How to know when a customer has viewed an estimate

In this article, you'll learn how to know when a customer has opened an estimate you sent them, how to choose who gets told and how, and where to see the record of every open afterwards. It saves you chasing someone who hasn't looked yet, and tells you when to follow up with someone who has.

To open Document notifications:

  1. At the bottom of the left menu, click the gear (Settings).
  2. Under General, click Document notifications.

How the CRM knows

When you send an estimate, the text or email carries a link to the customer's portal. The first time the customer opens that link, the estimate is stamped as viewed and the office is told. Every open after that is logged too, including opens from inside the portal, so you can see how many times they've looked and when they last did.

Note: Only opening the link counts. If you email estimates with a PDF attached, a customer reading the attachment alone isn't recorded.

Choosing who hears about it

The Document notifications page has three parts:

  • Text these numbers and Email these addresses. Up to 10 of each. Leave both empty and the owner's phone and email are used.
  • What to send for each event. A row per event with Text, Email and Push checkboxes.

To get told when an estimate is opened:

  1. Find the row Estimate viewed. Its description reads "The customer opened an estimate for the first time."
  2. Tick Text, Email or Push, or any mix.
  3. Click Save. The page shows Saved.

Out of the box, Estimate viewed emails and pushes but doesn't text.

Note: The phone and email lists here are the company's one set of alert recipients. They're the same lists you see on Settings › Notifications and the other alert pages, so a change in one place shows everywhere.

What the alert says

The push is titled Estimate viewed and reads like "Estimate EST-1042 for $450.00 was just opened by your customer." Tapping it opens your Estimates list in the app. The text and the email carry the same words.

Choosing pushes for yourself

Pushes are a personal choice. Each person on the team picks their own.

To change your own push for estimate opens:

  1. Click the gear (Settings), then under General click Notifications.
  2. Under the Documents group, find Estimate viewed.
  3. Tick or clear Push.

The Text and Email columns on this page are the same company-wide switches as on Document notifications. Clicking either heading opens the list of who gets them.

Seeing the opens afterwards

Even if you turn every alert off, the opens are still recorded in three places:

  • The customer's conversation. In Conversations, open the customer's thread. A small marker reads "Viewed estimate EST-1042" with the time. Repeat opens within an hour show as one marker, and a view never marks the thread unread.
  • The job's timeline. In the phone app, open the job and tap Timeline. The open is listed with its date and time.
  • The Estimates report. On the web, click Reports, then Estimates. The All estimates table has a Sent column, a Views column with the number of opens, and a Last viewed column with the date and time of the latest one. An estimate nobody has opened shows a dash.

Other estimate events you can be told about

The same page has two more rows for estimates:

  • Estimate approved & signed: the customer approved and signed. A paid deposit arrives on this row too, as a notice titled "Deposit paid".
  • Estimate declined: the customer turned it down.

Each one has its own Text, Email and Push boxes.

On the phone app

Both settings pages are in the app. Open the menu, tap the gear, and under General tap Document notifications or Notifications. The layout and the switches are the same as on the web. The Estimates report with its Views and Last viewed columns is web only.

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