Estimates are created from the Sell screen and are designed to support the efficient and accurate provision of estimates to your clients.
When a client accepts an estimate it can be converted into a sale with a simple flick of a switch. If the customer changes their mind (and asks you to subsequently revise your estimate before proceeding with treatment) then you can simply flick the switch again and change the sale back to an estimate and so on.
Consultations can also be created estimates and open sales, so you don't have to go and create a consult from scratch when a customer accepts your estimate. Just click the green stethoscope icon next to your estimate and a new consultation will be created and will be pre-populated with information (i.e. client, patient, sale contents and notes) from your estimate.
Let's take a step by step look at how to create and send an estimate to a client and then how to turn that estimate into a consultation.
Creating an Estimate
To create an estimate, simply create a new sale as normal (see Creating and Managing Sales) and flick the Estimate slider (at the top left of the sale screen, as pictured below) to the right. That's it. Your sale is now an estimate.
Creating a Consultation From an Estimate
The green stethoscope icon appears to the right of any estimate or open sale in the 'Sales' view if three is not already a consultation associated with that sale.
If there is a consultation associated with the sale then the stethoscope icon will be blue, allowing you to open the associated consultation with a single click.
To create a consultation from the estimate, simply click on the green stethoscope. A new consultation will be created and will automatically be pre-populated with details from the estimate.
When you save the consultation the estimate will automatically be converted to an open sale and that sale will be linked to the the consultation.
Converting an Estimate to a Sale
To convert an estimate to a sale, simply flick the Estimate slider (see above) back to the left. If the slider is greyed out (as below) then you're looking at a sale.
You can also convert an estimate to a sale by clicking the blue 'Pay' icon from within the estimate. Panacea will ask you to confirm whether you want to convert the estimate to a sale (as below). If you click 'Yes' then the estimate will be automatically converted to a sale and the payment window will appear.
Sending Estimates to the Client
There are several options for sending estimates to the client:
Using the 'Send' function. This let's you email the estimate to the client directly from Panacea. The client must have a valid email address in Panacea for this to work.
Printing the estimate. Simply click the print icon from the 'Sales' view or from within the estimate itself.
Exporting the estimate to PDF. Click the export icon to export the estimate to PDF. It can then be manually emailed, printed or otherwise sent to the client using the method of your choice.