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How To Create Estimates



Estimates are where your measurements and product packages turn into a price. Exterio lets you generate several estimates at once — good, better, best — so you can put a real set of options in front of a homeowner instead of a single number.

When would I use this?

  • Finalizing a measurement and pricing the job
  • Building a good/better/best offering for a proposal
  • Adding an upgrade option to an existing proposal
  • Giving a homeowner a fast ballpark price without building a full estimate

Where do I create an estimate?

Three paths, all leading to the same Create Estimates modal.

  1. From a measurement you just finished

    Click Create Estimate in the bottom right after confirming your measurement. The measurements you came from are pre-selected as the source.

  2. From the Actions button

    Open the project, click Actions in the top right, and select Create Estimate. This is the fastest path when you're returning to a project hours or days after building the measurement.

  3. From the Estimates tab

    Open the project's Estimates tab and click Create New Estimate — from the middle of the tab or the button in the top right.

What's in the Create Estimates modal?

Two inputs:

  1. Measurements (Optional) — pre-selected if you came from building them. Coming from anywhere else, select the measurements you want to use, if any.

  2. Product packages (Optional) — your account's configured packages, which drive automated cost and price calculations for the services you commonly sell. Select one, or select several to build a good/better/best offering

  3. Measurement Name — Required if not built from a package, pre-filled for you if you do select based on package

  4. Work Type — Required if not built from a package, pre-filled for you if you do select based on package
  5. Estimate Type (Primary Offering or Upgrade) — Required if not built from a package, pre-filled for you if you do select based on package

What's the difference between a primary offering and a secondary upgrade?

Each package you select gets a designation:

Designation What it means
Primary offering The main service you're proposing
Upgrade Shown to the customer as an upgrade option

Both can be changed later, but setting them correctly here makes the proposal come together cleanly. On the proposal they will be displayed on different pages and sections.

 

How do I generate the estimates?

Once your packages are selected and designated, click Generate Estimates.

You land in the estimate editing experience, where you can adjust costs, margins, and price points for each one. All the estimates you created appear across the top row, with the detail for the selected estimate below.

 

How do I add another estimate later?

Click New Estimate from the editing experience. The same Create Estimates modal opens, and the new estimate joins the others in your proposal.

 

How do I create an estimate without a package?

Use this when you want to quote a price quickly, or build an estimate from scratch.

  1. Open the Create Estimates modal.
  2. Leave product packages and measurements unselected.
  3. Enter a name — required. Something specific like "Main House Roof Quote."
  4. Select the work type.
  5. Choose primary offering or upgrade (primary offering is the default).
  6. Click Create Estimate.

You'll land in a blank estimate — no materials, no labor, no standalone expenses. Any automated fees on your account are applied but carry no dollar value until there's something to calculate against.

From there you can:

  • Type in a price to give the customer a fast quote
  • Add items from your catalog one by one
  • Add custom items and build the estimate from scratch



Tips and gotchas

  • Create estimates straight from the measurement when you can. The measurement is pre-selected, which removes the step most likely to go wrong — attaching an estimate to the wrong measurement or none at all.

  • Generate your good/better/best in one pass. Selecting several packages at once is what this feature is built for. Homeowners presented with three options buy at higher rates than homeowners presented with one, and building them separately takes three times as long.

  • Set primary and upgrade designations now, not later. They're editable, but getting them right up front is what makes the proposal assemble cleanly instead of needing rework.

  • Name blank estimates specifically. "Estimate 2" tells nobody anything three weeks later. "Main House Roof Quote" or "Detached Garage — Gutters" does.

  • A typed-in price is fast, not free. Entering a number without underlying costs means no margin visibility — your estimate metrics have nothing to calculate from. Fine for a driveway ballpark; risky for anything you'd actually sign.

  • Packages are what make this fast. If estimating feels slow, the problem is usually an incomplete product package setup, not the estimating flow. Time spent configuring packages pays back on every job.