Adding optional items to estimates

In this article, you'll learn how to add optional items to an estimate. Optional items let you offer extras the customer can take or leave, like an add-on service or an upgrade, without putting them in the quoted total. The customer picks the ones they want right before they sign.

To open an estimate:

  1. In the menu, click Estimates.
  2. Click the estimate you want to work on.

How to make an item optional

Optional items are set on the item itself, when you add it or when you edit it later.

  1. Under Items, click Add item, or click an existing line to edit it. You can also pick one from Price book.
  2. Fill in the name, quantity and price as usual.
  3. Turn on Optional.
  4. If you want the item to start ticked on the customer's page, also turn on Selected by default. This switch only appears while Optional is on, and turning Optional off clears it.
  5. Click Save.
Note: The first item on an estimate can never be optional. The Optional switch only shows on items added after it, so an estimate always has at least one priced line.

How optional items look on the estimate

In the item list, an optional line carries a small optional tag after its name. One that's ticked for the customer ahead of time reads optional · default instead.

Optional items stay out of the estimate's total. Under the items you'll see Total for the priced lines, and a second line, With optional, showing what it comes to if the customer takes every extra.

What your customer sees

On the estimate the customer receives, optional items sit in their own block under the priced lines, marked Optional and not counted in the total.

When the customer clicks Approve, the signing step lists each optional item as a checkbox with its price, for example Add Haul-away of old mattress +$45.00. Items you set as Selected by default start ticked. The customer can tick or untick any of them, and the Total under the list updates as they go. If the estimate asks for a percentage deposit, the deposit follows that total too.

Once the customer signs, the extras they ticked become ordinary priced items on the estimate, and the estimate's total includes them.

Copying the estimate to a job

Copy to job in the Actions menu brings the priced items across to the new job. Items still marked optional are left off, and the CRM tells you how many it skipped before you confirm. If the customer agreed to an extra in person rather than on the estimate page, add it to the job after it's created.

Tip: An item the customer ticked when they approved has already turned into a priced line, so it does come across to the job.

On the phone app

The same switches are on the app. Open the estimate, tap + Custom to add a line, or tap an existing line to edit it. Turn on Optional — the customer can take it or leave it, then Selected by default if you want it pre-ticked, and tap Add item or Save. Items added through the app's Add item price book picker come in as priced lines, so tap the line afterwards to make it optional. The list tags, the With optional total and the Copy to job behaviour match the web.

Related articles