Electrical quotes fail in the same four places: materials creep, testing time nobody costed, making good left out, and exclusions written after the argument started. Here is a method that closes all four.
Ask ten self-employed electricians how they quote and you get ten different answers, most of them built on the last similar job and a gut feeling about how long it took. That works until it does not: a consumer unit swap that runs into a borrowed neutral, a rewire where the client adds “just a couple of sockets” three days in, or a job where the certificate and the notification take an unpaid afternoon.
The fix is not a fancier template. It is deciding what the quote is made of before you price it, then using AI to write it up once you have.
What a quote has to contain before price is mentioned
Most underpriced jobs are not underpriced on labour. They are underpriced because a category of work never made it onto the page. On electrical work those categories are consistent:
- Labour by task, not by day. “Second fix, 2 days” hides the difference between fitting ten sockets and fitting ten sockets in a boarded loft.
- Materials with a stated allowance. Cable, containment, accessories, and a figure for consumables. An allowance is honest; silence is not.
- Testing, certification and notification. Whatever applies where you work, this is time you do not get to skip. Price it as a line, or it silently comes out of your margin.
- Making good. Chases, lifting and relaying floors, filling. Either include a stated amount or exclude it explicitly.
- Access and working conditions. Height, occupied premises, out-of-hours working, isolation and shutdown time.
- Exclusions in their own list. Not “some making good” buried in a paragraph. Their own heading, because that list is what you point at later.
- Validity and payment terms. How long the price holds, what the deposit is, when the balance falls due.
Write these seven headings into a document once. From then on quoting is filling them in rather than starting from a blank page, which is also the point where AI stops being a novelty and becomes useful.
Price it from cost and margin, not from the last job
The arithmetic that prevents most mistakes is simple, and it is not the same as adding a percentage on top of your costs. Markup and margin are different numbers. If a job costs you 800 and you add 25 percent markup you charge 1,000 and make 20 percent margin, not 25.
Work the job out properly: labour hours at your real cost per hour, materials at cost, subcontractors, other direct costs, then overhead. Divide by one minus your target margin and you have a price that holds up. The job profit calculator does that arithmetic and shows what happens if the client negotiates you down, which is usually the moment the margin disappears.
Two numbers are worth knowing before you touch a quote: what an hour of your time must earn across a year (the hourly rate calculator), and what your overhead costs per billable hour (the overhead calculator). Electricians who quote from memory are usually quoting from the version of their costs that was true two years ago.
A worked example: consumer unit plus three sockets
A domestic consumer unit replacement with three additional double sockets in a downstairs room. A plausible build-up:
- Labour: 9 hours at 32 = 288
- Materials: unit, devices, cable, containment = 240
- Testing and certification allowance: 1.5 hours = 48
- Making good, stated: 40
- Overhead at 15 percent of direct cost: 92
Direct cost lands at 616 and the overhead share brings it to about 708. At a 30 percent target margin the price is 1,011, so quote somewhere near 1,020 with the certificate and making good written as separate lines. Notice what happened: the two lines most often forgotten, testing and making good, are worth 88 before any margin. On a job that size, that is the difference between a good day and an average one.
Writing the quote in twenty minutes
Once the build-up exists, the writing is mechanical, and that is exactly what a language model is good at. Give it the numbers and the scope. Do not ask it to invent a price, a rate, or a regulation, because it will, confidently.
The reusable prompt
You are writing a first-draft electrical quotation for a small contractor. SCOPE (from my site notes): [replace with the actual tasks, e.g. replace consumer unit, add 3 double sockets to living room, test and certify] PRICE BUILD-UP (do not alter any of these figures): [labour hours and rate, materials, testing allowance, making good, overhead, target margin, final price] EXCLUSIONS I always apply: [your standard list] PAYMENT TERMS: [deposit %, balance timing] QUOTE VALIDITY: [e.g. 30 days] Rules: - Do not invent a rate, duration, material, regulation, certificate or discount. - Use only the figures above. If something needed is missing, write MISSING in capitals rather than guessing. - Structure: summary line, what is included, what is not included, price with labour/materials/testing shown as separate lines, terms, validity. - Plain British English, short sentences, no sales adjectives. - Maximum 350 words.
