--- title: "Export to PDF" description: "Breadcrumb kebab → Export. Wave generates a multi-section PDF — cover page, detailed line items, project totals, photos. PDF only (no ESX) and gated on paid plans." group: "estimates" lane: "how-to" status: "published" publishedAt: 2026-05-15 sidebarOrder: 160 tags: ["pdf", "export", "how-to"] relatedSlugs: - "estimates/change-status" - "estimates/upload-photos" - "estimates/download-photos" - "billing/plan-comparison" - "account/company-info" sidebarLabel: "Export PDF" --- The PDF is what you hand the customer, the adjuster, or the carrier. Wave's export is built to look like a finished estimate, not a printout of a UI. > **What's in the PDF reflects what an experienced estimator would have built for this job** — residential vs. commercial, water category, scope. The line items, equipment, PPE, and documentation aren't transcriptions of your chat; they're outputs of [Wave Intelligence](/docs/concepts/wave-intelligence) reasoning about the specific loss. ## How to export 1. Open the **breadcrumb kebab** (top-right of the estimate). It has four actions: Lock, **Export**, Duplicate, Delete. 2. Choose **Export**. 3. The PDF generates and downloads. Under the hood, Wave hits `GET /api/export/estimate//html-pdf`. Export stays active even when the estimate is [locked](/docs/estimates/lock-unlock) — that's intentional, since the moment you've locked an estimate is exactly when you'd want a clean export. ## Plan gating > **PDF export requires a paid plan.** Free disables Export. Pro and Ultra enable it. See [Plans and limits](/docs/billing/plan-comparison). You can still build and review the estimate on Free; you just can't generate the PDF. ## PDF only > **Wave exports PDF.** No Xactimate ESX export, no CSV, no JSON. ESX export is not on the roadmap. For the broader capability matrix, see [What Wave does and doesn't do (yet)](/docs/concepts/what-wave-does). ## What's in the PDF The exported PDF has four sections, in order. Every page has a `Page X of Y` footer. ### 1. Cover page ``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ [Logo] Company Name Estimate │ │ Address, City, State ZIP │ │ Phone · Email Prepared: │ │ May 16, 2026│ │ │ │ PREPARED FOR Insurance: ... │ │ Jordan Park Claim #: ... │ │ 482 Sycamore Lane, Denver CO Adjuster: ... │ │ Adjuster Email:.. │ │ │ │ ┌─ Estimate Summary ──────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ General Charges $XXX.XX │ │ │ │ Hall Bathroom $XXX.XX │ │ │ │ Hallway $XXX.XX │ │ │ │ ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ │ │ │ Grand Total $X,XXX.XX │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ [Estimate Notes, if any, render here] │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` - **Top-left** — your company logo, company name, address, phone, email (from [Company Info](/docs/account/company-info)) - **Top-right** — "Estimate" heading and "Prepared: \" - **PREPARED FOR** block — customer name + property address - **Claim block** (right side) — Insurance, Claim #, Adjuster Name, Adjuster Email - **Estimate Summary** table — one row per section with subtotals, ending in a bold **Grand Total** - **Estimate Notes** — if you set any in the [Notes block](/docs/estimates/estimate-notes), they render **directly under the Grand Total on the cover page**. This is the only place those notes appear in the PDF. - **Customer Policies** — your standard policies from [Company Info](/docs/account/company-info) also render on the cover ### 2. Detailed Estimate pages One table per section, each with columns: **Description**, **Qty**, **Unit**, **Price**, **Total**. > **App terminology vs. PDF terminology.** The right pane's **General** section renders on the PDF as **"General Charges."** Same content, different label — heads up if you're matching the PDF against the app. Room sections show **affected SF** in the header — e.g., `Hall Bathroom (48.0 SF)`. Line-item notes ([Add a note to a line item](/docs/estimates/add-note-to-line-item)) render as a grey `Note: …` line beneath the description — e.g., `Note: 1 air mover for 3 Days`. Each **non-General** section closes with two summary rows: - `Affected SF: ` - `Room Total: $` The General Charges section doesn't have an Affected SF — it's not tied to a room. ### 3. Project Totals block After the last room, a final summary block: - **Grand Total Room SF** - **Grand Total Affected SF** - **Overall Grand Total** (bold) This is the bottom-line number for the whole estimate. ### 4. Project Photos A section titled `Project Photos (X total photos)`. Each photo lands on its own row, captioned `Photo N: ` — e.g., `Photo 1: Hallway`, `Photo 2: Hallway`, `Photo 3: Hall Bathroom`. Photos are ordered by the room order in the estimate. ## PDF export and photo download are separate > Exporting a PDF includes the photos **inline** — captioned by room in the Project Photos section. It does **not** also drop the photos to your downloads folder as separate files. > > If you need both — the PDF for the file, plus the photos as standalone images — run both operations. See [Download photos](/docs/estimates/download-photos) for the selection-based photo download. ## After exporting A typical next step is to set the estimate's [status to Completed](/docs/estimates/change-status), which moves it to the Completed tab in All Estimates. ## Related - [Plans and limits](/docs/billing/plan-comparison) — Free vs. paid - [Change an estimate's status](/docs/estimates/change-status) — what to do after export - [Upload and tag photos](/docs/estimates/upload-photos) — photos that end up in the PDF - [Download photos](/docs/estimates/download-photos) — get the photos as standalone files - [Company Info](/docs/account/company-info) — branding + Customer Policies on the cover page - [Edit estimate-level notes](/docs/estimates/estimate-notes) — what renders under the Grand Total on the cover