How to write a quote for a job: a UK guide for builders

To write a quote for a job, write down exactly what you will do and what you will not, an itemised price with VAT shown the right way for the customer, how and when they pay, when you start and how long the price stands. If the customer is a homeowner who agrees at their home, the law also asks for a 14-day cancellation notice and form before they are bound.

Search "how to write a quote for a job" and page one is mostly job-software firms, most of them American (checked 27 October 2026). This guide works from UK rules instead: the regulations themselves on legislation.gov.uk, and HMRC's and Trading Standards' own guidance, all read on 27 October 2026.

It is written for builders and the trades who work alongside them. If you want the document itself, the builder quote template turns everything below into a finished quote in your browser, in Word or PDF. We also build websites for construction firms, where the quote form and the payment stages sit on the site, so a customer has read your terms before you arrive.

This is guidance, not legal advice. For a large job, a commercial contract or anything unusual, speak to a solicitor before you sign.

What goes on a quote for a building job?

Enough that the customer knows exactly what they are buying and you can hold them to it. That means who you are, what you will and will not do, the price with VAT, when they pay, when you start, how long the price stands and how changes are agreed.

On the quote	Why it is there
Your business name, address, phone, email, VAT number if registered	A homeowner must be told who you are, your address and your phone number before they are bound (Consumer Contracts Regulations, Schedules 1 and 2)
Quote number, date and "valid until" date	So both of you know which version was accepted and when the price ends
The customer and the site address	The work is tied to one place
The scope in plain words, with what is included and what is not	What you write becomes a term of the contract if the customer relies on it (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 50)
An itemised price: labour and materials, by section	nibusinessinfo advises a detailed breakdown in writing, to avoid disputes about what the price includes
Provisional sums and PC sums, marked as such	They are allowances, not fixed prices, and the customer needs to see which lines can move
VAT, shown for the customer type	A homeowner must be given the total price including taxes (Schedules 1 and 2)
Deposit, stage payments and balance	A homeowner agreeing away from your premises must be told about any deposit and its conditions (Schedule 2, item (u))
Start date and how long the work takes	Without one, the law implies a reasonable time (section 52), which is harder to argue about than a date
Your terms, including variations and late payment	Agreed before the work, so you can rely on them later
A place to accept, and the cancellation notice and form where they apply	Proof of what was agreed, and the paperwork a homeowner is owed

The builder quote template has a field for each of these, so you can use the table as a checklist.

How do you write a quote for a job, step by step?

The same eight steps work for a boiler swap or an extension. They follow the order of the builder in the quote tool.

1. Visit, measure and photograph. Price what you have seen, not what the customer described on the phone.
2. Write the scope. List the work in plain words, then what is not included: the skip, building control fees, making good, decorating, anything the customer is supplying.
3. Price it in sections, with labour and materials on separate lines. The day rate calculator gives you a labour rate that covers your costs and the days you cannot bill, and the markup calculator puts your margin on materials.
4. Mark anything you cannot see as a provisional sum, such as timber repairs once the roof is stripped. Mark items the customer will choose, such as tiles or a suite, as PC (prime cost) sums.
5. Work out VAT for the customer type. The rules are in the VAT section below.
6. Set the payment stages: a deposit, payments tied to finished stages, and the balance on completion.
7. Add your terms and the date the price ends. Include how changes are agreed and what happens if a payment is late.
8. Send it quickly. Our suggestion is within a day of the visit, while the job is fresh in the customer's mind.

What is the difference between a quote and an estimate?

A quote is a fixed price for defined work; an estimate is an approximate price that may change. The Northern Ireland government's business site, nibusinessinfo, puts it in those terms, and adds that you must keep to a quoted price "even if you carry out more work than you expected".

So send an estimate when you cannot see enough to fix a price, such as before the floor is up, and follow it with a quote before work starts. Write "Quote" or "Estimate" at the top, because the word tells the customer whether the figure can move. If you call something an estimate but mean to hold the customer to it, you have told them the opposite.

If nothing fixes the price at all, the Consumer Rights Act says a homeowner pays "a reasonable price for the service, and no more" (section 51). A written quote settles what that is before anyone argues.

How should VAT show on a quote?

It depends on who the customer is and whether you are VAT registered. Homeowners get prices including VAT; business customers get prices excluding VAT with the VAT shown separately; and if you are not registered, you add no VAT at all.

Homeowners: show the price including VAT. The Consumer Contracts Regulations require the total price "inclusive of taxes" before a consumer is bound, and the Competition and Markets Authority's price guidance names VAT as a mandatory charge that should normally be in the total. A homeowner quote that leads with "£3,500 plus VAT" leads with a figure they cannot pay. Show every line and the total including VAT, and say "prices include VAT" once.

Business customers: lines excluding VAT, then the VAT and the total. That mirrors what your VAT invoice will show later: for each line the rate of VAT and the amount excluding VAT, then the total VAT (VAT Notice 700, paragraph 16.3). HMRC's VAT Notice 708 says work to an existing building is normally standard rated at 20%, with exceptions: renovating empty homes and some conversions are 5%, and building new homes is 0%. Check anything unusual with your accountant.

Not VAT registered: no VAT, and say so. GOV.UK is plain: "You must register for VAT to start charging VAT." You must register once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it to in the next 30 days. If one large job could take you over, talk to your accountant before you price it.

