Create an estimate
Quote a job, get the customer's written approval from their portal, and convert it to a repair order in one click.
The customer wants a number before they say yes. An estimate prices the job without touching your inventory or your books — and when they approve, it becomes a repair order without retyping a thing.
Start the estimate. Click Service → Tickets, switch to the Estimates tab, and click New Estimate. (Or start a normal New Ticket and set Order Type to Estimate — same thing.)
Pick customer, vehicle, and complaint exactly as you would on a repair order — see Write a repair order for the details. Click Create Ticket.
Build the lines. Add labor from the labor guide and parts from the picker just like on a live job. The totals in the summary card are the quote. Nothing is reserved on the shelf — an estimate is a promise of price, not a claim on stock.
Hand it over or print it. Click Print at the top of the estimate for a signable paper copy with totals and signature lines — that's the counter path.
Or send it for remote approval. Open the customer's page and click Copy Portal Link (click Enable Portal first if the button offers it), then email or text the link to your contact. Their portal shows the open estimate with an Approve Estimate button; customers with a portal login see the same approval on their account.
Watch for the approval banner. When the customer approves, the estimate shows a green banner: "Approved by ... on ..." with the approver's name and date. That's your written authorization, stored on the order.
Convert it. Click Actions → Convert to Repair Order. Meridian creates the working ticket with all the lines carried over and opens it; the estimate itself locks as Converted and stays linked for the record. Now run the job as a normal repair order.
What happens behind the scenes
An estimate never moves money or stock: no inventory is reserved, nothing posts to your books, and it can't take a payment (the Take Payment button doesn't even appear). Approval stamps the customer's name and timestamp onto the order. Convert to Repair Order creates a new document, copies every line across without double-committing inventory, and locks the original as Converted — the audit trail keeps both. Only when the resulting repair order is finalized does revenue post.
Troubleshooting
Correct — estimates aren't billable. Convert to a repair order (or sales order) first; the converted document takes payments normally.
The estimate is already Converted, Closed, Expired, or Voided. An estimate converts exactly once — if it's Converted, follow the link to the ticket it became.
Check two things on the customer's page: the portal is enabled (the button reads Copy Portal Link, not Enable Portal), and you sent them the current link. Approval also only appears while the estimate is still open — an expired or closed estimate can't be approved.
The estimate goes to the customer as a printed/PDF copy (Print) or through their portal link. The Email Invoice action is for invoices on repair orders.
Related
Write a repair order
The advisor's core skill: open a ticket, capture the 3 Cs, build labor and parts lines, invoice the job, and take the money.
On-the-fly parts — cost in, price out
Key the cost of a part you bought for the job and let the customer's pricing matrix set the sell price. No mental math, margin captured.