How do you quote for a job?
Six steps, in order: see the job before you price it, write the scope down while you are standing in it, price each part rather than the whole, put it in writing with a total, the VAT position and a valid-until date, send it the same day, and follow up once. Most quotes that go wrong skip the second step: the price was fine, but nobody wrote down what it was a price for.
See the job first, or send an estimate instead
A quote is a fixed price, so it has to be a price for something you have looked at. If the customer wants a number over the phone, that number is an estimate, and it should say so in writing — the quote vs estimate guide covers the difference and why the word on the document matters. The quote comes after the visit.
On the visit you are looking for the things that change the price and cannot be seen from a description: access, the condition of what is already there, what has to come out before the new work goes in, where the waste goes, and whether another trade has to be finished first. Ask the customer what they expect to be included. The gap between what they expect and what you were going to price is where most arguments start, and it is cheapest to find on the doorstep.
Write the scope down on site
The scope is the list of what you will do, in the order you would describe it to the customer: “take out the old bath and basin, cap off, fit the new bath, basin and taps, tile the splashback, make good”. Write it, or say it into your phone, before you leave. By the evening you will remember the price you had in mind and forget the second radiator they mentioned on the way out.
Name the place on each item where the same work happens twice. Two double sockets in the kitchen and two in the garage are two lines, not one line of four — when the customer drops the garage, you want a line to remove, not a sum to redo.
Price each part, not the whole
Put a price against each item on the scope: the hours it takes at your rate, the materials at what they cost you, and a share of what it costs to be in business at all. The guide to pricing a job is the method in full. The point here is the order — scope first, then prices — because a total you worked backwards from (“they will pay about two thousand”) has nothing underneath it when the customer asks what it covers.
Where you cannot see what you are pricing, say so on the quote instead of padding the number. “Floor under the bath not inspected; any repair to joists priced separately once it is lifted” protects you, and it reads as care rather than as a get-out.
What the written quote has to carry
- Who it is from. Your trading name, phone, email, and the registrations your trade expects to see.
- Who and where it is for. The customer's name and the address of the job, which is not always where they live.
- The word “Quote”, a number and two dates. The date you wrote it and the date it is valid until. Thirty days is the usual gap; when to go shorter is its own guide. Write the second one as a date, not as “valid for 30 days”, so nobody has to count.
- The work, line by line. Each part of the job with what is included and its price.
- The total, and the VAT position. Subtotal, VAT as its own line and the figure the customer pays — or a plain statement that no VAT is charged. See showing VAT on a quote.
- What is not included. Decorating after, skip hire, the other trade's work. An exclusion written down is a conversation you do not have later.
- How you get paid. Any deposit, when the balance is due, and how.
The quote template guide has the same list as a structure you can copy into a blank document.
Send it the same day
The customer is getting other quotes. The first one to arrive sets the price the others are compared with, and it arrives while the conversation on the doorstep is still fresh. A quote that turns up five days later is compared with one they have already half agreed to.
This is the step Speak to Quote was made for. Describe the job out loud before you leave the site, the way you would to the customer, and it comes back as line items priced from your own price book, on a document with your details, the VAT worked out and the valid-until date filled in. Check it, send the link, and the customer can accept it from their phone. The plumber page has a worked example.
Follow up once
Silence after a quote is usually not a no. Leave it a few working days, then send one short message asking whether they have any questions about it. One, not three. The guide on what to do when a customer goes quiet has the timing and the wording.
When the job changes after the quote
A quote the customer has accepted fixes the price for the work it describes, and no more. When they add to it — “while you are here, could you…” — price the addition, put it in writing and get a yes before you start it. Citizens Advice tells customers that a quoted price should only go up in cases such as extra work they have agreed to, so an extra you did on a nod is an extra you may struggle to charge for. Is a quote legally binding? covers what acceptance commits each of you to.