Read the draft as a client would. The two things to check are that the exclusions list survived intact and that no number changed. Models occasionally “tidy” a figure into a rounder one, which is the single most dangerous thing that can happen to a quote.
The objection you will actually get
“The other quote was lower” arrives on most jobs above a few hundred pounds. The answer is not a discount, it is a difference in scope made visible. That is why the exclusions list exists: it lets you say what the other price probably does not include without accusing anyone of anything.
Prompt for the price objection
A domestic client says my quote of [your price] is higher than another electrician's quote of [their price]. What my price includes: [list, e.g. certification and notification, making good, 30-day validity, 12-month workmanship guarantee] What I know about the other quote: [only what the client told you, or "nothing"] Write a reply of under 160 words that: - does not discount and does not apologise for the price - asks which items of my scope their quote covers, as a genuine question - offers to reprice a reduced scope if they want a lower number - keeps the relationship intact if they go elsewhere - no sarcasm, no defensiveness, no em dashes
Genuine negotiation is fine, if it comes with reduced scope. A lower price for the same work is not a negotiation, it is a donation.
Variations: the sentence that saves the job
Every quote says what is included. Almost no quote says what happens when the client changes their mind, which is how “just one more socket” turns into three hours you never billed. A standing variation clause, sent as a short written notice before the extra work starts, is worth more than most people’s entire marketing effort.
Prompt for a variation notice
Write a short variation notice for an electrical job already underway. Original scope: [what was quoted] Additional work requested by the client: [the extra] Additional cost: [your figure] Effect on programme: [e.g. adds half a day, or no change] Rules: under 120 words, numbered as a variation to the original quote, state that the extra work is not covered by the original price, ask for written approval before starting, no pressure language, no invented lead times beyond what I have given you.
Where AI should stop
Three things stay with you. The price, because a model has no idea what your materials cost this month. The technical content, because compliance and certification are your professional liability and no assistant carries insurance. And the judgement about whether a client is worth the job at all, which is the most profitable decision you make on any quote and the one nobody can make for you.
Used this way the assistant is a fast typist with a good memory for structure. Combined with the quote builder, the sequence becomes: build the job cost, price it to a margin, write the quote, send it the same day. The same-day part matters more than people expect, because the electrician who quotes first usually wins regardless of price.
Frequently asked questions
Should I quote a fixed price or an hourly rate plus materials?
Fixed price for defined domestic work, because it is what clients ask for and it protects you from a slow day. Hourly or day-rate is defensible for fault-finding, where nobody can know the scope until the fault is found. Say which one you are doing before you start, or the invoice becomes a negotiation.
How much contingency belongs in an electrical quote?
For domestic work a contingency of 10 to 15 percent of labour is normal on anything involving existing wiring, and it should be in your calculation rather than in your head. On new build or planned work it can be lower. If you have never had to use contingency on your jobs, your quotes are probably too high rather than your contingency too cautious.
Can AI write the technical detail of a quote?
It can write the shape of it: what testing covers, why a certificate is included, what making good means. It cannot tell you what applies to this installation, and it will invent a regulation number if pressed. Treat every technical sentence as a draft you are professionally responsible for.
How long should a quote stay valid?
Thirty days is common and easy to justify, because cable and board prices move. State the validity and the reason. A quote with no expiry date is an option you have given the client to buy at last year’s prices.
What if the client wants a breakdown of my labour rate?
You can show labour hours without showing your internal cost per hour. “Nine hours of installation labour” is informative. Your margin is not the client’s business, and an itemised breakdown of it invites a conversation you cannot win.
Last reviewed and updated on November 10, 2026.
