Quote vs invoice: what's the difference?
A quote (or estimate) comes before the work and tells the client what the job will cost, so they can accept it or say no. An invoice comes after the work and asks them to pay.
What each document contains, how an estimate differs from a quote, and how an accepted quote becomes an invoice.
The order of documents in a job
Most jobs that are more than a quick sale follow the same order. Before you start, you send the client an estimate or a quote that says what you'll do and what it will cost. The client reads it, perhaps asks a question or two, and then accepts it or turns it down. Only once you've done the work or delivered the goods do you send an invoice, which asks for the money and tells the client how and by when to pay.
So the difference between a quote and an invoice comes down to timing and purpose. A quote is an offer: it describes the job and the price so the client can decide, and it doesn't ask anyone to pay anything yet. An invoice is a request for payment for work that has been done, or for a deposit you agreed on, and it's the document both of you will record in your books. That's why an invoice carries things a quote doesn't need, such as a due date and your bank details, and why your accountant asks for your invoices but rarely for your quotes.
After the invoice, a client sometimes asks for one more document, a receipt, which confirms that they have paid; how an invoice differs from a receipt explains when you need one. The table below sums up the three documents that come before the money changes hands, and the sections that follow explain each row.
| Estimate | Quote | Invoice | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When you send it | Before the work | Before the work | After the work, or for an agreed deposit |
| What it's for | A best guess at the cost | A fixed price for a defined job | Asking to be paid |
| The amount | Can move within the range you gave | Stays the same unless the job changes | What the client owes now |
Estimate vs quote: a best guess or a fixed price
People use "estimate" and "quote" as if they meant the same thing, and in some trades they do. When the two are kept apart, though, the difference matters a great deal to the client. An estimate is your best guess at the cost, based on what you know now, and it tells the client to expect a final figure somewhere near it. A quote is a fixed price for a job you've described, and the client can count on it as long as the job stays the same.
An estimate fits work you can't measure in advance. A plumber who can't see behind the wall, or a developer asked to fix a bug nobody has traced yet, can only say roughly how long it will take, so an estimate based on an hourly rate is the honest answer. A good estimate says how far off it might be, for example "estimated at 12 to 16 hours at $85 an hour, so $1,020 to $1,360", and promises to check with the client before going over the top figure. The final invoice then won't match the estimate to the dollar, but it won't come as a surprise either.
A quote fits work you can pin down: a logo with two rounds of changes, a five-page website, a kitchen installed to an agreed plan. Because the client will expect to pay exactly that price, the quote has to describe the job precisely, including what isn't included, so that anything extra later is clearly extra. If you're unsure which one to send, ask yourself whether you'd be happy doing the job for that exact number. If you wouldn't, it's an estimate, and you should call it one on the document.
What a quote and an invoice contain
A quote and an invoice look alike, and that's no accident, because the invoice is usually the quote's lines carried over once the work is done. Both show your name and contact details, the client's name and address, a number and a date, the items with quantities and prices, any tax, and the total. What sets them apart is what each needs on top of that, and it follows from what each document is for.
A quote has to help the client decide, so it describes the job in enough detail that they know what they're buying: the scope, what's included and what isn't, and roughly when you can start. It should say how long the offer stands, for example "This quote is valid for 30 days", because your prices and your calendar won't stay the same forever. It should also tell the client how to accept, such as by replying to your email with the quote number. The free quote template has a place for each of these.
An invoice has to get you paid and work in your bookkeeping, so it adds an invoice date, a due date and your payment details, and it mentions the quote or the client's purchase order number so their accounts team can match it to what they approved. Which other details an invoice must show depends on the country and on whether you charge VAT or sales tax. The guide to what an invoice is and what it contains explains the general picture, and the guides for each country cover the local rules.
Both documents get a number, but they shouldn't share one series. Many quotes are never accepted, so if quotes and invoices took numbers from the same counter, your invoices would run 41, 44, 45 with gaps you'd have to explain to your accountant, and a client could pay against a quote number by mistake. Keep one series for quotes and another for invoices, and put the quote number on the invoice so the two stay linked. The guide to invoice numbers explains how to set up a numbering scheme that lasts.
What accepting a quote means in practice
When the client accepts your quote, the two of you have agreed on what you'll do and what it will cost. In practice that means you can book the time, the client can set the money aside, and the invoice you send later should match the quote unless something changed along the way. How far an accepted quote binds either side in law depends on where you work and on what the quote says, which is beyond this page; what matters day to day is having a clear yes in writing. An email that says "Yes, please go ahead with quote 17" is far easier to point back to than a phone call that each of you remembers differently.
