Build and send Kickserv estimates from your notes

1. Open Jobs > Opportunities, select the opportunity under the New tab, then select Add a charge.
2. Pick an item from the drop-down or add a new one with the + icon, set description, price, quantity and taxable, and check Create another charge to keep going.
3. Select View Estimate, choose the Detailed or Summary document view and adjust notes and terms.
4. Select Send, add CC addresses, edit the subject and message, choose whether to include a PDF, then select Send Estimate.
5. A six-line quote means six charge forms, and a wrong quantity or a taxable flag on the wrong line is easy to miss before the customer sees the total.

Build the estimate for opportunity 1042 from my notes: 40 gal gas water heater $689, expansion tank $85, 3 hours labor at $95, haul-away $45. Show me the total, then send it to the customer and copy the office.

1. 01

   Check the opportunity is still open

   Your agent reads the opportunity with get_job. If the customer already approved an estimate, Kickserv has turned it into an unscheduled job, so the agent stops instead of adding charges to live work. Charges already on the opportunity are listed first, so a second run does not double them.

2. 02

   Map each line to your items

   Each line of your notes is matched to an item already in your Kickserv account, such as Labor or Haul-away, so reports group it correctly. A line with no matching item is added under the name you wrote and flagged in the summary.

3. 03

   Add the lines and watch the total

   add_charge runs once per line. After the last one the agent compares the running total with the sum of your notes; a difference, often from tax on a line you meant as non-taxable, stops the run before anything is sent.

4. 04

   Send only after you see the number

   send_estimate goes to the main customer with your Messaging Templates subject and message, plus any CC you named. You approve the send unless you switched confirmation off for this tool.

5. 05

   Follow up on silence

   Run later, list_opportunities shows which sent estimates are still not won, so the agent can list the ones worth a call or a resend.

Opportunity 1042, Lee Residence, Water heater replacement
Added 4 charges: 40 gal gas water heater $689.00, Expansion tank $85.00, Labor 3 h x $95.00, Haul-away $45.00
Subtotal $1,104.00, tax $63.21, total $1,167.21
New item created: Haul-away (no match in your items)
Sent to lee@example.com, CC office@example.com, PDF attached

• Kickserv moves an opportunity to the Estimate Sent tab when the estimate goes out, and to Estimate Viewed when the customer opens it.
• A Kickserv customer can approve the estimate or request a modification from the estimate page; a modification request appears in the Opportunity History, and approval turns the opportunity into an unscheduled job.
• Kickserv only moves an estimate to the Lost tab when someone marks it lost, so unanswered estimates stay under Estimate Sent or Estimate Viewed.
• A Kickserv estimate in the Summary document view shows the total and hides line quantities and prices; the Detailed view shows every line.
• With Stripe connected, Kickserv also sends the estimate to the customer as a text message.

send_estimate asks for your OK by default. To run it on a schedule without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Kickserv help: Estimates · Kickserv help: Event Type: Reminders · Kickserv API documentation

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/kickserv/add_charge \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"job_number":"1042","item":"Labor","description":"Remove old tank, install and test new heater","quantity":"3","price_per_unit":"95.00","taxable":false}'

{
  "job_number": "1042",
  "charge": {
    "item": "Labor",
    "quantity": "2.5",
    "price_per_unit": "95.00",
    "line_total": "237.50"
  },
  "total": "886.50"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is kickserv_add_charge. Example data.

• Add leads to Kickserv as opportunities
• Invoice completed Kickserv jobs and email the invoices
• Log check and cash payments on Kickserv invoices
• Kickserv API and MCP server: every tool
• All use cases