Speak to Quote works for builders. Say the job as you walk the house with the customer — the opening, the steel, the making good, the skip — and get back an editable, priced, VAT-aware quote or estimate with your membership details on it, ready to send before the next visit.
Building work is the trade where a customer most often has three quotes, and where the cheapest one is most often the one that leaves something out. A quote that says what is in it, what is not, and what is still unknown, is the one that survives the comparison.
FMB membership, TrustMark registration, CSCS — whatever you hold, put it in the header. Customers are told to look for a vetted scheme before letting anyone take a wall out, and a quote that already shows one saves them a search.
Whether the job needs building regulations approval or planning permission, and who is applying: you, the customer or their architect. A structural opening needs an engineer's calculations and a building control inspection; say whose fees are in the figure.
The things you cannot see until the plaster is off: a provisional sum, named as one, is honest; a round number that quietly hopes is not. Decoration, kitchen fitting and anything "by others" are lines that say so.
If you are VAT-registered, the VAT line and the rate; if not, a line that says so. On a building job the difference is a real sum of money and the customer will ask.
Building work is paid in stages; name them — on start, at first fix, on completion — rather than leaving it to a conversation on the day. And print how long the price stands; materials move.
A quote is the price. An estimate is the expected price and says the final one may vary. Before you have opened anything up, the second is the truthful document, and a customer respects the difference when it is written down.
A kitchen knock-through, said once, into a phone, at the end of the site visit. The prices are illustrative — yours come from your own price book, or from what you say.
What you said
Knock through between the kitchen and the dining room, about three metres, steel beam to the engineer's spec on padstones, make good and plaster both sides ready for decoration. Strip out the old kitchen, units and worktops. One eight-yard skip. Building control fees and the engineer's calcs are the customer's.
Quote · Ward & Sons Building · FMB member
| Description | Qty | Unit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Structural opening, kitchen to dining room Approx. 3 m; props and temporary works; wall removed and cleared | 1 | £1,450.00 | £1,450.00 |
Steel beam Supplied and installed to the structural engineer’s specification, on padstones | 1 | £890.00 | £890.00 |
Make good and plaster Both sides of the opening, ready for decoration | 1 | £520.00 | £520.00 |
Strip out existing kitchen Units and worktops removed; disconnection of services by others | 1 | £380.00 | £380.00 |
Skip hire, 8 yard One skip, delivered and collected | 1 | £290.00 | £290.00 |
This quotation is valid until 10 October 2026. Prices exclude any works not described above. VAT is included at the rate shown. Building control fees and structural engineer’s calculations excluded. 30% on start, balance on completion.
Prices shown are illustrative, not a price list.
Every line is what you said, in the order you said it, and the exclusion you spoke went into the terms rather than being lost. Nothing on it was invented: a line whose price is not in your price book comes back at £0 for you to fill in, never with a made-up figure. Edit any line, take one off, add one, then send.
Set your trade to builder in Business details and the extraction is worded for it — "make good and plaster both sides" is a line item, "to the engineer's spec" is its description, and "the calcs are the customer's" goes into the notes and terms rather than being dropped.
Your membership goes in the header. Add FMB, TrustMark or any scheme as a label and a number, and it prints under your company name on every quote and estimate, with the scheme badges along the bottom if you upload them.
Your prices are yours. Put "Skip hire, 8 yard" and your day rate in the price book once and every dictated skip comes back priced. Save a knock-through as a job template and it is one tap next time.
On Pro, the plan does the take-off. Attach the architect's drawing and the AI reads the areas and counts the openings off it; the prices still come from your book.
Estimate first, quote when you have opened up. Build it as an estimate — labelled as one, with the footer saying the final price may vary — and convert it to a firm quote in one tap once you know what is behind the plaster. Both are saved, and your customer gets the right one.