Quote or estimate? What your price actually promises

Most arguments about money on a job start months before the invoice. They start with a number written on the back of a business card, or a “should be about four hundred” said in a hallway. The fix is boring and it works: decide whether you’re giving a quote or an estimate, and write it down properly.

The one-line difference

Citizens Advice puts it plainly. A quote is a promise to do the work at an agreed price. An estimate is your best guess at what the work will cost.¹

That difference matters most when something changes. Once a client has accepted a quote, you can only charge more if you told them about extra work and they approved it, or if the quote had an obvious mistake in it. Your materials going up in price doesn’t count. With an estimate the final bill can move, but it has to stay reasonable.¹

	Quote	Estimate
What it is	A fixed price for the work described	Your best guess at the cost
Can the price go up?	Only for extra work the client approved, or an obvious mistake	Yes, but the final price has to be reasonable
Best for	Jobs you can see and measure	Jobs where you can’t see what you’ll find

When to give which

Give a quote when you can see the whole job: swapping a tap, replacing an extractor fan, painting a room you’ve walked round. Clients prefer a fixed number, and it’s easier to win the work with one.

Give an estimate when you genuinely can’t see what you’ll find, like old pipework behind tiles or a floor you haven’t lifted. Better still, quote the part you can see and say in writing how anything else will be priced. For example: “Any extra work will be agreed with you in writing before we start it, at £45 an hour plus materials.”

What to put on every quote

A good quote answers the client’s questions before they ask them. It also protects you if the job changes. Run through this list:

1. Your business name and contact details.
2. The client’s name and the job address.
3. The scope in plain words. What you will do, as the client would describe it.
4. What isn’t included. Making good, skips, tiles supplied by the client, and so on.
5. The price, and whether VAT is included. If you’re VAT registered, show it clearly. Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000.²
6. Deposit and payment terms. How much up front, when the rest is due and how to pay.
7. How long the quote is valid. Thirty days is common.
8. A rough start date and how long the job will take.
9. How extra work will be handled. One sentence saves a lot of arguments later.

The 14-day rule for jobs agreed at the client’s home

If a homeowner agrees the job with you away from your business premises, sitting at their kitchen table for example, it’s usually an “off-premises contract” under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. For services, the client then has 14 days to cancel, counted from the day the contract is made.³

Before they’re bound, you need to give them the required information, including the right to cancel and a model cancellation form. If they want you to start within those 14 days, get their request in writing (an email or a signed form both count as a “durable medium”) and tell them that if they cancel, they’ll pay for the work done up to that point.³

How Accepto helps

Accepto reads the client’s message, screenshot or voice note and suggests a price from your hourly rate and materials markup. Your VAT, deposit, payment terms and how long quotes stay valid are set once and go on every quote. You check it, set the final price and send the link from your own phone.

The client sees what’s included, picks a time and approves by typing their full name, or declines. You can see when they’ve opened it. If the job grows, the extra work goes through the same step, approved online or signed on your phone before you start it. So the number on the invoice is always one the client has already said yes to.