How to Quote a Job: A Tradie’s Guide (With Examples)

Quoting is where trade businesses quietly win or lose. Price too high with no explanation and you lose the job; price on gut feel and you win plenty of work that pays you less than your apprentice. This guide covers the full method: what to count, how to price it, what to put on the page, and how to send quotes fast enough to win.

Quote, estimate or ballpark: say which one you’re giving

These words mean different things, and mixing them up is how tradies end up doing $2,000 of extra work for free:

• Quote. A fixed price for a defined scope. Once accepted, you’re generally bound to it. This is what customers mean when they ask for “a quote”.
• Estimate. Your best guess, allowed to move as the job firms up. Put the word “estimate” on the document and say what could change it.
• Ballpark. A range you give early so nobody wastes anyone’s time. “A bathroom like yours usually lands between $18k and $25k.” Ballparks qualify leads before you burn an evening on a site visit.

Step 1: Nail down the scope before you touch a number

Every blown quote traces back to scope. Before pricing, be able to answer these in one sentence each:

• Exactly what work is included, and the finish standard it’s to.
• What’s excluded (demolition, rubbish removal, painting, council approvals).
• Who supplies what: fittings, appliances, materials.
• Site conditions you’re assuming: access, power, existing work being sound.
• What happens if the assumptions are wrong (variation, agreed in writing).

Write the exclusions and assumptions on the quote. They’re what makes a fixed price safe to give.

Step 2: Count the real cost of materials

Materials cost more than the price on the shelf. Count:

• Supply price. Trade price, not retail, but quote at what YOU pay including GST treatment done properly.
• Wastage. Offcuts, breakage, over-ordering. 5–10% on most materials, more on tile and timber.
• Delivery and pickup time. A “quick run to the supplier” is an hour of labour plus the ute.
• Consumables. Fixings, blades, silicone, gas. Small per job, real over a year. Many tradies add 3–5% of materials to cover it.

Step 3: Price the labour honestly

Estimate hours for each stage of the job, then multiply by your charge-out rate, which is not the same as what you want to “earn an hour”. Your charge-out rate has to carry the ute, the insurance, the tools, the licence renewals, the quoting time and the hours you can’t bill. If you haven’t worked yours out from actual overheads, start with our guide to tradie hourly rates in Australia. It walks through the maths and what each trade typically charges.

Two habits that keep labour estimates honest:

• Break the job into stages and estimate each one. “Two days” is a guess; “demo half a day, rough-in a day, fit-off half a day, tidy and handover half a day” is an estimate you can defend.
• Track actuals. Write the real hours on every finished job and compare them to what you quoted. A month of this will show you exactly which stage you always underestimate.

Step 4: Add overheads and margin (markup is not margin)

Cost + labour is your break-even, not your price. On top goes a share of overheads (if they aren’t already in your charge-out rate) and a profit margin. The classic trap is confusing markup with margin:

Margin is the share of the sale price that’s profit; markup is what you add to cost. If you want a 20% margin, divide cost by 0.8 — don’t multiply by 1.2. On a year of jobs the difference is a holiday.

Step 5: Put it on a page that wins the job

A winning quote is scannable in twenty seconds. It needs:

• Your business name, ABN, licence number and contact details.
• The customer’s name and the site address.
• A scope written in plain English: what you’ll do, stage by stage.
• Exclusions and assumptions, stated without apology.
• One total price including GST. Itemise stages if it helps the customer say yes; never itemise your margins.
• Validity (14–30 days), payment terms, and how to accept.

Then send it fast. Whoever answers first with a professional number sets the anchor price for the whole job. Every day a quote sits in your drafts, the customer is talking to someone else.

Worked example: quoting a small deck

Say you’re a chippy quoting a 15 m² merbau deck:

The customer sees one number: $9,420 including GST, scope attached. You see a job that pays for the ute, the insurance and your weekend.

Site visits: when to do them, and when not to

The site visit is the most expensive part of quoting: an hour on site plus travel is two hours you can’t bill, and you’ll do it three times for every job you win. So be deliberate about who earns one:

• Always visit when existing conditions drive the price: renovations, repairs to unknown work, anything structural, wet areas, old switchboards and old plumbing. A fixed price on unseen conditions is gambling.
• Quote from photos and measurements for standard, self-contained jobs: fence runs, deck sizes, room repaints, unit installs. Ask the customer for three photos and two measurements; you’ll know within minutes whether the job is normal.
• Ballpark first, visit second. Give a range up front and ask whether it suits their budget before you drive anywhere. “Decks like yours generally land between $8k and $11k — if that’s in range, I’ll come out and firm it up.” The people who say no just saved you two hours.

Some trades charge for detailed quotes on complex work (design work, itemised renovation bids) and credit it against the job. That’s legitimate. Just say so up front.

Variations: the part that saves the relationship

Every job longer than a day grows. The customer adds “while you’re here” jobs; the wall opens up and the frame is rotten; the switchboard isn’t what anyone thought. None of this is a problem — unhandled, all of it is. The rules:

• Price it before you do it. Even a two-line text (“extra power point in the ensuite, $140 inc GST on top of the quote, OK to go ahead?”) turns an argument into a record.
• Get a yes in writing. A thumbs-up on a text is writing. A conversation over the fence is not.
• Reference the original scope. Variations only work if the quote defined what was included, which is why the scope section above matters more than the number.
• Invoice variations as their own lines. The final bill should read as “quote + the changes you approved”, never as a surprise total.

Following up: where half the wins hide

Plenty of tradies send a good quote and never mention it again, then assume silence meant “too dear”. Usually it meant life got busy. A simple rhythm recovers those jobs:

1. Day 0: send the quote with one line that invites a reply: “happy to talk through it, and I can hold these prices for 30 days.”
2. Day 2–3: one short check-in. “Any questions on the quote? Happy to adjust the scope if the budget needs it.” Offer the scope lever, never a discount.
3. Day 10: last touch. “No worries either way — if timing’s the issue, I have a slot opening early next month.” Scarcity that’s true is persuasion; scarcity that’s invented is a reputation risk.

If they say another quote came in cheaper, don’t match it blind. Ask what the other quote includes — cheaper quotes are usually smaller scopes wearing the same job’s name. Walk through the differences line by line and let the customer choose with open eyes. You’ll win a surprising share of those conversations, and the ones you lose were bought on price and would have been painful anyway.

Common pricing methods, trade by trade

The cost + margin method above is universal, but how you express the price varies by trade, and using the format customers expect makes your quote easier to compare. That works in your favour when yours is the clearer one:

Most established tradies run a hybrid: a price book of fixed prices for the jobs they do every week, and do-and-charge for the unknowns. If your common jobs aren’t priced in a list you can quote from in minutes, building one is the single fastest upgrade to your quoting.

The mistakes that cost the most

• Quoting your wage instead of a charge-out rate. $60/hr feels fine until you realise half your hours aren’t billable.
• Copying the last quote. Prices drift; each job’s conditions differ. Re-price materials every time.
• No exclusions. “While you’re here, can you just…” is a variation, not a favour — but only if the quote said so.
• Slow delivery. A perfect quote sent Friday loses to a good quote sent Tuesday.
• Winning every job. If nobody ever says “too dear”, you’re too cheap. Aim to win 40–60% of quotes, not 100%.