Quoting is where a trade business makes or loses its money. Price too high and the phone goes quiet. Price too low, or leave the scope vague, and you can end up doing the job for nothing, or arguing about variations at the end. A good quote is accurate, clear about what's included, and arrives while the customer is still keen.
This guide walks through quoting a job step by step, from the first phone call to the signed acceptance. It finishes with the state rules on written contracts for residential work, which every tradie quoting homeowners needs to know.
From enquiry to accepted quote Illustrative
The seven steps this guide covers, in order.
- EnquiryNote the job, address, photos and how soon they need it.
- Site visitMeasure, check access and spot the hidden work.
- Price itLabour, materials, subbies, overheads, then margin.
- Write itScope, inclusions, exclusions, GST, validity and terms.
- Send itWithin a day or two while the job is fresh.
- Follow upA short check-in a few days later.
- AcceptedWritten acceptance, deposit if allowed, book the job.
Step 1: Qualify the enquiry
Not every enquiry is worth a site visit. Before you drive across town, get the basics on the phone or by message:
- What's the job, and where is it?
- When do they want it done? Is it urgent, or are they just getting prices?
- Can they send photos or a short video?
- Who makes the decision, and will they be there for the visit?
- Do they have a budget in mind, even a rough one?
Write it down straight away against the customer's name, not on the back of a docket. Small jobs can often be quoted from photos. Bigger or less predictable jobs need a visit.
Step 2: Do a proper site visit
The site visit is where you find the problems that turn a good job into a bad one. Measure everything you'll price, and take photos as a record of the conditions before you start. Check:
- Access: parking, stairs, distance from the truck, and whether you need a lift, scaffold or traffic management.
- What's hidden: what's behind the wall, under the floor or in the roof space, and the age of the existing work.
- Compliance: whether the job needs a permit, an engineer, a certificate or an inspection.
- Safety: working at heights, asbestos risk in older homes, live services. If the work is high-risk construction work, you'll need a safe work method statement (SWMS) before you start, and that takes time to price in.
Step 3: Price the job properly
There's no official "right" price for a job, and anyone who gives you one number for your trade is guessing. What you can do is build the price from your own costs. Work through each part.
Labour
Estimate the hours for each part of the job, for each person, then multiply by your charge-out rate. Your charge-out rate isn't your hourly wage. It has to cover the hours you can't bill: quoting, driving, buying materials, paperwork, holidays, sick days and quiet weeks. It also has to cover your own super and income protection, which no employer pays for you.
To work out a rate, add up a year's costs, including the income you need, and divide by the hours you can realistically bill.
Materials
Price the materials from current supplier prices, not last year's. Allow for waste and offcuts, and add a markup for the time and risk of ordering, collecting and storing them. Quote materials that are prone to price changes with a short validity period.
Subcontractors and hire
Get written prices from subbies before you lock in your quote. Add hire equipment, skip bins, tipping fees and permits.
Overheads and margin
Your vehicle, insurance, phone, software, accounting and tools all have to be paid for out of your jobs. Overheads keep the lights on. Margin is the profit that lets the business grow and survive a bad month. A job priced at cost isn't a "win".
Contingency
Decide how you'll handle the unknowns you found at the site visit. Either price a contingency into the job, or exclude the risk and price it as a variation if it happens. Saying which one in writing is what stops arguments later.
Step 4: Write it up clearly
A quote should let the customer understand exactly what they're getting, and let you prove it later. Include:
- Your details: business name, ABN, contact details and your licence number.
- The customer's details and the job address.
- The scope of work in plain words, with quantities and the materials, brands or finishes where they matter.
- Exclusions: what's not included, such as making good, painting, rubbish removal, permits or anything you can't see.
- The price broken down in a way that makes sense for the job, and the total.
- GST. If you're registered, show the GST.
- Validity: how long the price holds, for example 30 days.
- Payment terms: the deposit (if allowed), progress payments, the final payment and the due date.
- How to accept, and what happens next.
On GST and prices, the ACCC's price display rules say a price shown to consumers must be the total price, including GST and any unavoidable fees, as a single figure. Prices shown only to other businesses don't need to include GST.
One more thing to check: card surcharges for Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos cards are banned from 1 October 2026. If your old quote template adds a card fee, take it out.
If you're registered for GST, the invoice you send at the end must meet the ATO's tax invoice requirements. For sales of $1,000 or more, that includes the buyer's identity or ABN, so collect those details at quote stage.
Step 5: Send it fast
Speed matters. A customer who's had three tradies through has usually made up their mind by the time a slow quote turns up. Aim to send small quotes the same day and bigger ones within a couple of days. If a complex job will take longer, tell the customer when to expect it.
Send it in a way they can read on a phone, and make accepting easy.
Step 6: Follow up
A short, polite follow-up a few days later wins work that would otherwise drift away. Ask if they have any questions about the scope. Don't discount by reflex: if the price is the problem, offer to change the scope instead (a different finish, or staging the work), so you protect your margin.
Record why you lost quotes when you can find out. Over time that tells you whether you're too expensive, too slow, or quoting the wrong jobs.
Step 7: Get the acceptance in writing
Get a written acceptance before you order materials or start work. That might be a signature, a signed contract, or a clear written "yes" against a quote that sets out the terms. If the scope changes once the job starts, put the variation and its price in writing and get it approved before you do the extra work.
Written contracts for residential work: the state rules
For residential building work, a quote alone often isn't enough. Each state sets a dollar amount above which you need a written contract with specific contents, and some cap the deposit you can take. The table shows the thresholds for four states, from their regulators.
When a written home building contract is required (selected states)
Each state sets its own dollar thresholds for residential building work.
| State | Written contract rules for residential work | Source |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Over $5,000 (incl. GST): written contract. $5,000 – $20,000: small jobs contract. Over $20,000: full contract | NSW Government, Home building contracts |
| VIC | Over $10,000: major domestic building contract (and registration with the Building and Plumbing Commission, unless a single-trade exemption applies) | Consumer Affairs Victoria, Becoming a registered building practitioner |
| QLD | Over $3,300: written contract, and a QBCC licence for the work | QBCC, When you need a licence |
| WA | $7,500 to $500,000: covered by the Home Building Contracts Act (written contract, deposit capped at 6.5%) | WA Government (Building and Energy), Building or renovating your home |
Licensing thresholds follow a similar pattern. In Queensland, for example, the QBCC requires a licence for most building work over $3,300. In NSW you need a licence for residential building work over $5,000 including GST, and for specialist work at any value. If you're quoting residential work, read your state regulator's page on contracts before you send the quote, not after the customer accepts.
Quoting tools that save time
You can do all of this in a spreadsheet and a word processor, but it's slow and easy to get wrong. Tradie Business quoting software builds quotes from line items with GST worked out for you. You can email them from the app, and customers can accept online with a signature. When the job's done, you turn the quote into an invoice without retyping anything, and job costing shows whether the job made the margin you quoted.
See the features and pricing, or look at example quotes for electricians, plumbers, carpenters and painters.
If you're still setting up, start with the trade business setup checklist, and read sole trader vs company before your first big job.
