EG Quote & Invoice turns Excel into a complete quoting and invoicing system for trades and contractors. This guide covers setting it up, sending your first quote, tracking what you’re owed, and managing your license.
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Getting started
- If you used the setup program, the workbook is already in Documents\ExcelGurus\EG Quote & Invoice: open it from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut. If you downloaded the workbook on its own, as on a Mac, save it somewhere permanent first: your Documents folder, or anywhere you back up. Don’t work from the Downloads folder.
- Open it in Excel for Windows or Excel for Mac (Microsoft 365 or Excel 2024). If Excel asks about macros, enable them (on a Mac, click Enable Macros); this is a one-time step per file. A copy installed with the trust box ticked normally opens without asking.
- You’ll land on the Home page. Everything else is reached from there.
Setting up EG Quote & Invoice
Your company details
Go to Home → Settings and fill in your company name, address, phone, and email. These appear on every document. Add your logo using the pencil icon on the document itself. While you’re there, set your currency symbol and whether it sits before or after the amount, your date format, your default tax rate, and your payment terms (which drive invoice due dates).
Adding and managing clients
Home → Clients holds your customer list. Enter a client once and their details fill in automatically on every future document.
- Add client creates a record; Edit opens an existing one.
- Terms (in days) sets the due date on that client’s invoices.
- Archive hides a client you no longer work with, without deleting their history.
- Import clients brings in a list from a spreadsheet. Use Download template first so the columns line up.
Products & pricing
Home → Products is your price list: materials, labor rates, service fees, equipment. Give each item a cost and a pricing rule and the selling price is worked out for you.
| Pricing mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Price | You enter the selling price directly. |
| Markup % | Cost plus a percentage of cost. $42 cost at 55% = $65.10. |
| Margin % | Priced so the margin is that share of the sale. $58 cost at 40% = $96.67. |
| Markup $ | Cost plus a fixed amount. $9.50 cost plus $12 = $21.50. |
Mark each item Taxable or not: labor and service fees often aren’t taxed while materials are, and the totals handle the mix correctly.
Quotes & invoices
Building a document
From Home, click New Quote or New Invoice. In the builder:
- Add Item adds a line: pick a product by SKU, or type a one-off line.
- More lines extends the table when a job needs it.
- The pencil icons edit the client, the ship-to address, and the document details.
- Preview shows exactly what your customer will see.
- Finalize locks the document; Edit unlocks it again if something changes.
- Duplicate starts a new document from this one, useful for repeat work.
Profit & margins
The panel to the right of the builder shows what the job actually earns you, before you send it: total cost, total margin, and average margin %, plus the cost and margin on every line. Your customer never sees any of it.
Use the bulk actions to re-price every line at once by Price, Markup %, Margin %, or Markup $. Per-item mode prices each line on its own rule; Blanket applies one rule across the whole document.
Sending a quote or invoice by PDF or email
- Print / PDF produces a PDF exactly as your customer will see it.
- Email opens a message with the document attached, using your saved template.
- On a Mac, Print / PDF asks where to save each PDF (the first time you save into a new folder, macOS may ask you to let Excel use it), and Email saves the PDF, then opens a new message in your Mac’s email app: attach the PDF yourself.
- Edit the templates in Settings: double-click any subject or body box. Placeholders such as
{Client},{Number},{Total}and{DueDate}fill in per document.
Recording payments and tracking overdue invoices
Open an invoice and click Payments to record what’s come in: date, amount, method, and a reference such as a check number. Status then follows the money on its own:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Still being worked on. Not counted as owed. |
| Finalized | Sent to the customer, nothing paid yet. |
| Partially Paid | Some payment received, balance outstanding. |
| Paid | Settled in full. |
Past-due invoices show the due date and days late in red on the Home list, and the Outstanding tile totals everything you’re still owed.
Labels & language
Settings → Labels & language editor controls every label printed on your documents. Pick a language (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, or Polish) and the labels fill in. Type your own wording in the Your text (override) column for any label and yours always wins, which is also how you set up a language that isn’t on the list.
