Air conditioning quote template

Every “air conditioning quote template” you can download is the same four columns: Description, Quantity, Rate, Amount. That part was never the problem. The problem is the blank space underneath it, and no template solves that, because filling it in requires knowing what an air conditioning job contains.

So here is that, instead of another table.

The lines

These are grouped the way the trade prices rather than alphabetically. The grouping matters as much as the lines: an installer writing their first structured quote is usually missing a whole category rather than one item, and it is nearly always access.

No prices, deliberately. What to charge is yours, it varies by 30% between London and the rest of the country, and a template that filled the numbers in would be telling you your business. The published UK ranges, with where each came from, are in how to price an air conditioning job.

The line that is not like the others

Most of the list above is an ordinary line item. One is not, and it is the commonest line in the trade:

What is not included, which is the valuable half

Every source consulted for this said the same thing: the arguments after a job are almost never about the price. They are about something that was assumed and never written down.

Wording you can use as it is. It is deliberately plain, because a homeowner reads it.

• Any electrical work beyond connection to an existing suitable circuit, unless listed above.
• Scaffolding, towers or powered access, unless listed above.
• Making good, plastering, redecoration or floor covering after core drilling or pipe routing.
• Planning permission, listed building consent or freeholder approval, where these are required.
• Asbestos survey, removal or making safe.
• Builders work, structural alterations, fire-stopping or lifting and relaying of ceilings.
• Removal and disposal of any existing system, unless listed above.

What the price assumes

Different job from an exclusion, and worth both. An exclusion says “this is not in the price”. An assumption says “the price holds while this is true”, which is what protects a fixed figure against a pipe route that turns out to be twice what was measured through a wall nobody could see behind.

• Pipe runs are as measured at survey. If the route changes on the day we will agree any difference with you before carrying on.
• There is an existing electrical supply of suitable rating within reach of the outdoor unit position.
• Clear and safe access to all work areas during normal working hours, with parking available.
• The outdoor unit position agreed at survey is achievable without planning consent. We will tell you if we think it is not.
• Refrigerant charge is as specified by the manufacturer for the pipe run quoted.

The rest of the document

• Your F-Gas certificate number and REFCOM registration. Customers are told to ask for these and check them on the REFCOM register. A quote that already carries them has answered the question before it was asked.
• An expiry date. Thirty days is usual, and there is a reason to keep it short right now: refrigerant supply is tightening under the quota system and equipment prices have been moving. An expiry is what lets you requote without it reading as a price rise.
• Whether the figures include VAT, stated plainly. If you are not registered, do not write “plus VAT” anywhere.
• A deposit, if you are ordering kit. Between 10% and 25% is the usual range in this trade, and the honest framing is the true one: it pays for the equipment, not for goodwill.
• What certificates the customer gets on completion, and the commissioning you will carry out.
• A service plan as an option. Most manufacturers require annual servicing to keep a five to seven year parts warranty, so it belongs on the installation quote rather than a cold call eleven months later.

Word, Excel, or something that does the arithmetic

A Word template is fine for one quote a month. It stops being fine at the point you are doing the pipework subtraction by hand in somebody’s hallway, retyping the same twelve lines, and working out 20% on a trade price on your phone.

The list above is the list QuotePack seeds a rate card with. You put your prices against it once, and after that a quote is choosing lines and typing quantities.