Estimates, Quoting, and Work Order Life-cycles

A quote is an exact, fixed price for a specific amount of work and an estimate is an informed guess or approximation of a project's cost, based on limited information. Estimates may change, but quotes do not.

Job codes in estimates can be adjusted at a later date, which impacts the cost of the estimate. But when you enter a job code in a quote, that price is now set.

Estimate or Quote Life-cycle

The stages of an estimate or quote are: 

  1. Creation

    • An estimate or quote is prepared, outlining expected labor, parts, and costs.

    • IntelliDealer provides these options for using estimates and quotes:

      • For a formal process, use IntelliDealer's estimate and quoting system, available on the Work Order Quoting/Parts Quoting.

        • The estimate or quote now has the Quote Status of Pending.

        • You can email or print the estimate or quote to send it to the customer, which updates its Quote Status to Quoted.

      • For an informal process, you can input an estimate or quote into the work order's Quote/Estimate tab.

      You can chose to use either option, depending on your requirements for the work in question.

  2. Approval / Authorization

    • The customer (or internal manager) reviews and approves the estimate.

    • If the quoting system is used:

      • The IntelliDealer user accepts the quote.

      • IntelliDealer creates a work order and propagates the quote data into the Quote/Estimate tab.

      • The Quote Status is now Accepted.

  3. Archive

    • The value of the quote or estimate is saved, for reporting purposes, into the related work order.

Work Order Life Cycle

Work orders created from an approved estimate or quote have an initial state that is one of Customer, Internal, or Warranty. Any these states indicates that the work order is now open and active and that the quote or estimate has shifted to the work order life-cycle, which is: 

  1. Active ( Customer, Internal, or Warranty)

    • In the active state, parts are ordered.

    • Labor is tracked against the original estimate or quote and the difference is saved into a Quote Adjustment account.

    • As each segment of work is completed, technicians update the status to Signed Off.

    • A supervisor reviews Signed Off segments and either adds more work, if required, or moves the segment to Closed.

  2. Closure

    • Once all segments are completed and reviewed, the work order is closed and ready for billing. See Close Work Orders.

    • In some OEM integrations (for example, Vermeer), work order data is transmitted to external systems only after closure.

  3. Invoicing and Billing

    • The closed work order is billed out; an invoice is generated and sent to the customer. See How to Collect a Deposit.

    • For work orders that are invoiced with third-parties, the work order is locked from further edits.

    • As soon as the work order is processed by billing it moves to invoice history.

  4. Post-Closure and Analysis

    • The work order and its estimate or quote are used for reporting, analysis, and future quoting accuracy.

    • You can review variances between estimated and actual costs for process improvement. See Service Reports: Quote Gain or Loss.

Revision: 2025.10