A quote does one job: it makes saying yes easy. Everything on it either helps with that or is in the way. That is a more useful test than any template, and it is why the order below is the order a client reads in rather than the order the information occurs to you.
The eight things a quote needs
- Who it is from. Business name, an email that gets answered, a phone number if you take calls. Your VAT number if you are registered.
- Who it is for. The company, and the person. A quote addressed to a company and nobody else sits in an inbox unowned.
- A reference and a date. Both, so that a conversation three weeks later can identify the document.
- What the work is. Two or three sentences of plain description before the numbers, so the client knows what they are approving.
- The line items. What each part is, and what it costs.
- The money. Net, VAT if you charge it, total, and the deposit if you take one.
- When it expires. A date, not a duration.
- How to accept. The single most commonly missing item, covered below.
Describe the work before you price it
Most quotes go straight from a letterhead to a table of numbers. The client then has to reconstruct what they are buying from line item names, which is how “Development, £3,200” turns into a phone call.
Two or three sentences fixes it. Not marketing copy: a description specific enough that somebody who was not in the meeting could tell whether the work had been done.
Notice what the example does not do. It does not break the build into eleven micro-tasks, because the client is not choosing between them. It does not hide the photography inside the build price, because that is the line most likely to be dropped and it should be droppable.
The four lines that prevent arguments
These are the ones a quote written in a word processor almost always lacks, and each of them exists because somebody once had the argument it prevents.
What you have assumed
Every quote rests on assumptions. Write down the two or three that would change the price if they turned out to be wrong: that content is supplied, that hosting stays where it is, that one round of amends is enough. An assumption stated on the quote is a conversation. The same assumption unstated is a dispute.
What is not included
Exclusions are kinder than they sound. A client reading “Stock photography licences” under “not included” knows to budget for it. A client discovering it at invoice stage thinks you hid it.
What happens when the scope changes
One sentence: additional work outside this scope is quoted separately before it starts. That is the whole clause, and it converts an uncomfortable conversation into a process the client already agreed to.
When it expires
A date. Thirty days is right for most small business work. Without one, a quote from March is still live in October at March’s prices, and you either honour it or explain why not.
Make accepting it a single action
This is where most quotes lose. The document ends with “please confirm in writing”, and confirming in writing means composing an email, which means later, which means the quote goes cold while the client waits for a moment when they can write a proper reply.
The alternative is a link they open on a phone and accept with a name and a role. It removes the composing step entirely, and it gives you something a forwarded email does not: a record of who accepted, when, and exactly what document they were looking at.
It also tells you when they opened it, which changes how you follow up. Chasing a client who has not opened the quote is a different conversation from chasing one who opened it three times on Tuesday.
Send it quickly
Speed matters more than polish, and by a wide margin. Better Proposals’ published figures put a proposal sent within 24 hours of the meeting at around six days to signature, and one sent three or four days later at nearly twelve. That is vendor data and should be read as directional rather than precise, but the direction is consistent and it matches what anyone who has sold anything already suspects: you are competing with the client’s memory of the conversation.
Which is an argument against the elaborate quote. A good quote sent the same afternoon beats a beautiful one sent next week, so the practical goal is a document you can produce in a few minutes without it looking like you did.
Common questions
What is the difference between a quote and an estimate?
A quote is a fixed price for a defined scope of work. An estimate is your best guess at what the work will cost, and it can move. The word you use matters: calling something a quote and then charging more is a change your client did not agree to, whereas an estimate sets the expectation that the final figure will differ.
How long should a quote be valid for?
Thirty days suits most small business work. Long enough for a client to talk to a partner or a board, short enough that your prices and availability have not moved. Put the date on the document rather than saying "valid for 30 days", because a client reading it three weeks later should not have to work out when you sent it.
Should I ask for a deposit?
For project work, usually yes. Somewhere between 25% and 50% up front is normal for UK agencies and freelancers, and it does two things: it covers the work you do before the first invoice, and it filters out clients who were never going to proceed. Show the deposit in pounds as well as a percentage.
Do I need to itemise a quote?
Itemise when the client is choosing between options or when the scope is the thing under discussion. Give one figure when the client is buying an outcome and a breakdown would invite them to remove the parts that make it work. Most quotes should itemise, because it shows what they are buying and makes a later change of scope easy to price.
Before you send it
- Does it say what the work is, in words, before any number?
- Can the client see the total without doing arithmetic?
- Is it clear whether prices include VAT?
- Is there a date it expires?
- Is accepting it one action, or does it need an email?
- Would somebody who was not in the meeting understand it?