Updated on 29 September 2026 by the Proposal Expert editorial team
Five steps from the first call to a signed quote, with a UK and a US example
To write a quote, gather the requirements, price the work, write it as itemised lines, set a validity date and terms, then send it and follow up. A quote, called a quotation in more formal British English, is a fixed price for a defined piece of work. Citizens Advice describes it as a promise to do work at an agreed price, while an estimate is the trader's best guess at the cost. In US construction it is often called a bid. Below are the five steps, then one finished quote in a UK version with VAT at 20% and a US version without VAT, plus emails to copy.
Most quotes that go wrong rest on a guess about the scope. Start with a short call, a site visit or a set of photos and measurements, and write the answers down. Ask what the customer wants done and why, and whether there is a budget, which tells you whether to quote one option or a basic and a fuller version. Check whether you are quoting a business or a private customer, because in the UK that changes how you show VAT. Finally, note what you will not do. An exclusion you agree now is a dispute you avoid later.
Build the price from the bottom up, so you can explain every figure. Count the materials at what they cost you, including delivery. Estimate the labour in hours or days and multiply by your rate. Add subcontractors, equipment hire, travel and waste disposal, then your overheads and your profit. Watch the difference between markup and margin: a 25% markup on costs of £1,000 gives a price of £1,250, which is a margin of 20%, not 25%. If part of the job is uncertain, state your assumption or give an estimate for that part only. Check your supplier prices on the day you quote. Citizens Advice tells UK consumers that a trader cannot charge more than the quoted price just because their own costs have gone up since the quote.
A clear quote format starts with your business details, plus your VAT registration number if you are VAT-registered in the UK. Then the customer's details, a quote number, the date and the date the quote is valid until. The core is the line items: one line per piece of work or material, each with a description, a quantity, a unit price and a line total. Write descriptions the customer can check afterwards. "Two coats of matt emulsion to walls, 120 m²" can be checked. "Decorating as discussed" cannot. In the UK this carries legal weight. Under section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, anything you say or write to a consumer about a service, and that they take into account when deciding to go ahead, is treated as a term of the contract.
Give every quote a fixed expiry date, such as "valid until 31 October 2026". Thirty days is common for services. Choose a shorter period when your material prices move quickly. The date also has a legal side. In the US, an offer can generally be withdrawn before it is accepted (Cornell Legal Information Institute, Wex: offer). But under section 2-205 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a merchant's signed written offer to sell goods that says it will be held open cannot be revoked during the time stated, for up to three months. Then set out the payment terms. In the UK, if you do not agree a payment date with a business customer, GOV.UK says the payment is late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice or after you provide the service, whichever is later, and the statutory interest you can then charge is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate.
Send the quote on the day of the visit or the day after, as a PDF or a link with a short cover email (see below). Put two reminders in your calendar: one two or three working days later and one about a week before the quote expires. If you send the quote as a link from quote software such as Proposal Expert, you see when the customer opens it and the customer can accept it with an electronic signature. When you follow up, ask a specific question instead of "any news?". If the customer pushes back on the price, ask which part does not fit and adjust the scope before you cut your rate. These two messages work by email or text:
A worked example: Brightwork Decorating, a fictional two-person firm, quotes a small architecture practice for repainting its reception and two offices. The figures are illustrative. Brightwork is VAT-registered, so it must charge VAT on what it sells unless it is exempt (GOV.UK, Charge, reclaim and record VAT), and the standard rate of 20% applies to most goods and services (GOV.UK, VAT rates). The customer is a business, so the lines exclude VAT and VAT is added at the bottom. GOV.UK notes that prices aimed at businesses usually exclude VAT, while prices for the general public include it. For a homeowner, show the VAT-inclusive total: the price excluding VAT multiplied by 1.2.
The US has no VAT. According to the OECD, the United States is the only OECD country that uses a retail sales tax instead of a value added tax, and that sales tax is imposed by state and local governments, not the federal government. The SBA notes that sales tax can vary significantly from place to place and tells businesses to check their obligations with state and local governments. So a US quote has no tax line by default. If the work or the materials are taxable where the job takes place, add a sales tax line at the local rate. In this example we assume none applies. Dates are written month first, so spell out the month.
Keep the cover email short. It names the job, gives the total, repeats the expiry date and tells the customer exactly how to say yes. Put the quote number in the subject line so both of you can find the thread later. For a US customer, use the dollar total and write the dates month first.
A quote and a quotation are the same document. An estimate is different: Citizens Advice describes it as the trader's best guess at the cost, while a quote is a promise to do the work at an agreed price. Invest Northern Ireland's official business advice site, nibusinessinfo.co.uk, advises stating clearly on the document which of the two it is.
Once the customer accepts it, usually yes. In US law, the acceptance of a valid offer creates a binding contract, and the person who made the offer can generally withdraw it only before it is accepted (Cornell Legal Information Institute, Wex: offer). In the UK, Citizens Advice tells consumers that a trader cannot charge more than the quoted price unless there is a good reason, such as extra work the customer agreed to pay for or an obvious mistake in the price.
No. GOV.UK states that you must register for VAT to start charging VAT, so a business that is not registered quotes without VAT. You must register when your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or when you expect it to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days (GOV.UK, Register for VAT). Once registered, you must charge VAT on what you sell unless it is exempt.
You can write a quote in Word, Excel or Google Docs with a free quote template, as long as you check the sums yourself. Proposal Expert has a free plan with 3 proposals and 3 electronic signatures a month, a pricing table that calculates tax per line and the totals, and tracking that shows when the customer opens the quote. On the free plan the PDF carries a small watermark.