A CRM estimate (also called an opportunity estimate) is the price you build for a deal in Hive CRM. It lives on the opportunity's Estimate tab. This article is about CRM estimates for opportunities. It is not about time estimates on action cards or Resource estimates in Resourcing.
You can price each line by hours, as a fixed price, or as a fee. If you can see cost rates, Hive also shows the gross margin as you build.
If your workspace renamed "Estimate", the buttons below use your workspace's name instead.
Open the estimate
Open CRM and open the opportunity.
Select the Estimate tab.
If the opportunity has no estimate yet, select Build estimate. If it already has one, select Edit estimate.
You can also start from a dashboard. In the My opportunities widget's Estimate column, select Create estimate or Continue estimate. See Add a CRM Opportunities widget to a Dashboard.
Choose how to start
When you select Build estimate, choose one way to start:
Build by hand — start from a blank worksheet and add deliverables and line items yourself.
From a planning project — bring in a project's sections and cards as phases and deliverables, with one line per role priced at its bill rate. The project becomes the deal's delivery project, unless the deal already has one.
Draft with AI — create a first draft from the opportunity's details. The opportunity needs a description first.
Draft with AI saves right away. It replaces all saved lines and rewrites the deal's description with a summary. There is no confirmation step. The other two options save nothing until you select Save estimate.
To start from a planning project:
Select From a planning project, then Continue.
Under Planning project, search for the project and select it.
Select Use this project.
Review the lines, then select Save estimate.
You must be able to edit the planning project to save an estimate built from it. If you can only view the project, the save is refused.
Add line items
Each line has a Type. The type sets how Hive prices the line.
Type | How it is priced | Columns |
Hours | role × hours | Weeks, Hrs / wk, Hours, Bill rate (and Cost rate if you can see costs) |
Fixed price | qty × price | Qty, Unit price (and Unit cost if you can see costs) |
Fee | an amount in $, or a % of the included Hours and Fixed price lines (before tax; other fees and discounts don't count) | Amount |
To add a line:
In a deliverable, or at the bottom of the sheet, select Add line item.
Choose Hours, Fixed price or Fee.
For an Hours line, select the role in the Item cell. Hive fills in the role's bill rate.
Enter the hours, quantity or amount.
For a fee, use the $ / % switch beside the amount to choose a fixed amount or a percentage (0–100%).
To add a discount, select Add discount or credit.
To change a line's type, select its Type and choose a new one. Hive asks you to confirm if the line already has work in it, or explains why it can't change yet.
To roll a deliverable's lines into one fixed price, open the deliverable's More actions menu and select Convert to fixed price.
Organize the estimate
Select Add deliverable to group lines.
Select Group into phases in the Estimate options menu to group deliverables into phases. After that, use Add phase to add more, and Move to phase in a deliverable's menu to move it.
In the Estimate options menu, use Apply a template or Save as template to reuse an estimate.
Use Set billing in the Billing column to choose how a line is billed.
Clear Include to leave a line out of the proposal and out of the total price, margin, % fees and deal amount.
Check price and margin
The top of the estimate shows a summary that updates as you type:
Total price — the price of the included lines, before tax.
Gross margin — the price minus the cost. You see this only if you can see cost rates.
Margin limit — how much room you have, or how far short you are, against your workspace's margin limit. It also shows the lowest price that meets the limit.
If a line has no cost, the margin shows as unknown and the margin limit shows Needs a cost on every line. Hours lines need a cost rate; fees and discounts don't.
Set the margin limit: select Set a margin limit (or the pencil next to the limit), enter a percent from 0 to 99, then select Save. The limit applies to every estimate in the workspace. Leave the field blank to remove the limit.
Save the estimate
Select Save estimate. The Estimate tab then shows each line, the Estimate total and, if you can see costs, the gross margin.
The estimate total (included lines only) becomes the deal amount, unless someone set the amount by hand or the deal has a primary proposal. If the amount was set by hand, the estimate shows Amount overridden.
To undo your changes before you save, select Discard.
Updates to the planning project
If the deal has a linked delivery project, saving the estimate also updates the hours of the roles you changed on that project's cards. Resourcing then shows the new demand.
Hive skips cards that someone edited on the project since the last save, and cards planned with named people or a team. The save message tells you which cards were skipped.
Clearing the whole estimate never removes hours from the project. Deleting a single Hours line can remove that role's hours from its card.
If you can't edit the project, the estimate still saves. A message tells you the cards were not updated.
Hive does not update the project after the deal is closed (won or lost).
When the deal is won
Hive does not set the project budget by itself. When a deal is won without an accepted proposal, and its linked delivery project has no budget, the Delivery project card on the Estimate tab shows Budget baseline not set. Select Create budget baseline to use the estimate as the project's budget.
If you change the estimate after the baseline is set, the Delivery project card shows that the budget baseline differs from the estimate. The baseline does not change by itself.
If Create budget baseline doesn't work, the message tells you why:
"Link a delivery project to the deal first."
"Add lines to the estimate first."
The deal has a proposal, so the project's budget comes from the proposal when it's accepted.
The project already has a budget, so the estimate won't replace it.
Only an owner of the project or a workspace admin can set its budget.
To learn more about project budgets, see Budgets in Hive. To link a project, see Create or link a delivery project from CRM.
Who can do what
You need CRM access to open and edit estimates.
Cost, Cost rate, Unit cost, Gross margin and Margin limit show only to people with the Cost rates permission. By default, this is workspace admins.
Only people with the Cost rates permission can set or change the margin limit.
Everyone with CRM access sees Create budget baseline, but only workspace admins and owners of the linked project can create the baseline.
Good to know
Hours lines use the roles set up in Resourcing. If your workspace has no roles yet, you can't add an Hours line. Add roles in Resourcing first. See Using placeholders.
When a deal is closed, its estimate is read-only. Select View estimate to see it. A won deal with a proposal under revision (a change order) stays editable.
When a deal has a primary proposal, the proposal sets the deal's price. The Estimate tab then shows Open primary proposal and Edit initial assumptions. Initial assumptions only seed new proposals.
If someone else saves the estimate while you edit it, Hive keeps your draft. You can't save until you discard it and load the latest version.
Unsaved changes stay in your browser tab until you save or discard them.
Some workspaces build estimates from a product catalog. In those workspaces you see Add from catalog, and the start options, line types, phases, templates and Draft with AI don't appear.
To send the deal's proposal, see Send, share, and sign a proposal.