Three VAT points catch builders out:

• A quote is not a VAT invoice. It is an offer. HMRC's rule for invoice-style offers (pro-formas) is that they cannot be used to reclaim VAT and should be marked "this is not a VAT invoice" (VAT Notice 700, paragraph 17.3). The VAT invoice comes when you bill, and for a VAT-registered customer it is normally due within 30 days of the tax point (paragraph 16.2).
• VAT is due on the deposit. Most deposits are advance payments, so receiving one creates a tax point (paragraph 14.2.3). Invoice the deposit with its VAT.
• If the VAT rate changes before the work is done, the price moves with it unless your contract says otherwise (paragraph 30.15).

On work reported under CIS, where both of you are VAT registered, HMRC's domestic reverse charge usually applies instead and the contractor accounts for the VAT; the builder quote template sets out the wording.

How much deposit should you take, and when are stage payments due?

No amount is set in the consumer rules this guide covers. What protects both sides is a deposit that covers the materials you order, payments tied to finished stages on anything longer than a week, and the balance once the snagging is done. Our quote tool's worked example uses 20%, 50% and 30%; pick the split that fits the job.

Two rules shape it with a homeowner who agrees at their home or at a distance:

• Tell them about the deposit before they are bound. Schedule 2 of the Regulations lists "the existence and the conditions of deposits" among the things you must give them.
• A deposit taken inside the 14 days is refundable if they cancel. The Regulations make you reimburse "all payments" within 14 days of being told (regulation 34), unless they asked you to start early, in which case they pay for the work done.

On construction work for a business customer, the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives you a right to stage payments unless the work is agreed to last less than 45 days (section 109). It does not apply to work on a home the customer lives in (section 106), so with homeowners the stages are only what your quote says.

Put late payment in your terms too. A business customer owes statutory interest at 8% over the Bank of England reference rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, but a homeowner owes interest only if your terms said so before the job. The late payment interest calculator works out what you can charge, and if a stage payment does not arrive, the guide to a customer refusing to pay sets out the steps.

How long should a quote be valid for?

As long as you can hold the price. The rules in this guide set no period, but nibusinessinfo suggests you "set an expiry date, after which the quote or estimate will no longer be valid". We use 30 days by default in our quote tool: long enough for a customer to decide, short enough that material prices have not moved far.

Write the date, not just "30 days", so nobody has to work it out. If the customer comes back after it, confirm the price in writing before you start, either the same figure or a new one. Shorten the period when prices are moving, for example on timber or steel, and say so on the quote.

How do you handle variations and extras?

Agree every change in writing before you do it, with the price and any extra time. The Consumer Rights Act treats what you told a homeowner about the job as part of the contract, subject only to changes "expressly agreed" between you (section 50), so an extra done on a nod is an extra you may not be paid for.

A variation needs four things, and a text or email that the customer replies "yes" to is enough to prove them:

1. What is changing, in the same plain words as the scope.
2. The price of the change, or how it will be worked out.
3. Any change to the finish date.
4. The customer's agreement, before the work starts.

Provisional sums and PC sums work the same way. When the real cost is known, tell the customer the figure and show it against the allowance on your next invoice. Put a line in your terms that changes are only made once agreed in writing, and the conversation is easier when it comes.

When can a homeowner cancel, and when can you start?

A homeowner can cancel within 14 days, without giving a reason, if they agreed the contract at their home or on site, straight after you had been round, or at a distance by phone or email. You must give them the cancellation information and a cancellation form before they are bound, and you should not start inside the 14 days unless they ask you to, in writing if they agreed at their home.

When it applies. The Consumer Contracts Regulations cover a consumer, meaning someone acting outside their trade or business. The right to cancel applies to:

• Off-premises contracts: agreed with you in their home or anywhere that is not your business premises, or agreed straight after you met them there.
• Distance contracts: agreed by phone, email or online without you meeting, where that is an organised way you sell. Business Companion says a one-off is unlikely to count.

When it does not. Trading Standards' Business Companion guide makes the point that matters most to builders: if you visit, leave or send a quote, and the customer decides later, that is an on-premises contract with no right to cancel. It becomes off-premises if they agree there and then, or immediately after you have left. There is also no right to cancel on:

• off-premises contracts of £42 or less (regulation 27);
• the construction of new buildings, or substantially new buildings by conversion, which the Regulations exclude altogether (regulation 6);
• a visit the customer asked for to carry out urgent repairs, though any extra work you add on that visit is covered (regulation 28).

Business customers are not covered at all.

What you must give, and when. Before the customer is bound: the information in Schedule 2 of the Regulations, including the cancellation rights, and the model cancellation form, on paper or, if they agree, email (regulation 10). The model wording in Schedule 3 counts if you fill it in correctly. Business Companion says that not giving the cancellation information is a criminal offence.

How long it lasts. The period ends 14 days after the day the contract is made (regulation 30). Agreed on a Monday, it runs to the end of the Monday two weeks later. If you leave the cancellation information out, the period runs until 14 days after you give it, and up to 12 months longer than normal if you never do (regulation 31).

Starting inside the 14 days. You must not start unless the customer makes an express request, on paper or email for an off-premises contract (regulation 36). If they asked and then cancel, they pay for the work done up to that point, in proportion to the whole job. If they did not ask, or you never gave the cancellation information, they pay nothing for it. The builder quote template adds the notice, the form and an early-start request to the acceptance page when the customer is a homeowner accepting away from your premises.

When should you get legal advice?

When the job is large, when a commercial customer sends its own contract, or when you are not sure the cancellation rules apply. A quote and your terms cover most domestic work; above that, a standard building contract and a solicitor's read usually cost less than a dispute.

The duties that come with every service to a homeowner apply whatever your quote says: the work must be done with reasonable care and skill (Consumer Rights Act, section 49), and a term that tries to exclude that is not binding on them (section 57). Write your terms to explain how you work, not to take those rights away.