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The Calculator is the guided, step-by-step wizard you use to build an estimate for a job. You tell it who the customer is, what work areas are involved, and what items and services go into each one. As you go, it calculates the price for you and turns everything into a clean breakdown you can save, print, and (if proposals are enabled for your branch) send to the customer.
You don’t need to know any pricing math. The Calculator handles the numbers — your job is to describe the work accurately.

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Start a new estimate

1

Open the Estimates page

Go to Estimates from the main navigation. This is your home base — every estimate you’ve started or finished lives here, and you can search, filter, and reopen any of them.
2

Click New Estimate

Press the New Estimate button in the top-right corner. If your workspace offers estimates built from scratch, the Create Estimate window opens first: pick the Client and Project, click Continue, choose From Pricebook, and click Continue again. The Calculator wizard opens on a blank estimate, with the client and project already filled in. Otherwise, New Estimate opens the Calculator wizard straight away.
The From Scratch card in the same window skips the Calculator: you type in your own line items and prices on the proposal instead. See Create an estimate from scratch.
To pick up where you left off, just open the Estimates list and click the estimate you want. An estimate you built here reopens in the Calculator exactly where it left off. (An estimate created with the From Scratch option instead opens on its editable proposal, since it isn’t priced by the Calculator — see Create an estimate from scratch.)

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Walk through the wizard

The Calculator moves through a few steps. The buttons at the bottom of the screen — Back and Continue — carry you forward and back, and the final step’s button becomes Save Estimate.

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Step 1 — Client details and work area

The first screen has two parts. Client Details. Choose the Client Name and the project this estimate belongs to. You’ll fill in the rest of the customer and address details a little later. Choose a work area. Pick the area of the job you’re estimating (for example, an attic or a crawl space). You can search for one if your branch has a long list. After you pick a work area, you can:
  • Rename it with an optional custom name, so a breakdown with several similar areas stays easy to read.
  • Answer the work area factors — simple Yes / No questions about the conditions in that area. These help the estimate reflect the real job.

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Step 2 — Add items

Now you fill the work area with the actual items and services.
  • The category list on the side lets you jump between groups of items.
  • The search box finds an item by name.
  • Set the quantity for each item you want to include.
Need more than one area on the same estimate? Click Add Work Area and the wizard loops you back to pick another one and add its items. Repeat for as many areas as the job needs.
The Continue button stays disabled until the current work area has at least one item — that’s a gentle nudge that the area still needs something added.

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Step 3 — Job and inspection details (when enabled)

If your branch uses inspection reports, the wizard gives you a step to capture the fuller picture of the visit — job and customer details, property conditions, notes about what you saw, and anything the crew should know. Fill in what’s relevant and continue. (If this step isn’t part of your branch’s flow, the wizard simply skips it.)

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Step 4 — Review the breakdown

The last step is the Overall Job Breakdown. This is the complete, itemized summary of the estimate, including the calculated total price. Here you can:
  • Review the price and the line-by-line breakdown.
  • Choose the tax in the Tax row. A new estimate starts with your branch’s default rate (or TaxJar, if your branch uses it), and you can switch to another saved rate, a tax group, or No Tax. When tax applies, the breakdown adds Total Tax and Final Proposal Price After Taxes. See Sales tax for how it’s calculated.
  • Add another work area if you realize something’s missing.
  • Print the breakdown for your records or to hand to the customer.
  • Add Crew Notes with anything the team should know about the job.

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Helpful features

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Enhance crew notes with AI

When you write Crew Notes on the breakdown, AI can clean them up and round them out for you with one tap — see Enhance crew notes with AI.

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Record a ride-along

If you’re estimating in person, you can record the sales conversation and get AI coaching insights afterward — see Record a ride-along.

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Finish: save and sell

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Save the estimate

On the breakdown step, the main button becomes Save Estimate. Click it to save your work. The estimate now lives in your Estimates list, where you can reopen, print, or update it any time.
If you reopen and edit an estimate you saved earlier, you may be asked how to handle pricing when you save again:
  • Keep original pricing and settings — your changes to items, quantities, and details apply, but prices and labels stay exactly as they were.
  • Use up to date information — pull in the latest prices, labels, and settings.
When in doubt, Keep original is the safe choice.

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Turn it into a proposal

If proposals are enabled for your branch, you’ll see Generate Proposal on the breakdown step. This creates the polished, customer-facing version of the estimate that you can share. Once created, the button becomes View Proposal so you can open it again.

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Mark it sold

When the customer accepts, you mark the estimate as Sold from the Estimates list. “Sold” simply means the customer said yes — it’s how you and your team track which estimates turned into real, won work. If you ever need to correct when the deal actually closed, you can adjust the sold date on a sold estimate.
There’s a limit on how many estimates you can keep open at once. If you hit it, the Calculator will let you know — wrap up a few open estimates (mark them sold or set them aside) to free up room for new ones.

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What’s next

Find and reopen estimates

Everything you build lives on the Estimates page. Search, filter, and reopen any estimate to keep editing or to check its status.

Share a proposal

Turn a finished estimate into a client-ready proposal, then send it for the customer to review and accept.