Send options and let the client pick what they want

An estimate that is one number asks the client to accept or argue. An estimate with a locked base and two optional packages asks them to choose. The choice is the sale. They tick print collateral because they want it, not because you talked them into it on a call. When the document comes back, you already know the scope, because they marked it.

Incusia estimates can be signed on the $9 plan. The client types their name or draws it. Either one counts. Tiers, a margin column, and taking a deposit at the moment they accept are Pro. If you only need a single price and a signature, stay on Starter. If the way you sell is 'base plus the things they might add', that is the Pro part, and the page should say so before you build the quote.

A locked base and prices that move with it

The base is the work you will not do the job without. It stays ticked. The client cannot remove it to 'just get the logo' if the logo was never the offer. Optional lines sit underneath with a price that can be a fixed amount or a relative one, so 'print' can be $850 or it can be a share of the base. Relative pricing matters when the base changes and you do not want to retype every add-on.

There are five estimate layouts: Classic, Modern, Studio, Trade, and Proposal. Proposal is the one written for scope, exclusions, and terms. Use it when the risk is a client who thought revisions were unlimited. The exclusions belong on the document they sign, not in a follow-up email they can say they never saw. Classic through Trade match the invoice layouts closely enough that the quote and the later invoice look like the same studio.

You can set an expiry date. After that date the link should not be treated as a standing offer. Say what happens if they accept late: you reissue, or you honour it, but do not leave it ambiguous. Automatic follow-ups nudge an estimate that has been opened and not signed. They are not a substitute for a conversation when the open count is high and the signature is missing. Silence after four opens is covered on client activity.

How they accept

Acceptance is a typed name or a drawn signature on the estimate. You do not need both. A typed name is enough for a client on a phone who will not draw with a finger. A drawn signature is there for the client who wants it to look signed. Incusia stores which one they used and when. It does not notarize the signature and it does not prove they were the person on the account if they forwarded the link. The link is the access. Send it to the person who can say yes.

A deposit on acceptance is Pro. The amount can be a fixed figure or a share of what they selected, so the deposit follows the packages they ticked rather than the base you first typed. The card is taken when they accept, not when you later remember to invoice. If the card fails, you do not have a deposit. Do not start the work on the assumption that a failed charge will clear itself. Recurring card retries are a different feature, on schedules, and they do not apply to a one-off estimate deposit.

If you are on Starter, you can still ask for a deposit. You ask in the terms and you invoice it, or you put bank details on the estimate. You do not get the charge at the moment of signature. That gap is the reason some jobs start before the deposit arrives. If that has already burned you, the Pro deposit is the specific fix, not a vaguer 'get paid faster'.

Only what they chose becomes the invoice

When you convert, the invoice carries the base and the options they ticked. The photography day they left unticked does not sneak onto the invoice because it was on the estimate. That is the whole point of options. If you want to bill something they did not choose, add it as a new line and be ready to explain it. Conversion is not a chance to widen the scope in silence.

The deposit they already paid shows against the invoice so you do not collect it twice. If they paid $650 on acceptance and the chosen total is $3,250, the invoice is for the remainder. Check that remainder before you send. A client who paid a deposit and then receives an invoice for the full amount will not pay it, and they will not be polite about it.

Margin columns are Pro and they are for you, not for the client. The client sees the price. You can see what the line costs you if you have filled that in. Do not turn the margin column on and then accidentally include it in a PDF the client receives. If you are not tracking cost, leave the column off. An empty margin column does not make you more professional. It makes the document look unfinished.

What an estimate will not settle

A signed estimate is not an invoice and it is not a contract review by a lawyer. Exclusions you forgot to write are not implied. Follow-ups stop if you turn them off, and they will not call the client. Incusia will not tell you the client is a credit risk. It will tell you, on Pro, how long this same client has taken to pay before, which is the useful version of that question and lives on the client record.

If the job is in another currency, set it on the client before you write the estimate, so the quote and the invoice use the same code and the same number format. That is 30+ currencies. Do not send a dollar estimate and a euro invoice unless the price actually changed and you said so.

A worked example. Harbor Co gets a base of $2,400, print at $850, and a photography day at $1,200. They tick print and leave photography off. They type their name. On Pro, a deposit is taken. You convert. The invoice has two lines, not three, and the deposit is already subtracted. You did not retype the scope. You also did not bill a day of photography they declined. That is the difference between a quote that is a menu and a quote that is a single number you then renegotiate in email.

How a week of quotes actually goes

Monday you duplicate last quarter's estimate for a client who wants the same shape of work. The saved lines fill in. You change the base from $2,400 to $2,800 because paper costs moved, and the relative print line moves with it if you priced print as a share. If print was a fixed $850, it stays $850 until you edit it. Know which one you used. Relative is right when the add-on should scale. Fixed is right when the printer quoted you a number that does not care what the design fee became.

Tuesday the client opens it twice and toggles print off and on. That toggle is an event, not a mood. They are pricing the package against their own budget. Do not immediately email 'just checking in'. Wait a day. If the open count climbs and the signature is still empty, then you call, and you ask which line is the problem. Guessing that they hate the whole price, when they only turned photography off, is how you discount the base for no reason.

Wednesday they sign. On Pro the deposit card either clears or it does not. If it clears, you can book the start date you wrote in the exclusions. If it does not, the estimate is accepted and the deposit is not in hand. Send the deposit invoice or ask them to retry before you book a printer. Acceptance without money is still a yes to the scope. It is not a yes to start spending your own cash.

Thursday you convert. Read the invoice lines against the ticked boxes. Base, print, no photography. Deposit subtracted. Due date matches the terms on the quote, not a new net 30 you typed out of habit. A due date that contradicts the signed estimate is the fastest way to get a 'this is not what I agreed' reply, and then the open count on the invoice climbs for a reason that is your fault.

Friday you file the signed estimate where you can find it, which is the client, not your downloads folder. When they ask in March what was included, you open the document they signed. You do not reconstruct it from chat. If a change comes in later, it is a new line on a new invoice or a revised estimate. It is not a quiet edit to the old PDF. Quiet edits are how both sides remember a different job.

Exclusions worth writing, in ordinary language: how many revision rounds, whether stock images are included, whether you attend the print check, what happens if they pause for more than a set number of days, and that a rush inside five business days is a different price. Those sentences are dull. They are also the sentences that stop a $400 argument. Proposal layout exists so those sentences have a place that is not a footnote in 8 point type.

If you sell only one price and you rarely add options, tiers will feel like ceremony. Use a single total and a signature on Starter and spend the time on the work. Tiers earn their keep when clients regularly say 'can we add the print' after you have already started, and you are tired of rewriting the quote in email. The menu lets them add it before you start, at a price you chose when you were calm.