Branded quotes, proposals and presentations that look professional

A professional quote is one page the customer can understand in a minute: your logo and details, their address, a clear description of the work, a price with VAT shown, what's excluded, how long it's valid and one obvious way to accept. Branding helps, but clarity wins the job. Put options side by side, never added together.

What makes a quote look professional?

Consistency and clarity more than design. The same logo, colours, fonts and layout on every quote, invoice and email, and a page the customer can read on a phone without zooming.

You don't need a designer. A clean template in Word, Google Docs or your quoting software, with your logo top left and your contact details top right, does the job. What lets most quotes down is the body: a block of text with the price buried in it, no exclusions, and no clear next step.

What has to be on a quote by law?

There's no single list for quotes, but several rules touch them, and a professional quote meets all of them.

If you trade as a limited company, your business letters, order forms and websites must carry the registered name, registered number, the part of the UK it's registered in and the registered office address. Electronic documents count.

If you agree the work in the customer's home, it's an off-premises contract under the consumer contracts rules. Before the customer is bound you must give them your identity, geographical address and contact details, the total price including tax, and information about their right to cancel, on paper or another durable medium such as email if they agree. Business Companion, the trading standards guide, says failing to give the cancellation information is a criminal offence. If the customer wants work to start within the 14-day cancellation period, they must ask for that expressly, in a durable medium.

VAT rules apply to the invoice, not the quote, but quoting the same way you invoice saves confusion. A full VAT invoice shows each item's amount excluding VAT, the rate, the total excluding VAT and the total VAT. Set your quote up the same way and the invoice is a copy. Whether a quote binds you is covered in quote or estimate: which is legally binding.

How should you show options without scaring the customer?

Show each option as its own complete price, side by side, and say which one you recommend. Never add them together on one page.

For example, if a quote lists three options one after another, the client may add them up and get a nasty shock at the combined total. The fix is layout, not price.

More on structuring good-better-best choices is in quotes with options.

What should a proposal include for bigger jobs?

For an extension, a loft or a commercial fit-out, send a short proposal with the quote: a cover letter, a page about how you'll run the job, and the quote itself. Keep it to four or five pages.

1. Cover letter.

   One page, written to the customer by name, restating what they asked for and your recommended option.

2. Scope and drawings.

   What's included, stage by stage, referring to their drawings or your survey.

3. Programme.

   Start date, rough duration and the key stages, such as strip-out, first fix, plastering, second fix.

4. Price and payment stages.

   The quote, deposit and stage payments, and how variations are priced. See pricing variations.

5. About you.

   Two or three photos of similar finished work, insurance, accreditations and one review.

6. Exclusions and assumptions.

   What isn't included and what you've assumed. See quote exclusions wording.

7. Accept.

   A signature box or a link, and what happens next.

Date

Dear customer name,

Thank you for showing me round address on survey date. You asked for one-sentence description of what they want.

I've attached a proposal with three options. I recommend Option B because reason in the customer's words, e.g. it solves the cold floor without the cost of moving the drainage.

The price for Option B is £price excluding VAT plus VAT, £total in total. We can start on date and expect the work to take about number weeks.

Everything included and excluded is listed on page page. The quote is valid for 30 days.

To go ahead, sign page 5 / reply to this email / click Accept on the quote. I'll then confirm your start date and send the deposit invoice.

Kind regards,
Your name
Business name, phone

Can photos of other jobs go in a proposal?

Yes, if you have permission. Ask the previous customer before using photos where their home, face or address can be identified, and check commercial contracts for confidentiality clauses. If a non-disclosure agreement means you can't show a job at all, describe the work type and use close-ups of your own fixings instead. There's more in posting job photos with permission.

How do you make accepting easy?

Give one action: sign, reply "yes" or click a link. Every extra step loses some customers.

That was his answer to how many clicks a customer should need to accept a quote. Quoting and job software usually includes an online accept button. If you send PDFs, put "Reply YES to accept Option B" in the email and in the quote.

Then follow up. A quote you don't chase is a quote half-sent; see following up quotes.

Common questions