Knowing how to write a quote matters more than most pricing advice, because a quote is a legal offer. If the client accepts it, you have agreed to do that work for that money. Write it loosely and you will do the extra work for free.
What separates a quote from an estimate
A quote is firm. An estimate is your considered opinion, and both sides expect it to move.
Send a quote when you can see the whole job: a fixed deliverable, a known quantity, a site you have visited. Send an estimate when the scope depends on what you find. There is a fuller comparison in quote or estimate.
Customers use the words interchangeably. You should not.
The seven parts
- Your details and theirs, with the correct legal entity.
- A quote number, from its own sequence.
- The date, and the date the price stops being valid.
- The scope, line by line.
- The price, with tax shown separately if you are registered.
- What is excluded.
- What happens next, and how they accept.
That sixth one is the difference between a profitable job and an argument.
Writing the scope
Price what you can describe. If you cannot describe it, you are estimating, not quoting.
A landscaping quote:
Description Qty Rate Amount
Clear and remove existing turf, 60 sq m 60 450 27,000
Supply and lay topsoil, 100mm depth 60 780 46,800
Supply and lay instant lawn, 60 sq m 60 1,250 75,000
Waste removal, one skip 1 12,000 12,000
Subtotal 160,800
Tax 16% 25,728
Total 186,528Quantities and rates, not “landscaping, 186,528”. The client can see what they are buying, and you can defend each line if the job changes.
Exclusions
The shortest section, and the one that saves the most money. State what the price does not cover:
- Work that depends on something you have not seen (under a floor, behind a wall).
- Materials at today’s price, if your supplier could move them.
- Anything the client has to arrange: access, permits, power, parking.
- Making good, if that is normally separate in your trade.
Three lines is enough. “Assumes existing drainage is serviceable” has settled more disputes than any amount of small print.
How long it stays open
A quote with no expiry is an open offer, and a client can come back in eight months holding you to it. Put a date on it.
Thirty days is the common default. Shorter if your materials move. There is more on this in how long a quote should last.
Acceptance
Say how they accept, and keep the reply. An email saying “yes, go ahead, quote QTE-0044” is enough in most cases, and it is the thing you will point at later.
If you need a deposit, say so on the quote rather than raising it after acceptance. A third is common on materials-heavy work.
When they want changes
Do not edit the quote you sent. Issue a new one with a new number and let the old one lapse.
Both of you then know which version was agreed. An edited document with the same number is exactly the situation nobody can resolve six months later.
After the job
The quote is not a request for money. When the work is done, bill the real numbers on an invoice and put the quote number in the details box so both sides can match the two.
If the final figure differs from the quote, explain the difference on the invoice rather than leaving them to find it.
Offering options
A single price is a yes or no question. Two or three options turn it into a choice, and people find choosing easier than deciding.
Keep it to three at most, and make the difference concrete rather than vague:
- Standard. The scope as briefed.
- With the extra you recommended. The thing you know they will want later, priced now.
- Reduced. What you would drop if the budget is the constraint.
Send them as separate quotes with separate numbers, or as one quote with three clearly separated blocks. Do not blur them into a range, which reads as indecision.
Presenting it
Send the quote as a PDF, not a document file that reflows on their machine. The steps are the same as for any sheet here and are covered in turning an invoice into a PDF; the print settings behave identically.
Attach it rather than pasting the figures into an email. A quote that exists only in an email thread is a quote nobody can find in September.
Next
For the layout, see a quote template you can reuse. For turning an accepted quote into a bill, see how to make an invoice. Or open the quote generator and price a job.