What a quotation has to do
Three jobs, in order of how often they are botched: state a price, fix the scope that price covers, and set a date after which neither applies.
- Your details and the client's, in full.
- A quotation number from its own series.
- The date, and a valid until date.
- Line items with quantity, unit and rate — the same shape as the eventual invoice.
- Tax shown as an estimate, and clearly labelled as such.
- What is explicitly not included.
- Payment terms and the schedule, if it is staged.
The generator's Quotation type prints a “Valid until” date in place of a due date and labels the figure an estimated total, because a quotation with a due date on it reads as a demand for money nobody has agreed to yet.
The exclusions list is the important half
Almost every dispute about a quotation is about something that was never in it. Whatever your quote covers, name the adjacent things it does not — third-party licences, content, hosting, hardware, travel, a second round of revisions, anything that will be assumed included because it usually is.
Three lines in the notes field is enough. It is the cheapest insurance in commercial writing, and it makes you look precise rather than defensive.
Quotation or estimate?
| Estimate | Quotation | |
|---|---|---|
| Precision | Approximate | Fixed |
| Changes later | Expected to | Should not |
| Use it for | Undefined or exploratory work | Defined scope |
| Client reads it as | A ballpark | A price |
If the scope is genuinely not knowable yet, say estimate and say why. Sending a firm-looking quotation for work you cannot yet scope produces an argument later that you will lose, because the document said quotation.
After it is accepted
Get the acceptance in writing — an email saying “approved” against a quotation number is sufficient and has settled more disputes than any contract clause. Then keep the same line items and switch the document type, so the invoice the client eventually receives is recognisably the thing they agreed to.