What belongs in every estimate

An estimate should identify your business and customer, describe the work and exclusions, show the price and tax treatment, and state the schedule, payment terms, expiration date and approval method. Add any contract contents and notices required for the job. The table below explains what each part should contain.

What a complete estimate contains

Identify the business and customer

Name the contracting business clearly. If your legal name is M. Torres Services LLC and you trade as Mike’s Plumbing, show both, with the trade name after the legal name. Check that the name matches your registration, license and other project paperwork rather than assuming a shortened name is sufficient.

A business customer may separately request Form W-9 for information reporting. Complete it using the IRS name and taxpayer-ID instructions; missing or incorrect information can trigger backup withholding. Provide the tax form through an appropriate private channel, not as a public quote attachment.

Show the job site and billing address separately when they differ, so the customer can identify the work and route the paperwork correctly.

Describe the work, exclusions and materials

Write what you are doing, then what you are not. Both lists help define the agreed boundary.

Name permits, disposal, furniture protection, patching after access, landscape restoration and hidden-condition repairs if they are outside your price. For pre-1978 property, assess EPA lead-safe renovation requirements before pricing affected work; a quote exclusion cannot waive required precautions.

For example: “Replacement of rotted trim is excluded. If found, we will describe and price the repair, explain the schedule impact and get written approval before continuing.” That explains how a discovery changes the scope; it does not authorize the repair in advance.

Materials and methods matter wherever a substitution changes the price. A 30-year architectural shingle and a 3-tab are both "shingles," and two condensers of the same capacity can have different specifications and prices. Name the product you priced, then say what happens if the supply house is out: "or an equivalent at equal or better specification, with your approval."

Show the price, tax and payment terms

Separate prices when they help explain quantities, allowances or options. A lump sum can still show detailed written scope. Choose the breakdown for the work and any required contract format; see how much line-item detail to show.

The tax line earns its space even when the answer is no tax. Whether you charge sales tax depends on your state, on whether labor is taxable there, on whether the job counts as repair or new construction, and in many states on whether you count as the consumer of the materials you permanently install into real property. There is no national answer, and it can differ between two trades in one state. Put your answer on the document: "plus applicable sales tax" discovered at the end is a four-figure surprise on a job worth tens of thousands. Your state revenue department publishes the rule for your trade.

State the deposit, progress-payment milestones and final due date. Deposit limits vary: covered California contracts use the lesser of $1,000 or 10%; Massachusetts allows the greater of one-third or the actual qualifying special-order cost. Confirm the applicable rule before saving a standard percentage.

State the validity date, schedule and approval method

Read your supplier’s price hold and choose an acceptance deadline you can support. State that an expired, unaccepted estimate will be rechecked and reissued. An expiration date does not by itself permit changing an accepted contract.

State the expected timing and dependencies: for example, “approximately four working days, beginning within two weeks of deposit and permit approval, subject to the agreed schedule.” Explain how delays will be communicated and agreed; calling a date approximate does not remove your contractual obligations.

A verbal yes on a job you revised twice leaves no record of which price was accepted. Signature, email or accept button, it has to attach to a numbered, dated version.

What to leave out

Internal cost calculations usually belong in your working notes, unless the agreement requires disclosure. For cost-plus work, state the agreed cost basis and markup.

Include subcontractor details when required by the contract or applicable rules. Otherwise, identify the subcontracted work and responsibility without adding an unnecessary supplier list.

"TBD" on a line. An open item is an open argument. Use a stated allowance instead — "$1,200 tile allowance; anything above billed at cost plus markup" — and state the markup, adjustment method and approval process. An allowance is not a cap on the final cost.

Boilerplate you have not read. Indemnity, arbitration and warranty clauses pasted from a template written for another state can be unenforceable, or enforceable in a way you did not intend. Use an expiration date to define how long an unaccepted price is available. Any price-change terms after acceptance need their own clear conditions and approval process.

Reuse standard details and check the finished quote

DoneQuote can reuse your saved business details, default validity window and Agreements, and you can keep recurring descriptions or exclusions in catalog items and quote templates. Add any required license information and notices explicitly. Review the complete quote for the actual job before sending; saved wording does not establish legal completeness.

Before you send

Read it as the customer. If you find work you intend to do that is not named, or work you do not intend to do that a reasonable person would assume is included, you have found the sentence the argument will be about.