Convert an approved estimate to an invoice or a project

Once an estimate is approved, it can become money two ways. Convert to Invoice turns the whole estimate into one invoice — right for jobs billed in a single shot. Create project turns it into a project where the estimate is the signed contract and the money is billed milestone by milestone — right for bigger jobs with staged payments. Recording a deposit payment also converts automatically, so you rarely need the manual button when money already moved.

Before you start

• The estimate must be Approved — by the customer signing online, or by you clicking Approve on a sent estimate.
• Converting requires permission to edit estimates and create invoices; creating a project requires project-create permission.

Option A — Convert to a single invoice

1. Open the approved estimate.
2. Click Convert to Invoice.
3. Dispatch Bros creates an invoice with the same line items, totals, and customer, and takes you to it. The estimate keeps a permanent link to it — the button becomes View Invoice, and once the customer pays, the estimate row on the list shows a green Paid chip.

If a deposit was paid first, conversion already happened at that moment with the deposit recorded on the invoice — see collecting a deposit.

Option B — Create a project (milestone billing)

1. Open the estimate and click Create project.
2. The project is created with the estimate's value as the contract amount, and you're taken to the project to build its payment schedule (project milestones).
3. From then on, the estimate page shows a link reading Part of a project — invoice from its milestones. The estimate stays the signed scope document; each milestone mints its own invoice.

A key protection: once a project has a payment schedule, the estimate can no longer be converted into one full-total invoice — that would bill the same money twice. Deposits paid against a project's estimate are billed as the project's first milestone instead.

Partial invoicing from line items

You can invoice a subset of an estimate at any time, without converting:

1. On the estimate page, click line items to select them (or right-click a single item).
2. Choose Create invoice for this item (or the selected-items variant) from the menu.
3. A separate draft invoice opens in a new tab with just those items — the estimate itself is untouched.

There's also New version of this estimate in the same right-click menu if the customer wants changes instead (versions).

Troubleshooting

• No Convert to Invoice button — the estimate isn't approved yet, was already converted (look for View Invoice), or belongs to a project (look for Part of a project — invoice from its milestones).
• Conversion is refused for a scheduled project — by design. The project's milestones own the billing; invoice from the milestone schedule instead.
• You don't have permission — converting and partial invoicing require invoice-create permission; ask an owner or admin.
• You converted but need changes — edit the resulting draft invoice directly; the estimate is locked once converted. If the scope itself changed mid-job, use a change order.