> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.allshore.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.allshore.ai/clients-and-pipeline/estimates-and-pricing.md).

# Estimates & pricing

An **estimate** is a saved ballpark quote — a real artifact with a real number on it, produced before any statement of work exists, so a prospect can take it to their own finance team.

**An estimate binds nothing.** It creates no contract rate, no placement, no invoice. It's a record of what you quoted.

## Building one

An estimate is a set of lines. Each line is a role and how much of it:

**line total = rate × hours per week × weeks × headcount**

Your **rate card supplies the default rate** for a role, and you can quote something else: put a different rate on the line and it's recorded as an override, or quote a role that isn't on the card at all. Each line remembers which of the three it was — card rate, override, or off-card — so a quote can be read back later without guessing whether an unusual number was deliberate.

Hours per week must land on a quarter hour (37.5 and 20 are fine; 37.333… is not) — that constraint exists so the arithmetic can't drift by a cent at a rounding boundary in a figure a client reads.

Two things the calculation deliberately does *not* do:

* **No overtime multiplier.** Hours past a standard week are quoted at the same rate; a ballpark is a ballpark, and the SOW carries the real overtime terms.
* **No pipeline weighting or probability discount.** The number is what you'd charge, not a forecast.

Money is rounded **once per line**, half up, and the estimate's subtotal is the exact sum of those line totals — never re-derived. That's why an estimate's line items always add up to its total, which is the sort of thing a prospect's finance team notices.

## Margin preview

Before you send a number, you can check what it's worth: supply your expected cost rates and the preview returns revenue, cost, margin, and margin percentage — per line and overall. It's a what-if on the estimate, not a stored figure.

## Draft and sent

Estimates are saved on the client and listed there with their sends.

An estimate stays **draft** until a proposal carrying it is accepted by the email provider *and* the estimate still matches what was actually sent. Two things follow:

* If the summary fails to render, delivery fails, or email isn't configured, the estimate stays draft.
* If you **edit the estimate while a proposal is in flight**, the delivered proposal is recorded as sent but the estimate stays draft — because what's now on screen isn't what the client received. The send is marked as having been superseded, so the two records don't quietly disagree.

So a draft estimate with a delivered proposal against it isn't a bug: it means the numbers moved after that proposal went. Send again if you want the current figures on record with the client.

See [Proposals & collateral](/clients-and-pipeline/proposals-and-collateral.md) for how to read a send's outcome.


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