Free quote template for UK trades, with VAT and CIS lines

A UK trade quote should show your business details, the customer, a clear scope, a fixed price split into labour and materials, what's excluded, how long the price holds, payment terms and the VAT position. For a homeowner, add VAT at 20% if you're registered. For a VAT-registered contractor under CIS, the domestic reverse charge usually applies and they deduct CIS from the labour when they pay.

What should a quote include?

Everything the customer needs to say yes, and everything you need if there's a dispute later. In law, what you write about the job and the price can become part of the contract if the customer relied on it, so the scope and exclusions matter as much as the total.

The quote template

Copy this into your own letterhead or quoting software. The square-bracket fields are what you fill in. Delete the VAT lines that don't apply.

Business name
Address, Phone, Email
VAT number: VAT number, if registered
Company number: if a limited company

QUOTE Q-number
Date: date
Valid until: date, e.g. 30 days from today

For: Customer name
Site: Site address

SCOPE OF WORK
Stage or room 1: what you will do, in plain words
Stage or room 2
Stage or room 3

PRICE
Labour: £amount
Materials: £amount
Subtotal (excluding VAT): £amount

Option A, homeowner or non-reverse-charge customer:
VAT at 20%: £amount
Total including VAT: £amount

Option B, VAT-registered customer reporting under CIS:
Reverse charge: customer to pay the VAT to HMRC. VAT Act 1994 Section 55A applies.
VAT due under the reverse charge (20%): £amount
Amount payable: £subtotal
CIS: labour of £labour amount is subject to CIS deduction at the rate verified with HMRC. Materials are not.

NOT INCLUDED
e.g. decoration, skip hire, making good beyond filling chases, work found once walls are opened

ASSUMPTIONS
e.g. clear access to the work area, water and power on site, parking within 50m

PROGRAMME
Earliest start: date, Expected duration: number working days

PAYMENT
Deposit of % (£amount) on acceptance, stage payments, balance on completion. Payment within number days of invoice to: bank details

Changes to the scope will be priced and agreed in writing before the work is done.

TO ACCEPT
Reply to this message or sign below.
Signed: ____________  Name: ____________  Date: ________

Which VAT line do you use?

It depends on who the customer is and what they do with your work. For a homeowner, a landlord or a business that isn't VAT-registered, charge VAT normally if you're registered. For a VAT-registered customer who reports your work under CIS and sells it on, the domestic reverse charge applies to most building and construction services.

The reverse charge does not apply if the customer has confirmed in writing that they're an end user or intermediary supplier, such as a developer or a business having work done on its own premises. The full rules are in the VAT domestic reverse charge guide and the invoice wording in reverse charge invoice wording.

How should you write the scope and exclusions?

Write the scope the way you'd explain it to the customer on site: what you'll do, room by room, with the materials named where it matters ("supply and fit 600 × 600 porcelain floor tiles, customer's choice up to £30 a m²"). Vague scope is where disputes start. Exclusions are the other half: anything the customer might reasonably assume is included and isn't. Quote exclusions wording has a list you can lift.

Keeping your standard exclusions in a Word document and pasting them into each quote by hand is fine. It works, as long as the list is reviewed every time and not copied blind from the last job.

How long should a quote be valid?

Thirty days suits most domestic work. Shorten it when material prices are moving: the government's all-work materials price index was 6.0% higher in June 2026 than a year earlier. Say on the quote that prices will be rechecked after the expiry date. See spotting supplier price rises.

Common questions