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How Estimates Work in Zenbooker
How Estimates Work in Zenbooker

How to send bookable quotes to customers to let them schedule their service

Updated over 2 months ago

Overview

Estimates in Zenbooker offer an easy way to provide your customers with a price quote that they can schedule at their convenience. Creating an estimate is similar to creating a job, but instead of scheduling the time yourself, your customer receives a link where they can view the details and pick a time that works for them.

Creating an Estimate

  1. Go to the Estimates tab

  2. Click New Estimate

  3. Search for an existing customer, or create a new customer

  4. Add services to the estimate and adjust pricing if needed

  5. Optionally, set booking constraints like how much time is required.

  6. Optionally, assign a provider to an estimate to make the scheduling link only take into account the provider's availability (if you availability policy is set to Based on Provider Availability).

  7. Under Estimate Options, customize the estimate's name and optionally add a custom memo and terms that will be visible to the customer

  8. Click Send Booking Link

Your customer will receive a link that allows them to:

  • Review all included services and see pricing

  • Select from available time slots

  • Complete their booking

How a scheduling link for an estimate appears when first loaded for a customer

How a scheduling link for an estimate appears when first loaded for a customer


Payments for Estimates

To collect payments or payment method details with estimates, you must connect your Stripe account to Zenbooker.

When creating an estimate, you can choose to collect payment details or charge the customer when they book. For every estimate you create, you can choose from three payment settings:

  • No Payment Required (default): Customers can book without providing payment information

  • Collect Payment Details: Collect payment information during booking for later charging

  • Charge at Booking: Collect full payment or deposit when customer books

Configuring Accepted Payment Methods

Zenbooker supports a number of payment methods through your Stripe integration, including credit cards, digital wallets, and buy now, pay later options.

You can manage which payment methods should be presented to customers in Settings > Payments > Payment Methods for Bookable Estimates.

In some situations, certain payment methods may not appear for customers when booking an estimate. For instance, if you're collecting payment details to charge later for an estimate, payment methods that don't support charging later won't be displayed.

Sending the Estimate to Customers

When creating an estimate, you can choose how it will be sent to the customer. In the Customer panel under Notification Preferences, you can toggle SMS and email notifications on or off.

The notification template used for generating the messages can be edited in Settings > Client & Team Notifications.

The ability to toggle off SMS and email notifications when creating an estimate means that if you want to send the scheduling link via a custom channel outside of Zenbooker, you can simply create the estimate but toggle off SMS and email. Then after creating it, you'll be able to copy the URL to share with the customer.

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