Reading the Reports dashboard
Home → Reports summarizes your activity over a date range (this year, last year, trailing 12 months, all time, or a custom range) with document counts and amounts by month, plus a revenue and tax summary.
What Pro adds
The free version has no limit on how many quotes and invoices you create. Pro is a one-time purchase that adds three things:
- Your branding only: removes the small “Created with ExcelGurus” line from every document.
- Year-end tax pack: exports documents, line items, and payments for any date range, with totals by month for your accountant.
- Overdue reminders: the Remind link on any late invoice drafts a reminder email from your template.
Your license
Activating your license
- Go to Settings → License.
- Enter the license key and the email address from your purchase confirmation.
- Click Activate. Pro features unlock immediately.
Using your license on two computers
Your license covers two computers: a desktop and a laptop, for example. Activate on each with the same key.
Moving to a different computer
On the computer you’re leaving, go to Settings → License and click Deactivate. That frees the slot, and you can then activate on the new machine. Deactivating needs an internet connection so the slot can be released on our side.
Using the tool without an internet connection
The workbook checks in with our license server occasionally to confirm your license is still valid. You can work offline in between: it only needs a connection now and then.
Troubleshooting
The buttons don’t do anything
Macros aren’t enabled. See how to enable macros. It’s the most common issue by far.
“This license is registered to another computer”
Your key is already active on two machines, or this computer’s hardware changed. Deactivate on a machine you no longer use, or contact support.
Activation says the server can’t be reached
Check your internet connection and try again. Corporate firewalls sometimes block it. Try from a home connection, or contact us.
Pro features are still locked after buying
Make sure you’ve activated: Settings → License, then enter the key and the email you purchased with.
I’ve lost my license key
It’s in your purchase confirmation email. If you can’t find it, find your license key with the email address you bought with and the receipt number from your Stripe receipt. If that does not find it, message us from the address you bought with and we’ll resend it.
Uninstalling EG Quote & Invoice
If you installed with the setup program, remove EG Quote & Invoice the way you remove any Windows program. If you downloaded only the workbook file, as on a Mac, there is nothing to uninstall: delete the file when you no longer need it.
- Close the workbook in Excel.
- Open Windows Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps (on Windows 10 and early Windows 11: Apps & features). Find EG Quote & Invoice and choose Uninstall. Or open the ExcelGurus folder in the Start menu and click Uninstall EG Quote & Invoice.
- The uninstaller asks “Remove EG Quote & Invoice from this computer?” Click Yes.
- It then asks “Delete EG Quote & Invoice and your invoice data?” No, the default, keeps your files and removes only the shortcuts and settings. Yes deletes the install folder and everything in it.
What uninstalling removes
Only what this product’s setup added. Uninstalling one ExcelGurus product leaves the others as they are.
- The Excel Trusted Location Setup added for the folder, if the trust box was ticked. Nothing else in Excel changes.
- The Start menu and desktop shortcuts, and the entry in Installed apps.
- Its settings in the Windows registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ExcelGurus\quote_invoice), including the random installation ID, and the uninstaller’s own files (in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ExcelGurus\quote_invoice).
- If you click Yes: the install folder and everything in it, and the Documents\ExcelGurus folder too when nothing else is left in it.
What stays: if you click No, the folder with your workbook, and any newer version Setup installed beside it. Setup also leaves its log, a text file whose name starts with “Setup Log”, in your Windows Temp folder; you can delete it.
Used a setup program downloaded before September 29, 2026?
Setup programs downloaded from this site up to September 28, 2026 also added the ExcelGurus LLC certificate to the Trusted Publishers list in Windows, so that Excel would trust our signed workbooks. The setup programs published since then do not, and uninstalling does not remove it. To check, and remove it yourself:
- Press Windows key + R, type certmgr.msc and press Enter.
- In the left pane, open Trusted Publishers, then Certificates.
- Right-click ExcelGurus LLC, choose Delete, and confirm with Yes.
If there is no ExcelGurus LLC entry, there is nothing to remove. No administrator rights are needed. Any ExcelGurus product still installed normally keeps opening without a macro warning if its folder is in Excel’s Trusted Locations; otherwise Excel asks about macros, and how to enable macros shows the steps.