What this estimate generator does
An estimate or quote tells a client what a job will cost before any work starts. This tool builds one from your lines and prices, works out the tax and the total, adds a valid-until date and a deposit request, and produces a PDF you can email, print or hand over on site.
It is free, with no account and no watermark. It shares one engine with the invoice generator and the receipt maker, so a quote can become an invoice, and a payment against that invoice can become a receipt, without typing the job out again. For the step-by-step craft of writing the price itself, read how to write an estimate.
Estimate or quote: which title to use
In everyday business the two words usually mean different things. A quote is normally read as a firm price for the work described: do this, pay that. An estimate is normally read as a best guess that may change once the work is under way, common for repairs and building work where the full job is unknown until it starts.
Nothing in the word itself settles which one you gave. What matters is what you wrote. Under the UK’s Consumer Rights Act 2015, anything a trader says or writes to a consumer about the service is treated as a term of the contract if the consumer takes it into account when deciding to go ahead (section 50, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/50). Where a contract does not fix a price at all, the consumer must pay a reasonable price and no more (section 51, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/51).
If the price is fixed, choose Quote or Quotation and describe the scope it covers. If it may move, choose Estimate and use the notes to say what could change it. The number label (“Quote no.” or “Estimate no.”), the total label (“Quote total” or “Estimated total”) and the PDF file name all follow the title. The invoice vs receipt vs quote guide sets estimates and quotes beside pro formas, invoices and receipts.
How to make an estimate or quote, step by step
- Add your business details and tax ID if you have one, and upload a logo. They are remembered in this browser for every estimate, invoice and receipt.
- Add the client under “Prepared for”, or pick a saved client. Switch on “Work or delivery at a different address” if the job is at a site rather than the client’s billing address.
- Choose Estimate, Quote or Quotation. Keep the suggested number (EST-0001, then EST-0002 and so on) or set your own prefix, and add a reference or project name if the client uses one.
- Set the date and how long the price holds: 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days, or a custom date.
- Add one line per part of the job with a description, quantity, unit and unit price. Add line discounts, an overall discount, taxes and any delivery charge or fee.
- Enter a deposit to accept, write the scope and exclusions in the notes, add your terms and say how the deposit should be paid. Add your signature if you want the quote signed on your side too.
- Pick a template and accent colour, check the preview, then download or print the PDF. Save it to History so you can find it, duplicate it or convert it later.
Who uses a quote maker, and what goes on theirs
The same fields serve very different trades. Typical set-ups look like this:
- Builders and trades (plumbers, electricians, decorators, roofers): labour by the hour or day, materials as separate lines, skip hire or waste removal as a fee, the site address, a deposit to secure the start date and a clear note on what happens if hidden problems appear once walls or floors are opened.
- Cleaners: a quote per visit or per room, a one-off deep clean priced separately from regular visits, extras such as ovens or windows on their own lines and a note on who supplies products.
- Landscapers and gardeners: design, clearance, planting and hard landscaping as separate stages, plants and materials with quantities, and an estimate title where ground conditions are unknown until digging starts.
- Designers and developers: fixed-fee packages or phases, a stated number of revision rounds, a deposit before work begins, and exclusions such as stock images, hosting or third-party licences.
- Event suppliers (caterers, photographers, florists, equipment hire): per-head or per-item pricing, the event date as a custom field, a deposit to hold the date and a short validity because diaries fill up.
- Repair shops (vehicles, devices, appliances): a diagnostic fee, parts and labour lines, and an estimate rather than a quote until the fault is confirmed, with a promise to call before exceeding the figure.
What a professional estimate contains
A client often compares your estimate against others line by line, and a vague one loses to a clear one. A complete estimate shows:
- your business details and the client’s, so it is clear who is offering what to whom
- a unique number and a date, so later conversations can refer to exactly this version
- a valid-until date, so an old price cannot be held against you after your costs have changed
- the work broken into lines with quantities and unit prices, rather than one lump sum
- taxes shown separately, and whether your prices include them
- the scope in plain words: what is included and, just as important, what is not
- the deposit you need before starting, and how to pay it
- your terms: how changes to the scope are priced, and what happens if the job is cancelled
Pricing the lines: labour, materials and fees
Break the job into lines the client can check. Labour usually reads best as hours or days times a rate, materials as quantities times unit prices, and one-off items such as delivery, permits or waste removal as their own lines or as the fee line under the subtotal. The unit column takes whatever you type, such as hr, day, m², visit or each.
Put detail in the description rather than in extra lines: a second line under the item name prints in smaller text, which is where brand, size or specification belongs. You can add up to 200 lines.
The tool does not decide your prices. How to get from cost to a selling price, with overhead, markup and tax, is covered step by step in the guide to building a complete price quote. Check the result with the markup calculator and the profit margin calculator.
Scope, assumptions and exclusions
Most disputes over a quote are really disputes over scope. Use the Notes box, labelled for scope on this tool, to say what the price covers, the assumptions behind it and what it leaves out. “Supply and fit 12 m² of floor tiles; assumes the existing floor is level; excludes removal of the old flooring” prevents an argument that “retile the kitchen” would not.
