This video shows you how to turn a fully configured project into a professional estimate document. You'll learn the complete workflow – from reviewing the calculation to applying discounts to exporting the finished document.
In the Overview tab of the Configuration area, you first review the overall calculation of your project. Three areas are clearly laid out: products from the catalog (with category, quantity, price type, and unit price), hourly effort from the project tree (based on work packages), and manual items for additional costs like printing, domain registration, or license fees. At the bottom, you see the totals with one-time project costs, recurring fees, and hourly effort.
Leadtime offers full flexibility for pricing. You can set discounts at different levels – on products, subscriptions, fixed prices, total hours, and manual items. Every discount immediately shows its impact on the total, which is especially useful during negotiations.
You create the actual estimate in the Documents tab. Every document is tied to a specific project version – no saved version means no document. You select the document type "Estimate," enter a title, set the status, and choose the contact person. Layout options like table of contents, title page, and numbered headings give the document a professional appearance. The "Indication" option marks the document as a non-binding cost estimate – ideal for initial conversations.
All positions are automatically filled from the project configuration. The finished document can be exported as DOCX and tracked internally through integrated status management (Draft, For Review, Accepted, Rejected). Through the versioning system, you can deliberately offer variants – for example, a Basic and a Premium estimate – and every change remains fully traceable.
In the last video, you used a project template in a real customer project. Requirements captured, products assigned, tickets created, everything versioned. Now the customer is waiting for an offer. In this video, I will show you how to turn your finished configuration into a professional estimate document. With line items, discounts, and an exportable document for your customer.
Before we create the estimate, let us look at the Overview tab in the Configuration area. This is where you see the entire calculation of your project at a glance.
The overview is split into three areas. At the top: products. Everything you assigned from the product catalog. WordPress Hosting, Premium Theme License, and so on. Each product with category, quantity, price type, and unit price.
Below that: components. This is the effort from the project tree. All work packages with their estimated hours. The sum forms the basis for the hourly portion of your estimate.
And then there are manual items. Not everything comes from the catalog. Sometimes you have external costs like printing, domain registration, or license fees. With "Create Position" you add these extra costs. Name, category, description, and price.
At the bottom you see the totals: one-time project costs, recurring fees, and hourly effort. So you always know exactly how the total price is composed.
Leadtime gives you full flexibility for pricing. You can set discounts at different levels: on products, on subscriptions, on fixed prices, on total project hours, and on manual items.
There are two types: a fixed amount, for example minus 100 euros. Or a percentage, for example minus 5 percent. Every discount immediately shows its impact on the new total.
This is especially useful during negotiations. The customer wants a better price? You give 5 percent off the project hours and instantly see what that means for the total. No spreadsheet, no calculator.
Now we create the actual estimate document. I switch to the Documents tab in the project and click "Create Document".
In the dialog, I go through the settings. First: the project version. Documents are always tied to a specific version. Without a saved version, you cannot create a document. This ensures the estimate references exactly the state you discussed with the customer.
Document type: Estimate. Then I enter a title, for example "Estimate Website Relaunch Bakery Mueller". I set the status to Draft. And I select the contact person at the customer's company. This person will appear as the addressee in the document.
Now the layout options. I can enable a table of contents, show a title page, and choose the heading style. Numbered headings are particularly helpful for larger estimates because they give structure and orientation.
There is also the indication option. This marks the document as a non-binding cost estimate. That is relevant when you want to give the customer an initial price range without committing contractually. In practice, many service providers use this for the first round of conversations.
Once the document is created, you see the full content on the right side. All positions are automatically filled from the configuration. Products with prices, project hours from the tree, manual items, discounts. You do not have to assemble anything manually.
The document can be exported as DOCX. A professional, formatted document that you can send directly to the customer. Or you save it internally and send it later.
For internal tracking, there is status management. You set the status to "Draft" during creation, then to "For Review" when it is with the customer, and finally to "Accepted" or "Rejected". In the document list, you can instantly see which estimate is in which status.
Here is where the versioning system shows its strength. Your estimate references a specific project version. The customer signs version 3.
Now the customer says: "We would like to add the online shop after all." You go back to the configuration, enable e-commerce, adjust the effort, add the additional products, and save a new version. Then you create a new estimate based on version 4.
You can also deliberately offer variants. A "Basic" estimate without shop on version 3 and a "Premium" estimate with shop on version 4. Both documents exist side by side in the document list and are always comparable.
Everything is traceable. Which estimate is based on which version, what changed in between, who accepted what. This is not just practical, it is also legally relevant.
From a configured project tree to a professional estimate in just a few clicks. Line items, discounts, layout, everything automatically filled and tied to a project version. Exportable as DOCX, traceable through status management.
In the next video, I will show you how to create a detailed specification document from the same project tree. The document that describes exactly what will be built.
