Send an estimate to a contact

This article explains how to send an estimate you've created, to a client.

Navigate to the 'Work' tab at the top of the screen and select 'Estimates' from the drop down menu.

Screenshot showing the 'Work' menu with 'Estimates' highlighted

Select the reference number of the relevant estimate. 

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Saving the estimate as a .pdf

You can choose to save the estimate as a .pdf for printing or for sending as an email attachment from your own email programme. Alternatively, you can send it by email directly from within FreeAgent.

To save the estimate as a .pdf, select the 'Save as PDF' button.

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Then choose where to save this file on your computer so that you can browse to it again when it's needed.

Emailing the estimate directly

To email the estimate from within FreeAgent, select 'Send by Email'.

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Here's what you'll see if you select Send by Email.

From / To

On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see a series of tags that you can use to build your email.

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In the From box, you can choose from any of your users' email addresses. You may need to set someone up as a new user.

And tick the 'Email a copy to the sender' box to choose whether you want to receive a copy of the email into the inbox of the person whose address is in the From box.

In the To box, if you've already entered an email address for this client on the Contacts screen, you'll see that here, but you can overtype it. If you haven't put in an email address for the client, then the To box will be blank and you'll need to enter a valid email address. You can enter multiple email addresses here if you need to, separated by commas.

If you put '[contact_billing_email],[contact_email]' in the To field, the email will go out assuming that the contact has one or other of the email addresses entered, and if you use the tag '[billing_or_contact_email]' in the To field, then if you've put in a billing email address that will be used, but if there's no billing email, FreeAgent will use the contact's main email address.

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Subject

The Subject field is filled in automatically for you, giving your company's name and the estimate number. But you can overtype this field if you want the email to have a different subject.

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Attach files

You can also send other files, such as your terms and conditions, as attachments to this email.

To do this, select 'Attach Files'.

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This brings up a list of the files you have so far uploaded to FreeAgent's Files area. Tick the box(es) next to the file(s) you want to upload and select 'Attach Selected'.

You can also upload more files here.

The maximum size for one file is 5MB and if the total size of uploaded files is more than 7MB, it will be compressed and a link to the download will be sent in the email. Please note that after 120 days the link will expire.

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Body text

In the 'Content' box, type the text for the body of the email.

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Preview and send

Below the 'Send Email' button, there's a fully functional preview of the estimate, so that you can double-check it before you send it and even edit it and add more items to it.

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Once you're happy with the estimate, select 'Send Email' to send it out, or 'Cancel' to close the screen without sending it.

FreeAgent will then send the email for you, with the estimate as a .pdf attachment.

The estimate's status will automatically be changed to 'Sent' once this has happened (please note that selecting Mark as Sent does not send an estimate). You can see a summary of when the estimate was sent and whether it was delivered successfully by looking underneath the estimate.

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