The estimate knows whose it is before it exists

The three-way bond's departure record. The bond between contact, opportunity and estimate is captured at the moment of highest reliability — the rep clicks Create estimate while looking at the contact, and that click carries the identity. When the job shows up in the import, the server matches it against open intents and bonds it.

Also called: orphaned estimate · which customer is this job for · tie the estimate to the lead · three-way bond

1. 1Creating an estimate from a contact records an open intent with the contact, the opportunity and who created it.
2. 2When the importer sees a job with no bond, it asks the server to match against open intents newer than seven days.
3. 3Exactly one open intent bonds it; with several, a name overlap is preferred, otherwise the youngest — and how it matched is recorded.
4. 4Bonding stamps the job onto the contact's opportunity, creating one at the estimate-complete stage if the contact has none.
5. 5Already-bonded jobs are a no-op — the whole action is idempotent by design.
6. 6Every bond writes an audit entry naming the method.

• ◆Estimates arriving orphaned and matched by hand afterwards
• ◆Bonds made on name matching, which corrupts attribution