A quote builder should take the thing you already know how to do and remove the two hours it takes to write it down. This one does that: you add line items, the totals work themselves out, and you get a quote a client can read without calling you to ask what is included.
It runs entirely in your browser. No account, no upload, nothing saved on our server, and no third-party service holding your client’s details.
How the quote builder works
Four steps, and the whole thing takes about as long as writing the quote by hand used to take before you had to check the arithmetic.
- Add your details. Business name, client, quote number and a job title that identifies the property or the work.
- Add line items. One line per piece of work or material. Quantity times unit price gives the line total, and the subtotal updates as you type.
- Set tax and deposit. Pick your currency, add a VAT or tax rate and a deposit percentage if you take one. The deposit due and the balance appear underneath.
- Write what is included and what is not. This is the part that decides whether you get paid without an argument.
When it reads right, print it to PDF or copy it as text. Nothing else to do.
What a quote needs to survive the first week
Most quotes are not rejected because the price is wrong. They are rejected because the client cannot tell what they are buying, or because the price did not explain itself. A quote that holds up has four things:
- A scope written in the client’s language. “Supply and fit 12 oak-faced cabinet doors” beats “joinery works”.
- An exclusions list. Short, plain, and specific about the things that would change the price.
- An assumption or two. Access, parking, who clears the room, whether the client supplies materials.
- A validity date. Thirty days is normal. It gives you a clean reason to re-price if material costs move.
Inclusions and exclusions that stop arguments
The exclusions box is where contractors lose money, because it feels rude to write “we are not moving your furniture”. It is not rude, it is precise, and it is the difference between a conversation in week one and a dispute in week six. Write the three or four things you would otherwise absorb: hauling, permits, making good after other trades, replacing anything found to be rotten.
If you want help drafting that language in your own voice, writing quotes and estimates with AI covers the prompt and the review habit.
Deposit and payment terms
A deposit percentage is not greed, it is a filter: it tells you whether the client is serious before you order materials. Whatever you choose, put the terms on the quote rather than in a separate email, because that is the document the client keeps. On larger jobs, a schedule of payments tied to milestones is easier to enforce than one lump sum at the end.
Mistakes that quietly lose the job
- Quoting a range. It reads as uncertainty, and the client hears the top number anyway.
- No exclusions. The fastest route to unpaid extra work.
- Slow turnaround. The first clear quote often wins even when it is not the cheapest.
- No follow-up. A short message two days later recovers a surprising number of quotes, and it takes a minute.
Where this fits
Trade-specific versions of the same workflow are covered in the guide for contractors and the guide for cleaning businesses. If you are still choosing what to run alongside this, the AI tools directory lists what each one is actually good at.
Questions about the quote builder
Is it really free, and do I need an account?
Yes, free and no account. There is nothing to sign up for and no watermark on the printout.
Where is my client’s information stored?
Nowhere. The calculations happen in your browser and the page sends nothing to our server. If you close the tab, the quote is gone, so copy or print it before you do.
Can I use it for estimates as well as quotes?
Yes. The line-item structure is the same; rename the quote number to “EST-001” if you want to signal it is an estimate rather than a fixed price. Only do that if the numbers really are firm, though, because a client will read “estimate” as negotiable.
Does it work on a phone?
It does, and the layout collapses to a single column. Writing a full quote on a phone is slow, so the practical use is adding a line item or checking a total while you are on site.