Email an estimate to your customer

The quickest way to get an estimate to your customer is to email it from Avaza. The email links to the online estimate, where your customer can see any attachments, download a PDF and approve or reject it. Your team is emailed when they answer.

Only Administrators and Finance Managers can send estimates. Emailing estimates and reminders isn't available on the Free plan.

Send the estimate

1. Go to Quotes/Estimates and open the estimate.

2. Click Send at the top.

   

3. Check Send as. The email shows this team member's name, and replies go to their email address. It's you, unless you pick another Administrator or Finance Manager.

4. Check the Recipients.
   The estimate's Customer Contact is already chosen. You can add the customer's other contacts or your Administrators and Finance Managers, or type any email address. Add people to copy in under CC(s). Each field takes up to six addresses.

5. Check the Subject and Message.
   They come from your estimate email template, with this estimate's details filled in. Changes here apply to this email only.

6. Leave Include PDF version of the Quote/Estimate ticked to attach the PDF, and Include links to Attachments in email ticked to list links to the estimate's attachments. Without the links, your customer can still open the attachments from the online estimate.

7. Click Send.

To change who's chosen first, set the Customer Contact when you fill out the estimate.

What your customer gets

• An email from clientestimates@mail.avaza.com, shown as "name via Avaza" with the Send as person's name. Replies go to that person, as with invoice emails. Ask your customers to add the address to their safe senders. See the email addresses Avaza uses.
• Your message, links to any attachments, the PDF and a View & Respond Online! button that opens the online estimate. You can rename the button under Estimate Unique Fields in your estimate template.

The online estimate always shows the estimate as it is now. If you edit it after sending, your customer sees the changes online, but the PDF in their email doesn't change. Send it again if they need the new PDF.

What happens next

• A draft estimate becomes Sent. Its Activity History records who sent it, and to which addresses.
• When your customer opens the email or views the estimate online, an eye icon appears in the Seen column of the Quotes/Estimates list, and the Activity History records it. Team members you include get their own copy, so opening it doesn't count as a view.
• You can click Send again at any time, for example after a change or for another contact. The status stays as it is.
• To chase an answer, choose Actions › Send Reminder. The popup works the same way, with a PDF tick box but no attachment links. It's offered once an estimate has been sent, until it's invoiced. Avaza doesn't remind customers about estimates automatically: automatic reminders are for invoices only.

Sent it another way?

If you gave your customer the estimate yourself, for example as a PDF from your own email (the way to do it on the Free plan), choose Actions › Mark as Sent on the draft. Pick the Date Sent (today or earlier) and click Mark as Sent. The estimate becomes Sent, and no email goes out. Your customer won't have the link to answer online, so record their answer with Mark as Accepted or Mark as Rejected.

Change the default email text

The subject and message start from the Send Estimate email template, and reminders from Send Estimate Reminder. Administrators and Finance Managers edit them in Settings › Email Templates. See available email templates. These placeholders fill in each estimate's details:

In the popup, [Web Estimate Link] still shows as the placeholder. It becomes the link when the email is sent.

The standard text doesn't mention the expiry date, and [Expiry Date] isn't in the Available Placeholders list, but Avaza fills it in if you type it into a template. If the estimate has no expiry date, [Expiry Date] stays in the text as it is, so set a date or delete the placeholder before you send.

While your account is new

For a few days after you sign up, or move up from the Free plan, the popup may say that estimate emails use the standard template. You can't edit the subject or message until the date it shows. Estimate, invoice and bill emails are also limited to a small number of recipients a day during that time. If you reach the limit, Avaza tells you when it lifts, and support can raise it sooner.