Business Documents
Turn a scope of work into a professional quote with itemised pricing, validity dates and terms. Download it as a PDF and convert it to an invoice when the client accepts.
Overview
This free quote generator turns a scope of work into a professional quotation you can send before the job starts. Add a line for each deliverable, set how long the price stands, and download a PDF to email to the client — with the totals, tax and any optional extras calculated as you type.
A quote is how you win work, so it does two jobs at once. It has to be clear enough that a client can say yes without a follow-up call, and specific enough that neither side is surprised later about what was included. Vague pricing is the most common cause of a scope dispute halfway through a project.
Extras the client can decline get their own section. They are priced and visible, but deliberately excluded from the total being accepted, so a customer sees what an upgrade would cost without it inflating the figure they are agreeing to.
When a client accepts, one button carries the details straight into the invoice generator: same business, same client, same agreed lines, with the declined extras dropped and a due date set. Nothing is uploaded at any point — the quote is assembled and turned into a PDF entirely on your own device.
Step by step
Add a line for each deliverable with quantity and price. Mark items as optional if the client can choose.
Add how long the quote is valid for, payment terms and any conditions.
Download the PDF and send it to your client. Convert it to an invoice once they accept.
Background
A quote is a formal offer to do specific work for a stated price, valid until a stated date. It is not a request for payment and creates no obligation on either side until the client accepts it. Once they do accept within that validity period, most jurisdictions treat it as a binding agreement on the price — which is exactly why the expiry date matters.
That binding quality is what separates a quote from a rough figure given over the phone. If you name a price in writing and a client accepts it, you are generally committed to that price even if your costs have moved since. An expiry date is the mechanism that limits how long you carry that risk.
A good quote is therefore precise about three things: what is included, what it costs, and how long the offer stands. Everything else on the document — your branding, the terms, the acceptance instructions — exists to make saying yes easy and to make what was agreed unambiguous afterwards.
Reference
A quote is read by someone deciding whether to spend money, often alongside two competing documents. These are the fields that make that decision easy, and the ones whose absence causes the arguments that come later.
The word “Quote”
Label the document clearly. A client who mistakes a quote for an invoice may either pay early for work that has not started or, more often, file it and wait for a bill that never comes.
Required
A unique quote number
Give every quote its own reference so you and the client can refer to it precisely, and so the eventual invoice can cite it. Keep quote numbers in their own sequence, separate from invoices.
Required
Your business details
Trading name, address, contact details and any registration number. A client comparing two suppliers will notice which one looks like a real business, and finance teams often need the registration number to set you up as a supplier.
Required
The client's details
Name the entity you expect to contract with, not just the individual who asked. If the work is accepted, this is who the eventual invoice goes to, and correcting it later means reissuing both documents.
Required
Issue date and valid-until date
The expiry is the single most important field on a quote. Without it your price stands indefinitely, and a client can accept six-month-old pricing after your own costs have risen. Thirty days is the usual default.
Required
An itemised scope of work
One line per deliverable, described in the client's language rather than your internal shorthand. Itemising is also what lets a client trim the job rather than reject the whole quote when the total is more than they hoped.
Required
Quantity, unit price and total
Show the rate and how many units it covers. A client who can see the arithmetic can negotiate a specific line instead of asking you to reduce the whole figure, which almost always ends better for you.
Required
Tax treatment
State whether the prices include tax and at what rate. Ambiguity here is the classic reason an accepted quote turns into a dispute over the final bill being higher than the client expected.
Required
How to accept
Say what the client should do to proceed: reply in writing, sign and return, or issue a purchase order. A quote that does not say how to accept it relies on the client inventing a process.
Required
Optional extras
Price add-ons separately and keep them out of the headline total. It lets a client upgrade without renegotiating, and it stops your quote looking more expensive than a competitor's that simply left the extras out.
Optional
What is not included
Naming the obvious exclusions — travel, third-party licences, print costs, revisions beyond a stated number — prevents most scope disputes, and takes one line to do.
Optional
Payment schedule
For larger jobs, say when money is due: a deposit to start, a stage payment, the balance on delivery. Agreeing this before the work begins is far easier than raising it once you have started.
Optional
Who it helps
Most freelance work starts with someone asking what it would cost. A written quote with itemised phases and a thirty-day expiry answers that professionally, and gives you a document to point at when the brief grows later. It converts to an invoice once accepted, so the numbers are typed once.
Materials and labour usually carry different tax treatment and belong on separate lines. Optional extras — a better fitting, an additional room — can be priced without inflating the headline figure the customer is comparing against another quote.
Agency quotes are commercial documents that get circulated internally before anyone signs. Clear line items, explicit exclusions and a stated validity period mean the version approved by a procurement team matches what was actually offered.
If you quote regularly, consistency is what makes you look established: the same layout, the same terms, sequential numbering. Saving your details once means every quote afterwards starts from the same place instead of the last document you happened to open.
Early sales conversations often end with an informal number in an email, which is hard to hold anyone to. A proper quote with an expiry and written acceptance terms costs nothing extra and makes the commitment mutual.
Itemised pricing turns a negotiation about the total into a conversation about what to include. A client who wants to spend less can remove a line rather than ask you to discount everything, which protects both the relationship and your rate.
Do it properly
Thirty days is the common default; use less if your material costs or availability move quickly. Without an expiry you are exposed to a client accepting old pricing long after your costs changed, and in most places that acceptance is binding.
A single figure gives a client only two options: accept or reject. An itemised quote gives them a third — adjust the scope — which is how a quote that was too expensive becomes a job you win at a rate you are happy with.
One short exclusions line prevents most scope arguments. Travel, third-party licences, print or hosting costs, and revisions beyond an agreed number are the usual candidates, and naming them reads as thoroughness rather than meanness.
Keeping add-ons out of the headline total means your quote is compared fairly against one that omitted them, while still showing the client what an upgrade costs. It also makes an upsell a decision rather than a renegotiation.
Ask for written acceptance before the expiry date, or a purchase order if the client's process requires one. A clear instruction shortens the gap between a client deciding to proceed and you being able to start.
Two sequences, two purposes. Reusing a quote's reference on the eventual invoice breaks the invoice sequence your accounts depend on; cite the quote number as a reference on the invoice instead.
Avoid these
Sending a quote with no expiry date
Set a valid-until date on every quote. An open-ended offer can be accepted months later at a price that no longer covers your costs, and once accepted within its terms you are generally committed to it.
Calling a fixed price an estimate
Use the right word. An estimate signals the final figure may move; a quote signals it will not. Mislabelling either one sets an expectation you will have to argue with later, usually when the invoice arrives.
Quoting a single lump sum for a multi-part job
Break the work into lines the client can recognise. It makes the price defensible, lets the client adjust scope instead of walking away, and gives you a natural structure for stage payments.
Leaving tax treatment ambiguous
State whether prices include or exclude tax, and at what rate. A client budgeting from a tax-exclusive figure they read as inclusive will dispute the invoice, and they will usually be the one who feels misled.
Burying optional extras in the total
List them separately and keep them out of the headline figure. Otherwise your quote looks more expensive than a competitor's that simply left the extras off, and the client has no way to see why.
Starting work on a verbal yes
Ask for acceptance in writing before the expiry date, even if it is only a reply to your email. It costs the client nothing and gives you a record of what was agreed and when, which is the thing you will need if the scope is questioned.
FAQ
The Quote Generator is at the top of this page — free, no signup, nothing uploaded.
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