When a customer wants options, you often need the same job quoted two or three ways: a good, a better and a best. Duplicate lets you build the estimate once and then copy it, so you only change the parts that differ instead of retyping the whole thing.

Where to find it

Go to Point of Sale > Estimates. Every row has a Duplicate button next to View. You will also find Duplicate at the top of any estimate's own page, next to Edit.

What happens when you click it

Manifold opens a brand new estimate form already filled in from the one you copied: the same customer, vehicle, line items, prices, tax setup, notes, salesperson and referral source. It gets its own estimate number, and the line under the heading tells you where it came from, for example "Copied from EST-0142."

Nothing is saved yet. The copy exists only on your screen until you click "Save as Estimate" at the bottom of the form. If you change your mind and navigate away, no estimate is created, and the estimate you copied is not touched either way.

Building good, better, best

  1. Build the middle option first, the one you expect most customers to take, and save it.
  2. Open it and click Duplicate. Take out the extras, adjust prices, and save that as the good option.
  3. Open the middle one again and click Duplicate a second time. Add the upgrades and save that as the best option.
  4. Print or email all three to the customer.

Each copy is a separate estimate

The copies are not linked to each other or to the original. Each one has its own number and its own status. That matters when the customer picks an option: clicking "Create Invoice" on the one they chose marks only that estimate Won. The other two stay Active until you close them.

To keep your Sales Pipeline honest, open the options the customer turned down and click "Mark as Lost". Otherwise they sit in the pipeline as open quotes nobody is ever going to answer, and your close rate will look worse than it really is.

Worth knowing

  • You can duplicate an estimate at any stage, including ones already marked Won or Lost. Copying one never changes it. This is the quickest way to quote a repeat job: find the estimate from last time and copy it.
  • Duplicate is available to anyone who can create or edit invoices, the same people who can click "+ New Estimate".
  • If your shop requires certain fields before an estimate can be saved (Settings > Invoicing) and the estimate you copied was written before that rule, the copy will ask you to fill the missing field in before it will save. Fill it in on the form and save again.
  • The copy starts fresh in every way that matters to your pipeline. It is Active, it has no payments against it, and if you use estimate auto-expire, its clock starts the day you save it rather than the day the original was written.