were approved/sold. At this point, the remaining balance should already change because since it was sold, there is no reason the balance remained the same.

* If the project or part of it has been completed, we now need to invoice the customer for that. It can be a progressive invoice if partially completed or invoice all items in full. At this point, if the capability of keeping the open balance at the estimate, it could now, but it would be much better if done on the step above. The sales order would keep a remaining balance if the progressive method is needed or zero balance in case all the sales order can become an invoice.

The way I'm having to do this at this moment, is going back to all the estimates that become a sales order and pretending that I will create an invoice from them. With that, they get a zero balance just by clicking "Create an invoice". Then I clear the invoice that's still a draft and don't save it.

It's a pity that Intuit doesn't address this quickly and in a manner that works for construction and all the other industries. It's very simple and helps to keep control of estimates or percentage of the estimates that really became a sales order and of the sales order that can be invoice upon the service completion or delivery of items in other industries.

I hope that it makes this issue and what is needed more clear and that the customer support takes this into consideration.

Best regards to all,

Michelle

AE Rob · ‎April 25, 2022

I totally agree with Michelle. Intuit makes a good product but misses too many simple improvements. The type of thing that makes the product better for most.

Along the same lines as the issue described here is one improvement that should have been done years ago. Why doesn't the estimate link to the sales order the same way the SO links to the invoice. Same concern for linking PO to SO. Why wouldn't users want these linked. And why can't users, while in the invoice process, select an SO the same way you can select a PO from the Bill Receipt screen?

There are too many instances like this. I am happy to go over these concerns anytime.

Best regards,

Rob (25+ years using QB)

PS My current company file is 23 years old (another sore spot for me).

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Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

Inactive Estimates are not hidden when filtering for only Open Estimates. What does "Mark as Inactive" do? What does QuickBooks see as an "Open" vs "closed" Estimate?

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