An electrical estimate, line by line

A homeowner calls about "a couple of outlets in the garage." You get there and the panel is a 100-amp fused box with two spare fuse positions, and the garage runs off one circuit shared with the kitchen. The job the customer described and the job you would be selling are two different jobs. The estimate is where you show the difference.

Below are three estimates, written the way the customer receives them. Every dollar figure and name is invented — rates, materials and permit fees vary by market. Copy the structure: what gets its own line, what sits in exclusions, and where the scope is allowed to move. For typical electrician pricing, see electrician hourly rates and DoneQuote for electricians.

100-amp fused service to a 200-amp panel

Voltworks Electric, LLC 1420 Foster Ave, Suite B · License # EL-004821 Estimate #2026-441 · Valid 30 days

For: D. Okafor, 88 Birch Hollow Rd Scope: Replace 100A fused service with 200A panel, overhead service, single-family

Included: removal and disposal of the old panel and meter socket; a printed circuit directory; one temporary power window arranged in advance; final inspection sign-off.

Excluded: drywall patch, paint or siding repair at the panel wall; any utility-side charge billed directly to the homeowner; replacement of ungrounded branch circuits found during transfer; generator interlock or transfer switch.

Sales tax is off these tables on purpose. In many states a contractor is the consumer of the materials and pays tax at the supply house rather than charging the homeowner tax on the contract. Others tax the contract price, and several tax a capital improvement differently from a repair. Your state revenue department publishes the current rule; an hour with a contractor's CPA settles it.

A Level 2 EV charger circuit

Scope: Dedicated 50A GFCI-protected circuit from existing 200A panel to attached garage, approximately 40 ft, NEMA 14-50 receptacle rated for a 40A-maximum EVSE

Included: load calculation confirming the existing service supports the added circuit; outlet tested under load; the charger's commissioning steps if the unit is on site.

Excluded: supply of the charger; trenching or any run to a detached structure; panel or service upgrade if the load calculation comes back short; utility rebate paperwork; any drywall opening required if the attic route is blocked.

That last exclusion is the one that matters. A load calculation that comes back short turns a $1,554 job into a service upgrade plus this circuit, so it goes on the page before you run the calculation.

NEC 625.54 requires personnel GFCI protection on an EV-charging receptacle — that is the breaker line above, not an option. EV charging also counts as a continuous load, so the circuit is sized at 125% of the equipment's draw: this 50A circuit supports a 40A-maximum EVSE, not a 50A one. Tell the customer that number before they order the charger.

A troubleshooting call, priced at the door

Plenty of electricians never send an estimate for this. A diagnostic call gets priced on a ticket: a flat first hour, a rate after that, and a ceiling the customer agrees to before you open anything.

The line that does the work here is the authorization: "Diagnostic authorized to $300. Any repair beyond that is quoted and approved before work continues." It gives you permission to start and the customer a ceiling, both settled before either of you is standing in the garage.

Permit and inspection are two different lines

The fee is pass-through. You paid the jurisdiction, the customer reimburses it, and marking up a municipal fee starts an argument you did not need.

The hours are yours. On the panel upgrade above, the permit, utility and inspection lines come to six billable hours, and none of them happen on the day you do the work. Buried in a flat number they look like padding. On their own lines they look like what they are.

How much work the permit brings is not predictable from a national rule. States and cities adopt code editions on their own schedule and amend them locally, so the arc-fault, grounding or bonding work an inspector expects on a panel swap can differ across a county line. Your building department confirms the edition in force, local amendments included.

What changes once the cover is off

You cannot see the existing wiring until you are in it. Four findings reliably move a price:

• Aluminum branch wiring. Any connection you touch has to land on a device or connector listed for it, and the CPSC recognizes only a short list of methods as a permanent repair. Either way, you are pricing per connection, not per room.
• Knob-and-tube. The NEC still allows extensions of an existing installation, but plenty of jurisdictions amend that away and insurers often will not carry a house that has it. Confirm with your building department before you price an extension rather than a replacement.
• No equipment grounding conductor. Two-prong outlets look like a $12 swap and are not. The code-recognized paths are a new home run with a ground, a GFCI-protected replacement carrying the "No Equipment Ground" marking, or another non-grounding device — and the last one is the one the customer did not want.
• A panel that cannot take breakers. Some older load centers no longer have a listed breaker available, which turns a one-circuit add into a panel replacement.

Put each one on the estimate as a condition with a price attached: "If aluminum branch wiring is found at any device in scope, repair is quoted at $X per connection and approved before we continue." The customer has already agreed to the shape of that change order. That is a different call than an unexpected one.

Warranty language, and what it does not cover

Say what you warrant, for how long, and against what. A year on your workmanship, with manufacturer terms passed through on equipment, is a common shape. The term is mostly your call — though a few states write statutory warranties into residential work that your form cannot shorten (Minnesota is one), so check yours first. Then write the boundary: your work, not the existing wiring you connected to, not a customer-supplied fixture, not a device someone else replaced later. Electricians get callbacks on circuits they never touched, and that sentence is what ends the call.

Getting these onto paper

The slow part of the service upgrade above is not the thinking. It is retyping thirty lines you have typed before. Save your labor rates, standard material lots and your permit and inspection lines in DoneQuote once. Then describe the job in a sentence, and the draft comes back priced from your own numbers, with your exclusions and warranty text on it — as an estimate, a work order, or a ticket you close at the truck.