Quote vs estimate: what’s the difference?
A quote is a fixed price for defined work; an estimate is a best guess that can change. When to send which, and how to turn one into the other.
Eleven plain-English answers to the questions that come up when you are writing a quote — what it has to say, what it commits you to, and what to do when it goes quiet. Written for UK trades, with no assumption that you have quoted before.
A quote is a fixed price for defined work; an estimate is a best guess that can change. When to send which, and how to turn one into the other.
A quote is an offer, not yet a contract — binding the moment the customer accepts it. Including the 14-day rule that catches people out.
Thirty days is the usual answer for UK trades, shorter when a material’s price is moving. Why the date matters and what to do once it passes.
If you are VAT-registered, show it: subtotal, VAT on its own line, then the total. If you are not, say so. The traps in between.
There is no legal figure. The defensible answer is what you have to buy before you start — materials, not a slice of your profit.
Hours at your rate, materials at cost, the overheads everyone forgets, then margin — and a sanity check before you send. A method, not a price list.
The nine sections a trade quote needs, in order, with what belongs in each — and a plain structure you can copy into a blank document today.
What a UK electrical quote has to carry: scope line by line, certification and notification, VAT, a valid-until date, exclusions and payment terms.
Itemised scope, your Gas Safe number, what gets commissioned and notified, VAT, exclusions, and how to price what you cannot see yet.
Scope by stage, provisional sums, the programme, variations, payment stages and exclusions — for work that runs long and involves other trades.
Silence usually isn’t a no. How long to wait, how to follow up once without nagging, and how to make a quote easier to say yes to.