A contractor estimate template that works

You walked the yard, took photos, and wrote a number on the back of a business card. Tonight you have to turn that number into a document. The hard part is not the price or the scope — you already know those. It is what goes where, because a homeowner reads an estimate top to bottom once.

The nine blocks, in reading order

Each block answers one question, and they land in the order the customer asks them.

Where your state issues contractor license numbers, block 1 is where yours goes. Several states, California among them, require the number on bids, contracts and advertising.

A worked example: 148 feet of cedar privacy fence

Here are the nine blocks filled in on one job. Everything between the horizontal rules is what the customer would see. The company, the customer and the prices are made up; the structure is the point.

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Ridgeline Fence & Deck LLC
2140 Quarry Road, Springfield
(555) 402-8817 | [email protected]
License #FC-114882

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Estimate # 2026-0413
Date issued: August 20, 2026
Valid through: September 19, 2026

Prepared for: Dana Whitfield
Job site: 87 Corliss Lane, Springfield
Phone: (555) 331-2094

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Scope of work

The existing 4-foot chain-link along the north and east property lines is leaning at four posts and the top rail is bent near the driveway. You asked for a 6-foot cedar privacy fence on the same lines, plus a walk gate to the side yard.

I measured 148 linear feet of new fence, with a grade change of about 14 inches across the last 20 feet at the rear corner, which I plan to handle with three stepped panels rather than a raked run.

Included:

• Removal and disposal of the existing chain-link fence and posts
• 811 utility locate request placed and honored before digging
• 6-foot cedar privacy fence: 4x4 posts at 8 feet on center, set 30 inches deep in concrete, two 2x4 rails, dog-ear pickets
• One 4-foot walk gate with steel frame, self-closing hinges and gravity latch
• City fence permit, pulled by us and billed at cost
• Site cleanup at completion

Line items

Subtotal: $5,351.00
Sales tax: included in material cost — no separate tax line on this estimate
Total: $5,351.00

Not included

• Survey or property-line staking. Fence is set to the line you pointed out; a survey is available at cost if you want the corners pinned first.
• Rock or buried concrete below 12 inches. If a hole hits either, we stop, show you, and price the extra by change order before continuing.
• Staining or sealing. Cedar should weather 3 to 6 months before it takes stain.
• Repair of sprinkler lines outside the marked-out zones.

Terms

• Deposit: $535.10 (10%, the CSLB cap on a contract this size — some states allow more) on approval, to schedule the job
• Progress payment: $2,675.50 (50%) due when material is delivered to the site, before installation begins
• Balance: due on completion
• Start window: 2 to 3 weeks after material delivery
• On site: 2 working days
• Warranty: 2 years on workmanship. Material carries the manufacturer's warranty only.

To approve

Click Approve on the online version of this estimate, or reply to this email with "approved." I will send the permit application the same day and confirm a delivery date.

Questions on any line: call or text.

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The two placements that do the work

Scope goes above the price. Put the total first and the customer measures it against a number already in their head, before they know what it buys. The scope paragraph is where you get credit for the 14-inch grade change and the three stepped panels, and it only pays off if they read it first.

Exclusions go below it. Exclusions read as excuses when they come first and as professionalism when they follow a price the customer has already accepted. The rock clause above is the one that saves the job. It names the trigger, the stop and the change order, so the argument in the hole already happened on paper.

What the approval block actually gets you

A clicked approve button or an emailed "approved" is real evidence — a timestamped record on a document that names scope, price and terms beats a handshake. It is not automatically a contract that satisfies your state: many states require a separate signed home improvement contract above a dollar threshold, with its own notices and cancellation rights. Use the approved estimate as the scope exhibit, attached to the contract form your state expects. For what the approval field has to capture and whether e-signatures hold up, see getting an estimate approved in writing.

What changes by trade, what does not

Blocks 1 through 3 and 6 through 9 are fixed — identical on a roofing estimate and a landscape one. What moves is blocks 4 and 5, and mostly the unit:

Change the unit and rewrite the scope. Leave the other seven blocks where they are.

Setting it up so you type it once

Those fixed blocks are the ones that go wrong when you rebuild them by hand at nine at night — a stale license number, an exclusion you meant to keep. In DoneQuote the header, your terms and your standing exclusions sit on every new estimate already, and your priced services fill the line-item block. What is left to write is the scope and this job's measurements, which is the part only you can do.