Your first job: estimate to paid invoice
Updated September 22, 2026
What this does
A job in LogMyRepair.app has three faces: an estimate (what you propose), a work order (what you're doing), and an invoice (what you're charging). The estimate and work order are one record that changes status; the invoice bills that record's lines directly. Nothing is retyped or copied. This article walks one job through all three and shows where the books get involved.
Before you start
Finish Setting up your shop, especially the accounting settings; the last step here fails without them. Have a customer and their vehicle in mind. You can create both on the fly.
Steps
1. Estimate
Go to Sales → Estimates and start a new estimate. Search for the customer or add a new one, pick their vehicle or add it, then add items. Each item is one of Labor, Parts, Fees, Sublet, Other, or a Discount. Canned jobs drop in a whole set of lines at once. Save.
From the estimate you can Download PDF, copy a share link the customer can open without logging in, or send it to them. When the customer says yes from the link, the job moves to Approved on its own; if they tell you in person, use Convert to Work Order. Either way it's the same record with the same number, now showing under Work Orders instead of Estimates.
2. Work order
Go to Sales → Work Orders and open it. Assign a bay and a technician, set the Promised Date, and set the status. Statuses run Estimate → Approved → In Progress → Waiting Parts / Awaiting Authorization → Ready for Pickup → Delivered → Invoiced → Paid, with Declined, Cancelled, and In Storage off to the side. The technician sees the job on their dashboard and the Shop Floor board once it's assigned.
As the job goes, add or adjust lines, source parts, attach inspection results, and keep two sets of notes: Customer Notes print for the customer; Internal Notes never leave the shop. When the work is done, use Create Invoice.
3. Invoice
Go to Sales → Invoices and open it. It's a Draft until issued: check the lines, tax, and Payment Terms, then send it by email, issue it without emailing, or just record the payment (which issues it first). Share it the same way as the estimate, or print it. When the customer pays, use Record Payment, choose the method, and enter the amount. Partial payments are fine; the invoice shows a Payment History and stays open until the balance is zero.
Invoice status is derived from money, not set by hand: Draft until issued, then Sent, Partial once something is paid, Overdue when past terms with a balance, Paid when the balance reaches zero, and Void if you cancel it. You cannot mark an invoice paid without recording the payment.
What happens in the books
Creating the invoice posts revenue and receivables: the revenue account on each line is credited (falling back to your default revenue account), sales tax goes to its liability account, and 1100 Accounts Receivable is debited for the total. Recording a payment credits receivables and, with the default Undeposited first setting, debits Undeposited Funds. The cash reaches your bank account in the ledger when you post a deposit under Accounting → Money In → Deposits. Voiding an invoice reverses its posting with an audit entry rather than deleting it.
Common problems
Create Invoice is refused. Almost always the accounting settings: Accounts Receivable and a default revenue account must be set under Accounting → Settings.
The customer can't open the share link. Share links are per document and can be regenerated from the document. Copy a fresh one.
I invoiced the wrong amount. Don't delete. Void the invoice from its page and create a new one from the work order; the void is recorded and the books stay clean.