What should a quote template for tradespeople include?
A trade quote template needs nine things in a fixed order: your details and registrations, the word “Quote” with a number and dates, the customer and site, a one-line job description, the line items, the totals with VAT, what is excluded, your payment terms, and a line for acceptance. Below is that structure, free to copy. The honest caveat is that a template only saves you the layout — the typing is the part that takes the evening.
The nine sections, in order
- 1. You. Business name, address, phone, email, and the registrations a customer checks — NICEIC or NAPIT, Gas Safe number, FMB or TrustMark, your VAT number if you have one. A logo if you have one; the name in a larger size if you do not.
- 2. The document. The word Quote (or Estimate — they are different), a number you can find it by later, the date, and the valid-until date.
- 3. The customer and the site. Name, the address where the work is, and a phone number or email so the document can be sent and the acceptance can come back.
- 4. The job in one line. “Full rewire, three-bed semi” or “Replace boiler and relocate kitchen radiator” — the sentence the customer would use to describe it to a neighbour.
- 5. The line items. Item, location, quantity, unit price, line total. One line per thing, each with where it goes. This is the section that does the work.
- 6. Totals. Subtotal, VAT as its own line (or “not subject to VAT”), total. The VAT guide covers the cases.
- 7. Exclusions. What a customer might reasonably assume is included and is not: decorating, skip, making good, disposal, the fittings they are choosing themselves.
- 8. Payment terms. Deposit, when the balance is due, how to pay.
- 9. Acceptance. A line for the customer to sign and date, or the sentence that says replying “accepted” to the email counts. Without it, a quote is information; with it, it is an offer they can take.
A structure to copy
Paste this into a blank document and fill in the brackets. It is deliberately plain: a quote is read by a customer at a kitchen table, and clarity beats design.
[BUSINESS NAME]
[Address] · [Phone] · [Email]
[Scheme] registration no. [number] · VAT no. [number, if registered]
QUOTE [Q2026-001]
Date: [date] Valid until: [date + 30 days]
To: [Customer name]
Site: [Address of the work]
Job: [One-line description]
Item Location Qty Unit Total
[Item, with detail beneath] [Room] [n] £[0.00] £[0.00]
[Item] [Room] [n] £[0.00] £[0.00]
Subtotal £[0.00]
VAT (20%) £[0.00]
Total £[0.00]
Not included: [decorating / skip / making good / ...]
Certification: [which certificate the customer receives, who notifies]
Payment: [deposit] on acceptance, balance [when]. [How to pay.]
Accepted by: ____________________ Date: __________
What a template cannot do
A template fixes the layout, which was never the slow part. The slow part is the evening after the site visit: reading your notes back, remembering which room the six sockets were in, looking up what you charged for a consumer unit last time, typing each line, adding it up, checking the VAT, and doing it again for the second job. A template makes that evening tidier. It does not make it shorter.
That is the honest reason this page sits on a product's website. Speak to Quote is what replaces the template: you describe the job out loud, walking round it, and the line items come back with locations and quantities; your header, registrations, VAT and payment terms are already on the document because you set them once; your own prices come from a price book that learns what you charge; and the customer gets a link they can accept from their phone. The nine sections above are all on it — they are the structure the product was built around. The plumber page shows one dictated boiler job from what was said to the finished quote, and how it works covers the rest.
Three things every version should get right
Whichever way you produce it — the structure above, a spreadsheet, or software — the quotes that do not come back with questions share three habits:
- Every line has a location. “Double socket × 6” invites “where?”; “Double socket, kitchen, 4” and “Double socket, hallway, 2” do not.
- The total on the quote is the total on the invoice. VAT shown, nothing added later, extras agreed in writing before they are done.
- It says what it is not. The exclusions line is where most disputes are prevented, and it takes one minute to write.