Jobs change, though. The client asks for an extra page, or the wall turns out to be rotten behind the tiles. When the scope changes, don't quietly add the extra to the final invoice and hope the client doesn't mind; send a revised quote, or at least an email with the extra cost, and wait for a yes before you do the work. The invoice can then show the original lines plus the agreed extras, each on its own line, so the client can check every line against something they approved.
If the client says no, or simply never replies, nothing more is needed than a note on your side that the quote was declined. It's worth keeping the quote anyway, because a declined quote tells you something: if half your quotes for one kind of job are turned down, your price or the way you describe the job may be the problem. And if the client comes back months later, you have the old figures to start from, though you'd usually send a fresh quote at today's prices rather than reuse one that has expired.
From quote to invoice in the maker
The maker makes both quotes and invoices, and "Create invoice from this" turns an accepted quote into an invoice, so you don't have to type anything twice. Quotes and invoices each have their own number series that counts up by itself, and a quote can be marked accepted or declined, so you can keep track of which offers are still open. There's no separate estimate document: to send an estimate, make a quote and say in the notes that the figures are an estimate, with the range and the hourly rate.
Once you know what the job is, these are the steps from the quote to the invoice:
- Make the quote with your client, the lines with quantity, unit and price, and the tax rate on each line. Put the validity period and anything that isn't included in the notes, then download the PDF and send it to the client.
- When the client says yes, set the quote's status to accepted.
- Choose "Create invoice from this" in the document menu. The client, the lines and the prices carry over, the new invoice gets the next invoice number, and the quote's own terms, such as how long it was valid, stay behind.
- Add the invoice date and the due date, check that your payment details are filled in, and put the quote number in the notes or in a custom field as a reference. If the job changed, add the agreed extras as new lines.
- Download or print the invoice, or with a free account send it by email or as a link, and set its status to sent. Mark it paid once the money arrives.
Because the invoice is a new document, the accepted quote is still saved with its own number, and you can always look back at exactly what the client agreed to. Without an account, the browser keeps up to three invoices or quotes, which covers a single job but won't hold a record of your work over time. A free account saves up to 10 new invoices or quotes a month to your account and shows them on all your devices, so the quote and the invoice for each job stay side by side. One limit matters before you send an invoice to a business client: in some countries, invoices to business clients have to be e-invoices sent through an official system. The PDF the maker produces isn't an e-invoice, so check the guide for your country before you send one to a business.
Make it now, free
The invoice maker opens set up for this: fill in your details, add your items, download the PDF. No account needed.
Create a quote or invoice →FAQ
Is a quote the same as a pro forma invoice?
Not quite. A pro forma invoice looks like an invoice but is sent before the work or delivery, often so the client can pay in advance or get the purchase approved, and it isn't the real invoice for the job. A quote also states the price in advance, but it doesn't look like a bill. The maker makes both: send a quote if your client only needs the price in writing, and a proforma invoice if they want to pay or approve the purchase before the real invoice.
Do I need a quote before every invoice?
Usually not, unless the client or your line of work expects one. For small jobs, regular clients or work at a price the client already knows, many freelancers go straight to the invoice. A quote earns its place when the amount is large, the client is new, or there's any chance the two of you picture the job differently, because it's much easier to agree on a price before the work than to argue about it afterwards.
How long should a quote stay valid?
That's up to you, and many businesses choose 14 or 30 days. Pick a period short enough that your prices and your availability won't have changed by the time the client says yes, and write it on the quote, for example 'Valid for 30 days from the date above'. If the client accepts after that, you can still agree to the old price or send a new quote.
Can I ask for a deposit when the client accepts?
Yes, and for larger jobs many freelancers do. Say in the quote how much you'll ask for up front, send an invoice for the deposit when the client accepts, and send a final invoice for the rest when the work is done. The final invoice should show the full price, the deposit already paid and the balance due, so the client can see that the two invoices add up to the quote.
Should a quote include sales tax or VAT?
If you'll charge tax on the invoice, show it on the quote too, so the total the client accepts is the total they'll pay. A client who budgets $2,000 and then gets an invoice for $2,165 with tax added will feel misled, even though the tax itself is correct. In the maker you set the tax rate on each line of the quote, and it carries over when you turn the quote into an invoice.
Related
Updated 7 November 2026