The Scenario
You are a sales lead at a digital agency. You had a strong week — eight new deals closed between Monday and Thursday. Each one needs a Harvest estimate before the kickoff call so the client has something to review and approve.
The details are in an Excel workbook — the Proposals tab. Client ID in column A, issue date in column B, line item description in column C, amount in column D. Eight rows.
Creating estimates in Harvest one at a time: log in, click Estimates, New Estimate, assign the client, set the issue date, add a line item, enter the description and amount, save. Eight times. Six minutes each is forty-eight minutes of admin on a Friday afternoon when you would rather be debriefing on the week.
The bad version of Friday at 4 PM:
- Open Harvest, create the first estimate, fill in the client, date, line item
- Save, note the estimate ID nowhere because the field is tiny
- Do the second estimate, realize estimate number one went to the wrong client
- Fix it, move on, finish all eight at 5:10
- Realize you forgot to note any of the estimate IDs and now you cannot find them in Harvest easily
- The client asks for an estimate ID on a call Monday and you have no record.
The fast version is one prompt and the IDs are all in the workbook.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI is an AI agent inside your Excel workbook that reads the new deals table and creates every Harvest estimate in one pass, writing each returned ID back to the workbook.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
For every row in my Proposals tab, create a Harvest estimate and send it to the client with the message "Please review and approve" — write the estimate ID back into column E.
SheetXAI reads all eight rows, creates each estimate in Harvest with the right client, date, description, and amount, sends each one to the client, and writes the estimate ID back into column E. When a client asks for their estimate number on Monday, it is already in the workbook.
What You Get
Eight Harvest estimates created and sent:
- Correct client assignment — from column A, no dropdown clicking
- Issue date — from column B, no date-picker errors
- Line item — description from column C, amount from column D
- Estimate sent to client — with the approval request message
- Estimate ID in column E — written back for tracking and follow-up
The IDs in column E let you chain the next step. When you are ready to convert an approved estimate to an invoice, you already have the estimate IDs in the workbook.
Need multiple line items per estimate? Tell SheetXAI which rows belong together and it will group them into a single estimate with multiple line items.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Sales close workbooks are rarely formatted perfectly by Friday afternoon. SheetXAI handles the variations in the same prompt.
When client IDs are missing and only client names are available
Column A has client names instead of Harvest client IDs because the sales team does not know the IDs.
Look up each client name in column A against the Harvest client list and find the matching Harvest client ID. Then create an estimate for each row using the matched client ID, issue date in column B, description in column C, and amount in column D. Write the estimate ID into column E and flag any client name that could not be matched in column F.
When some rows should also send the estimate immediately
Column E has a "Send Now?" field and three rows say "Yes." Those estimates should be sent after creation.
Create a Harvest estimate for each row using columns A through D. For rows where column E says "Yes," also send the estimate to the client with the message "Please review and approve at your earliest convenience." Write the estimate ID into column F and write "SENT" or "DRAFT" in column G.
When line items need to be broken out across multiple rows
The deal for client Meridian has four separate deliverables listed as four rows in the workbook, each with its own amount, but they all belong to one estimate.
Group rows where column A has the same ClientID. For each group, create a single Harvest estimate with one line item per row in the group. Write the same estimate ID into column F for all rows in each group.
When you want a complete picture of estimates created this week alongside the new ones
Before creating the new estimates, pull the ones already in Harvest from this week so you can see the full weekly total.
First, fetch all Harvest estimates created since Monday 2026-05-11 and list them in a summary block at the bottom of the tab showing estimate ID, client, amount, and status. Then create new estimates for all rows marked "New" in column E and write the returned IDs into column F.
The pattern: the sales workbook drives the Harvest estimates. SheetXAI reads the rows, creates the records, and writes the IDs back so your pipeline tracking and your Harvest records stay in sync without double data entry.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open your new deals workbook, then ask it to create every Harvest estimate before the weekend. The Harvest integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. See also how to bulk-create invoices from an Excel milestones workbook or the Harvest in Excel overview.