Preserving Approved Scope in Construction Estimate Software

A design discussion examines what should happen when an estimate is edited after a customer has already approved it. The author argues that a working estimate should stay editable until submission, at which point a revision captures line items, quantities, prices, and terms as they stood. Approvals should reference that exact revision, and later changes should create a new proposed revision while the approved one remains visible. The piece also proposes an explicit workflow with draft, submitted, approved, rejected, and superseded states, with clear rules for who can make each transition. It further separates operational task progress from commercial approval, and recommends testing edge cases such as repeated or stale approvals and failed notifications.