Some quick definitions to have a common vocabulary:
A BID is a list of fees and expenses with a final price at the bottom indicating the client’s cost to have a job produced. When you and your client agree on a final number, that number is set in stone. It is now your responsibility to produce the agreed upon work for the agreed upon price.
An ESTIMATE is a list of fees and expenses with a final price at the bottom indicating what you think the job will cost to produce. It is different from a bid in that the final invoice total of the job may vary from the estimated total. Whereas with a bid you quote a number and the client pays you that amount, a job that you estimate for $15,000.00 may only cost $12,000 to produce. You will then only bill your client for the $12,000.00. Or if you find that the shoot goes over budget—or in our example over 15,000.00—you’ll need to get signatures for the overages.
There are two ways to transfer your final numbers to the invoice section after a job wraps: from the Production Module, or from the Estimate Module.
Estimate Workflow
When you transfer from the production module to the invoice, you are transferring the actual costs of the job based on the recorded receipts that were entered under each of the line items in the production module.
Bid Workflow
When you transfer from the estimate to the invoice, you are simply copying what was in the estimate. You can and should enter receipts into the production module with this workflow, it’s a great way to see how much money you made on the job. However you certainly don’t have to, especially if it’s a simple gig.
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