Free quote and estimate template

What a good quote contains, and why

When a client asks what a job will cost, the quote is your answer, but once they say yes it also becomes the document you both go back to when there's a question about what was agreed. So it has to answer the questions they'll ask later as well as the one they're asking now: what exactly you'll do, what it costs including tax, how long the price stands, how you'll be paid, and what isn't part of the job.

The scope is where most disagreements start, so describe the work in a way that someone who wasn't in the conversation would understand exactly as you do. A vague line invites the client to read more into it and you to read less, which is how two people end up remembering the same agreement differently. "Website design" leaves everything open, while "Design and build of a five-page website (home, about, services, blog, contact), with two rounds of design changes, set up on your existing hosting" tells the client what they'll get and tells you when the job is finished.

Prices work best broken into lines with a quantity, a unit and a price per unit, rather than one lump sum. The client can see how the total is built up, and if they ask you to drop one part, you change that line instead of starting again. Say whether the prices include or exclude VAT or sales tax and show the tax separately, because a business client usually compares prices before tax while a private customer wants to know what they'll actually pay. If you don't charge tax, a short note saying so stops the client wondering whether it will be added later.

The validity date tells the client until when they can accept at this price, and the payment terms say when and how you'll be paid: within how many days of the invoice, by which method, and whether you want a deposit before you start. Agreeing payment at this stage means the invoice holds no surprises; the guide to payment terms such as Net 30 explains the usual options and what they mean.

Last, say what isn't included. It can feel negative to write, but it tells the client what they'll need to budget for separately and gives you something to point to when a "while you're here" request appears. For a web designer that might be copywriting, photos and hosting fees; for a builder, skip hire or redecorating after the work is done.

A worked example: a decorator's quote

Here is how those parts come together on a real job. A painter and decorator has been asked to repaint the living room and hallway of a flat, and because they've seen the rooms, they can give a fixed price rather than an estimate. The lines on their quote look like this:

The four lines add up to €1,355.00 before tax. If the decorator is registered for VAT, the maker works out the tax on each line and shows it under that subtotal, and the total below it is what the client pays; if they aren't registered, the subtotal is the total and the notes say that no VAT is charged. The notes also carry the rest of the agreement:

Quote valid until 7 December 2026. Work can start within two weeks of acceptance and takes about four and a half days. Payment by bank transfer within 14 days of the invoice, which I'll send when the work is finished. Not included: plaster repairs beyond small cracks and holes, moving heavy furniture (please clear the rooms or tell me beforehand), and extra coats if you choose a colour other than white. To accept, reply to this email with your preferred start date.

Each of these choices saves a conversation later. Showing the day rate lets the client see what an extra day would cost, and "2.5 days" doubles as a schedule. Materials sit on a line of their own, so if the client would rather buy the paint, that line simply comes off. The exclusion about colour is there because a change of colour is a common reason for extra coats, and it's much easier to agree on that in advance than on the third day of the job.

Quote or estimate: a fixed price or a best guess

People use the two words loosely, and in the maker they're the same document, but they promise different things to the client. A quote is a price for the work as described: as long as the scope doesn't change, the price doesn't either, and if the job takes you longer than you expected, that's your cost to carry. An estimate is your best guess at a price you can't know yet, such as a repair where you won't see the damage until the wall is open, or software where the requirements are still being settled. The final bill then depends on the time and materials the job actually takes.

Use a quote when you can see the whole job and an estimate when you can't. The risk with an estimate is that clients tend to remember the number and forget the word, so make it hard to miss: say in the notes that the figure is an estimate, what it's based on, and how far it might move. A line such as "Estimate based on 20 to 25 hours at €65.00 an hour; I'll contact you before the cost goes over €1,625.00" gives the client a ceiling to plan around and gives you room to do the work properly.

Whether a quote or an estimate binds you, and to what, depends on the law where you work and on the words you used, which this page doesn't try to settle. The practical rule is simpler: if you wouldn't be comfortable holding to a figure, don't present it as a fixed price. For how both relate to the invoice that follows them, see quote vs invoice.

Validity, acceptance and sending

Give the validity as an actual date rather than "valid for 30 days", so nobody has to work out when the 30 days started. How long to allow depends on how quickly your costs move and how full your diary is: a designer with steady prices might give a month, while a builder whose material prices change often might give two weeks. If a client comes back after the date has passed, send a new quote with a new date rather than editing the old one, so there's only ever one version that both of you agreed to.

Ask for acceptance in writing and make it easy, as the decorator's note does. A reply to an email takes the client a few seconds and leaves you with a dated yes you can point to later, which a phone call doesn't. The maker doesn't collect signatures or an online "accept" click, so keep the client's reply with the quote as your record of what was agreed.

To send the quote, download the PDF and attach it to your own email. Once the client accepts and you've turned the quote into an invoice, a free account can send that invoice for you, by email with the PDF attached or as a link that shows you whether it has been opened. As things move, set the quote's status from draft to sent and then to accepted or declined, so you can see which quotes are still waiting for an answer.

From accepted quote to invoice in the maker

Making quotes in the same place as invoices means that when the client says yes, the invoice is already mostly written. Retyping lines from a PDF is where prices get mistyped and items go missing, so turn the accepted quote into an invoice instead:

1. Open the quote and set its status to accepted, so your list shows which quotes turned into work.
2. Choose "Create invoice from this" in the document menu. The lines, the client and the prices carry over, the new invoice gets the next number in your invoice series, and the original quote stays exactly as the client accepted it. The quote's own notes and terms, such as the validity date, don't carry over.
3. Check it against what actually happened: change any line where the work changed, set the invoice date and a due date that matches your payment terms, and add your payment terms and details in the notes.
4. Download the PDF or send it, set the status to sent, and mark it as paid when the money arrives.

Quotes are numbered in their own series, separate from invoices, so a declined quote doesn't leave a gap in your invoice numbers; the guide on how to number invoices explains why that matters. An invoice may also need details that a quote could do without, so give it a last read against the guide on how to make an invoice before you send it.

The invoice the maker produces is a PDF, not an e-invoice. A growing number of countries require invoices between businesses to be sent as structured e-invoices through an official network or platform, and a PDF doesn't meet that rule. If you and your client are both businesses in such a country, issue the invoice itself with software that supports e-invoicing; the quote can still be a PDF. The invoice guides cover the rules by country.

If clients take a while to decide, think about where your quotes are kept. Without an account, the browser you're using keeps up to three invoices or quotes, which suits a first job but not a month of quoting. A free account saves ten new invoices or quotes a month to your account, available on all your devices, so the quote you sent in March is still there to turn into an invoice in April.