Estimates, sales receipts, customers and products

This article covers the rest of the Sales module: quotes you send before the work is agreed, sales that are paid on the spot, the customers and items you bill for, and how your documents look.

Estimates

Send a quote, get it accepted, then turn it into an invoice.

Tour of the Estimates list

The totals show the value awaiting a reply, the value accepted and ready to invoice, your win rate, and the number of drafts. The tabs follow an estimate through its life.

Create an estimate

Click New estimate. The form works like an invoice, with a few differences.

• Estimate number. Tabby suggests the next one.
• Currency. USD, CAD, EUR, GBP or AUD.
• Estimate date and Expiry date. The customer can accept until the end of the expiry day.
• Customer, Products & services, Sales tax and Class work the same way as on an invoice.
• Message & terms. A message to the customer, your terms and conditions, and any remarks.

Click Save and send to email it, or Save estimate to keep it as a draft.

Add a discount

In the Estimate summary, click Add discount. Enter a value and choose % or $. The total updates as you type. Click the × to remove the discount.

Collect payment on acceptance

To take payment when the customer accepts, turn on Collect payment with Stripe when accepted. Accepting the estimate then creates a Stripe-hosted invoice for the customer to pay.

• Payment type. Full amount, Deposit (50%) or Deposit (25%).
• Who pays the card processing fee? Business absorbs, or Customer pays.
• Internal notes. Only your team sees these. They never appear on the estimate.

Convert an estimate to an invoice

Open the estimate's row menu and choose Convert to invoice, or click Convert to invoice in the summary of a sent or accepted estimate.

Tabby copies the customer and lines into a new invoice and opens it for you to review and save. The estimate moves to Invoiced.

The same menu lets you Edit, Preview, Duplicate or Delete the estimate.

Sales receipts

When to use a sales receipt

Use a sales receipt when the customer pays at the time of the sale. It records the sale and the payment together, so there's no invoice to chase.

The totals show your sales in the last 30 days, the amount received, any balance still due and your average sale. The tabs split the list into Paid in full and Balance due.

Create a sales receipt

Click New sales receipt. Choose the customer and add lines the same way as on an invoice. Then fill in the Payment section.

• Payment method. How the customer paid.
• Reference number. Optional, such as a check number.
• Deposit to. The account the money went into.
• Amount received. Leave it blank if the customer paid the full amount.

Under Message & notes you can add a message that prints on the receipt and internal notes that don't.

Click Save and send to email the receipt, or Save receipt to record it without sending.

When the customer pays part

If the customer paid less than the total, enter what they paid in Amount received. The summary shows the Balance due, and the receipt appears under the Balance due tab until you update it.

Customers

Tour of the Customers list

The totals show how many customers you have, their combined open balance, how much of it is overdue, and what they paid in the last 30 days. The Open balance tab lists only customers who owe you money.

Add a customer

Click New customer. Only the contact name is required, but an email lets you send documents.

• Contact name and Company name.
• Email. Invoices and receipts are sent here.
• Phone and Mobile.
• Default payment terms. New invoices for this customer start with these terms.
• Additional contacts. Click Add contact for people who should get copies of invoices, like an accounts payable team.
• Billing address. Tabby uses the state to suggest a sales tax rate.
• Shipping address. Leave Same as billing address ticked, or untick it to enter another.

Set a customer's sales tax

At the bottom of the form:

• Tax status. Taxable, or Exempt for customers who don't pay sales tax. For an exempt customer, choose the reason (Resale, Nonprofit / exempt organization, Government or Other exemption) and add the certificate and its expiry date if you have them.
• Default rate. Leave it on Automatic (state default) to use the default for the customer's state, or choose a specific rate.

Start a document from a customer

Open a customer's row menu to start a New invoice, New estimate or New sales receipt with that customer already filled in.

Edit or delete a customer

Click a row, or choose Edit in the menu, to change a customer. Delete removes a customer only if they have no invoices, estimates or sales receipts. If they do, Tabby tells you the customer can't be deleted.

Products & services

A product or service is something you sell. When you pick one on an invoice, estimate or receipt, its description, price and tax setting fill in.

Tour of the list

The totals show how many items you have, your best seller, your average price and how many items are taxable. Use the Services and Goods tabs to narrow the list.

Add a product or service

Click New item.

• Type. Goods for something you sell and may keep in stock, or Service for time or work you bill for.
• Name.
• Description. Shown under the name on invoices, estimates and receipts.
• Price and Unit. The unit can be Each, Per hour, Per day, Per month, Per year or Per project.
• Income category. Where sales of this item are recorded in your books.
• Sales tax. Taxable or Not taxable. For a non-taxable item, choose why: Not taxable item, Resale or Exempt product. Invoices use the customer's rate on taxable lines.

Click Save item.

Edit, duplicate or delete an item

Use the row menu to Edit, Duplicate or Delete an item. Deleting an item doesn't change documents you've already created. The lines on them stay as they are.

Tax rates

The Tax rates entry in the Sales menu has an arrow because it leaves the Sales module. It opens the Rates settings under Taxes, where you manage your sales tax rates and registrations. On documents, Tabby picks the rate from the customer, and you can see or change it in the Sales tax section of each document.

Customize documents

One set of design settings applies to every invoice, estimate and sales receipt. Click Customize at the top of any of those three lists, or inside a document.

Template

Choose Classic, Modern or Minimal.

Column labels

Rename the columns to suit how you bill:

• Item column: Item, Product, Service or Description.
• Quantity column: Qty, Quantity, Hours or Units.
• Price column: Rate, Price, Unit price or Hourly rate.
• Tax column: Show tax or Hide tax.

Brand

• Business name. Printed at the top of each document.
• Brand color. Pick a swatch or enter a hex code.
• Logo. SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF, up to 800 × 400 px.
• Footer text. For example "Thank you for your business!"

Tabby branding

"Powered by Tabby" appears in the footer of your PDFs. Upgrade to a paid plan to remove it.

Click Save settings when you're done. Use Preview on any document to check the result.

Import and export

Import a list

Click Import at the top of a list and upload a CSV file with a header row, up to 10 MB.

• Customers. Tabby matches the columns Name, Company, Email, Phone, City and State, and skips customers you already have.
• Products & services. Tabby matches Name, Type, Price and Description, and skips items you already have.
• Invoices, estimates and sales receipts. Tabby Talk maps the columns from your spreadsheet or old software and adds each one as a draft for you to check.

Export a list

Click Export to download a CSV of what's on screen. The export follows your current tab and search, so filter first if you only want part of the list.

Common questions

Does deleting a customer delete their invoices?

No. Tabby won't delete a customer who has invoices, estimates or sales receipts.

Updated on: 07/10/2026