Booking & Payments

Booking an Estimate

Turn an accepted estimate into the booked move file that operations runs on, and unbook it if plans change.

When the customer commits, you book the estimate. Booking does not create a separate job record. The estimate itself becomes the Booked Estimate, the one move file that dispatch, warehouse, payments and documents all use, and its estimate number stays the permanent move number.

Before you book

  • A pickup date. Set the Estimated Pickup Day in the estimate's Pickup Schedule. Without it the booking dialog shows Pickup Date Required and will not book, even when the lead has a move date.
  • A service department. The estimate needs one of your company's active service departments.
  • A saved price. Booking uses the saved total, so click Update Estimate Total first if you changed the price.
  • The right version. Make sure this is the estimate the customer accepted, and ideally signed. See Sending Proposals and Signatures.

How to book

  1. Open the estimate. From the lead's Estimates tab it opens on its Estimate Dashboard.
  2. Click Book Estimate in the header.
  3. The Book This Estimate dialog shows the Estimate Total and Move Date, and lists what happens when you book: the estimate becomes the booked move file, a customer contact is created if one doesn't exist yet, the estimate is marked Booked, and it is ready for dispatch and scheduling.
  4. Click Confirm Booking.

The page refreshes with the estimate booked, and the header button changes to Unbook Estimate. Deposits already recorded on the estimate are reconciled into the booking in the same step.

In the rare case the storage assignment link does not finish, the portal says Booked, but needs attention. The booking is real and the payment totals are complete; only that one link needs a check.

More than one booked estimate

A lead is the customer, not a single move, so one lead can hold several booked estimates. Each one is its own move with its own number. Book a second estimate only for a genuinely separate move; for changes to the same move, work on the estimate that is already booked.

If the lead has a payment that is not yet assigned to an estimate, the portal stops a second booking and asks you to assign each pending payment to its estimate first.

After booking

  • Locked pricing. Inventory, cubic feet and pricing lock, and a banner across the top says so. Payments, dispatch, storage, insurance, addresses and notes stay editable. On a booked Local or Long Distance job, the Revision tab records what actually happened on the job (it needs the Submit job revisions permission).
  • Two statuses. The commercial status is Booked. The operational Status on the Estimate tab moves through the job: Awaiting Dispatch, Dispatched, Picked Up, In Storage, Ready for Delivery, In Transit, On Hold, Delivered, Completed or Cancelled. Only Cancelled cancels a job.
  • Pick-up and delivery. The Dispatch tab has a Pick-up leg and a Delivery leg. The Operations Calendar shows a pick-up card on the pickup date. A local crew delivery shows on its own date once Customer Service sets the Delivery date on Dispatch → Delivery. A carrier delivery never shows on the calendar or the Daily Board.

Unbooking

If a booked move has to go back to being a quote:

  1. Open the booked estimate and click Unbook Estimate.
  2. Type the Reason for Unbooking.
  3. Click Confirm Unbook, or Keep Booked Estimate to back out.

Unbooking returns the estimate from Booked to Quoted, moves the lead back into the active pipeline (unless the lead has another booked estimate), and takes the move off the calendar and the Daily Board routes. The reason is logged on the lead.

Unbooking is not cancelling. To cancel a move, set its Status to Cancelled.

You cannot unbook when:

  • an admin has turned on Block Unbooking Booked Estimates for you, or
  • the job is in storage and its storage is owed or still waiting for approval, unless it is marked as no storage charge.