What is a quotation in business?

A price is only as fixed as the scope

Fixing a number without fixing what it buys is the origin of most pricing disputes, and it happens because writing the scope is harder than writing the price. The remedy is unglamorous: list what is included, line by line, and then list what is excluded, because a customer reads a quotation as covering everything they were thinking about while the supplier was thinking about a narrower job. Excluding structural work, asbestos removal, out of hours access, permits and making good after other trades is not defensive drafting. It is the only way a fixed price can survive contact with a real site. Where something genuinely cannot be priced yet, name it as a provisional allowance with a stated amount and say how it will be adjusted.

Validity, and why thirty days is not arbitrary

Materials move, labour rates move, and exchange rates move faster than either. A quotation with no expiry can be accepted whenever the customer gets around to it, at a price that no longer exists, and the supplier is bound. Printing a validity period, commonly thirty days, converts that risk into a decision point. When a customer comes back afterwards, reissue at current prices rather than honouring the old figure, which is easier when the original quotation was saved as its own document with its own number rather than typed into an email. For work with long lead items, tie the validity to a supplier price rather than a calendar date and say which one.

What changes a price legitimately

Three things, and they should each be named in the document. A variation, meaning the customer asked for something different, which is priced and agreed in writing before the work proceeds. A provisional sum being confirmed, where an allowance is replaced by an actual cost, with the difference shown either way. And a stated risk materialising, such as rock encountered below a certain depth or a structure found not to be square. Anything outside those three is the supplier absorbing a mistake, which is what a fixed price means. Being explicit about the three makes the conversation about a price increase a contractual one rather than a negotiation about goodwill.

Accepting, and what acceptance produces

Say plainly how the customer accepts: signing and returning the document, replying in writing, or paying a deposit. That matters because acceptance is the moment a contract forms at the quoted price, and a vague process leaves the parties disagreeing about whether it happened. Where a deposit is required, say what it secures and whether it is refundable. Where the customer's own purchase order will follow, watch what it says, since an order stating different terms and accepted without objection can displace the ones on the quotation. The cleanest sequence is quotation, written acceptance referring to the quotation number, then order and invoices that reference the same number.

Presentation, which affects the win rate more than the price

A quotation that arrives as a single figure invites a comparison on price alone. One that breaks the work into stages or trades, each with its own amount, invites a conversation about scope, and a customer who understands what they are buying is less likely to award on the lowest number. Include a short paragraph on how the work will run, who will be on site and when, since that answers the question behind the price. Keep the exclusions on the same page as the price rather than on a later page nobody reaches. And send it as a saved document with a number, not as body text in an email, because the version that gets forwarded to a decision maker should look like a document. Finally, follow up once, a few days after sending, and ask whether anything needs explaining rather than whether they have decided. The first question opens a conversation about scope and the second closes one.

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