Use this article when an estimate has calculated correctly inside Estimator but something goes wrong at the boundary — Export fails, the quote letter PDF disagrees with the app total, or the downstream MIS receives incomplete or incorrect data. After this you will have identified whether the cause is in the Estimator configuration, the receiving endpoint, the PDF surface, or the MIS ingestion, and you will know which per-cluster troubleshooting article carries the full diagnosis.
Quick diagnosis table
Symptom | Check (where to look) | Fix (action) | Verify (what you'll see) |
Export is not visible on a calculated estimate. | Open Estimate Setup → Settings → Connections and read Connection enabled plus the Triggers list. Confirm the user role includes export permission. | If Connection enabled is off, turn it on. If Manual is missing from Triggers, add it. If the user role lacks export, an administrator grants it. Save changes. | The Export button appears in the header actions of the calculated estimate. |
Export returns an error toast or Export Log shows a Failed entry. | Open Export Log, locate the failed entry, and read the response the MIS returned. Run Test connection under Connections. | If Test connection returns Test failure, fix the URL or credential. If the MIS rejected the payload itself (missing required additional field, invalid value), correct the value in the dialog and retry. See Why an export failed. | The new Export Log entry reads Success and the MIS team confirms the job ticket arrived. |
Export Log records Success but the MIS team reports nothing landed. | Open the Success entry in Export Log and read the payload and timestamp. Ask the MIS team to check the receiver's ingestion log for the same timestamp. | The mapping in the MIS receiver is the issue — the MIS team adjusts the receiver, not the Estimator configuration. Confirm Estimator is posting to the URL the MIS owns, not to a stale test endpoint. | The MIS receiver logs the same timestamp and produces the expected job ticket. |
Quote letter PDF total differs from the app total on the same estimate. | Open the estimate, read the price breakdown, then open the quote letter and compare. Confirm the PDF was generated against the current estimate revision and not an older one. | If the PDF was generated before a recent edit, re-generate it. If the PDF differs from the calculation itself (tax line, currency rounding), see Troubleshoot unexpected price or missing step. | The PDF total matches the app total. The PDF generation timestamp aligns with the latest calculation. |
Exported payload total differs from the price breakdown. | Open the Export Log entry, read the payload total, and compare it to the price breakdown. Ask the MIS team whether post-receipt rules (tax, rounding, currency conversion) apply. | If the MIS applies its own rules after receipt, the difference is expected. If the difference is on the quote itself, fix the quote before re-exporting; see Troubleshoot unexpected price or missing step. | The payload matches the breakdown, and the MIS's post-receipt adjustments fully explain any remaining difference. |
Automatic export never fires for an estimate that reached a trigger status. | Open Connections and read the Triggers list. Open the estimate and confirm the current status. | Add the missing status to Triggers and Save changes. Note that triggers do not back-fill — run a manual export on already-passed estimates. | The next estimate that reaches the trigger status produces an Export Log entry without anyone selecting Export. |
Example 1 — Quote letter PDF disagrees with the app after a manual adjustment
Northgate Press calculates a 5,000-run Folded Leaflets estimate on Silk 115gsm SRA1. The estimator applies a small manual adjustment to round the final price down and saves the estimate. The sales rep generates the quote letter PDF an hour later and emails it to the customer. The customer notices the PDF total is €4 higher than what the rep quoted on the phone.
Diagnosis: The estimator opens the quote and the price breakdown shows the adjusted total. The rep opens the PDF that was sent and confirms the PDF total reflects a pre-adjustment value. The PDF was generated against an older revision of the estimate, before the manual adjustment.
Fix: Re-open the estimate, confirm the price breakdown is current, and re-generate the quote letter PDF. Replace the version sent to the customer.
Verify: The freshly generated PDF total matches the price breakdown. The customer's expected price and the PDF agree, and Export Log (if export already ran) can be re-run from the corrected estimate to push the new value downstream.
Example 2 — Won estimates are not reaching the MIS automatically
Northgate Press wants every estimate that flips to Won to push to the external MIS without an estimator clicking Export. The MIS team reports that won estimates arrive sporadically — sometimes within seconds, sometimes never.
Diagnosis: The administrator opens Estimate Setup → Settings → Connections and reads the Triggers list. Manual and Quote: Accepted are present, but Quote: Won is missing. The estimates that do arrive are the ones that pass through Quote: Accepted first; the ones that skip straight to Quote: Won never trigger an automatic export. The administrator opens Export Log and confirms there is no entry for the skipped estimates.
Fix: Add Quote: Won to the Triggers list and Save changes. For the historical estimates that already flipped to Won before the trigger was added, run a manual export on each from the estimate page — triggers do not back-fill.
Verify: The next estimate that flips to Won produces an Export Log entry within seconds, without anyone selecting Export. The MIS team confirms job tickets land consistently for both Accepted and Won routes.
What if this didn't fix it?
If Connection enabled is on, Test connection succeeds, the Triggers list covers every status that should push, every required additional field carries a real value, the PDF is regenerated against the current estimate revision, and the symptoms still persist, the issue is in the calculation logic, the PDF rendering layer, or the MIS ingestion rather than the Estimator configuration. Open a support request and include: the estimate ID, the Export Log entry ID (if relevant), the MIS response, and a brief summary of what you have already verified. If the symptom is the calculation itself producing a value you cannot explain, see Troubleshoot unexpected price or missing step.