The four documents
Crewfather makes four kinds of document, each numbered in its own sequence so you can find one by its number:
| Document | Number | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | EST-1001 |
What the work will cost, before you do it |
| Job ticket | JT-1001 |
What the crew needs on site |
| Material order | MO-1001 |
What to buy for the job |
| Invoice | INV-1001 |
What the customer owes |
A document’s number is fixed when it is created and never changes afterwards, so a number you have already given a customer stays correct.
Draft first
A new document is a draft. Drafts are yours: you can add and remove lines, change quantities and prices, and nothing leaves the workspace.
A draft is never sent anywhere and never syncs to QuickBooks. Only finished documents do.
Send it
When the document is right, send it to your customer from the document itself. Its status changes to sent so you can tell at a glance which invoices are out and which are still being written.
Tax, discounts and fees
Line items carry a quantity and a unit price. Discounts and tax are applied to the document, lines can be individually taxable or not, and you can add fees and choose per fee whether tax applies. The total your customer sees is the subtotal, less any discount, plus tax and fees.
That total is the one number everything else uses: the balance on the customer’s portal, what a payment settles, and what is reported as outstanding.
A document can also show a deposit due, for the job you will not start on a promise.
Estimates have two tricks of their own
- Optional add-ons. A line marked optional shows on the estimate but stays out of the total until the customer picks it, so one estimate carries the upsell without inflating the price.
- A valid-until date. An estimate expires on its own terms rather than borrowing an invoice’s payment terms.
An estimate does not even need a job to exist yet; see quote before there is a job.