Use Terms and conditions for the rules around the price: how extra work is priced and agreed, what happens if the client cancels after the deposit, and who pays for problems that could not be seen when you quoted. The estimate writing guide has worked wording for exclusions and contingency.
Valid-until dates and deposits
The valid-until date is printed with the estimate’s number and date. Choosing 30 days sets it 30 days after the estimate date, and changing the estimate date later moves it with the same gap. History marks estimates past their valid-until date as expired, so you know which prices need refreshing. To reissue one, duplicate it: the copy takes today’s date and the next number.
Enter a deposit as a percentage of the total or as a fixed amount. It prints below the total as “Deposit to accept” and is capped at the total if you type more by mistake. Say a £4,800 kitchen fit carries a 25% deposit: the quote asks for £1,200 on acceptance, leaving £3,600 to invoice later. The estimate never records a payment; when the deposit arrives, issue a receipt for it.
Deposits can have tax consequences. In the UK, HMRC says most deposits serve primarily as advance payments and create a tax point for VAT when received (VAT Notice 700, paragraph 14.2.3, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-guide-notice-700). Check the rule where you are registered. How much to ask for, how long a quote should stay valid and what to do when it expires are covered in quote deposits and validity.
Getting the quote accepted in writing
Leave “Add a sign-to-accept block” switched on and the PDF ends with a short acceptance statement and lines for the client’s signature, name and date. If you asked for a deposit, the statement names the amount. A signed and dated copy is a clear record of which version of the price the client agreed to.
The tool does not send the quote or collect signatures itself. Email the PDF from your own account; the client can sign on paper or with any PDF signing app and send it back. Turn the block off for rough budget figures you do not expect to be signed.
Turning an accepted quote into an invoice
Choose Convert to invoice and the invoice generator opens with the client, work address, every line item, discounts, taxes, fee, currency and design already filled in. The invoice takes the next number in your invoice series and your usual payment terms, and keeps the estimate number as a custom field so the two can be matched later. The estimate itself stays in History unchanged.
Two things are not carried over. The deposit request is not a payment, so if the client paid a deposit, enter it as an amount already paid and the invoice shows the balance due. The scope notes and estimate terms are not copied either, so write the invoice’s own notes and payment terms. If the work changed, edit the lines on the invoice rather than the estimate, so the estimate remains a record of what was offered. The invoice payment terms guide covers what those terms should say.
Quotation templates, logo and layout
Three templates are built in, Classic, Modern and Minimal, each shown as a thumbnail before you choose. Pick any accent colour to match your brand, and upload your logo once for every document.
Choose A4 or US Letter paper, one of 48 currencies with the right number of decimal places, a number format (1,234,567.89, 1.234.567,89, 1 234 567,89, 12,34,567.89 or 1’234’567.89) and a date format. Long quotes print on as many pages as they need, each marked “Page 1 of 3” and so on. The PDF supports Latin (including Vietnamese), Greek and Cyrillic text; Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts are not supported yet.
Free estimate template or estimate generator?
A blank estimate template in a word processor or spreadsheet leaves the reliable parts to you. You number each copy by hand, re-type the formulas when you add a row, work out tax yourself, and keep track of which file went to which client.
A generator does those jobs for you. It suggests the next number and warns about duplicates, recalculates line totals, discounts, taxes and the deposit as you type, flags expired quotes, keeps a history of every estimate and client, and produces a PDF that looks the same on every device. The accepted quote then converts to an invoice without copying and pasting.
A template still suits a one-off document you want to edit freely, and the site’s Word templates cover that case.
Sales tax, VAT and GST on a quote
Add up to six named taxes, each with its own rate, such as a state sales tax or VAT 20%. Choose “Added to prices” when tax goes on top, as with US sales tax and most business-to-business quotes, or “Included in prices” when your figures already contain it, as consumer prices usually do in VAT and GST countries. Untick Taxable on any line that should not be taxed. Compound taxes, where one tax is charged on another, are not supported.
Take a hypothetical landscaping quote where labour is not taxed but materials are, at a 7.25% rate. Labour is 16 hours at $45, which is $720; materials are $1,150; tax on the materials is $83.38; the quote total is $1,953.38. A 30% deposit is $586.01, leaving $1,367.37. Whether labour is taxable, and at what rate, depends on where you work, so confirm it with your tax authority.
The order is fixed: each line is rounded, then discounts, then each tax on the taxable amount, then the fee, then the deposit as a share of the total. Amounts round half away from zero, as in the invoice generator. The tool does not decide which rate applies. To check a figure, use the sales tax calculator, VAT calculator or GST calculator.
Where your estimates are stored
Everything stays in this browser. Estimates, invoices and receipts share one store on your device with your business profile, saved clients, logo and signature, and the PDF is built on your device. Nothing you type is uploaded.
Clearing your browser’s site data removes what is stored, and a different browser or device starts empty. Use History, then Backup, then Export all data to keep a copy or move to another device, and import the file there.
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Whether a quote or estimate is binding, and how deposits are taxed, depends on your contract and on the law where you and your client are.