Quote Template

A quote is the invoice's older sibling: the same lines and the same totals, sent before the work rather than after it, and it decides whether the work happens at all. Most of the ones a small studio sends are an invoice with the word changed, or a paragraph in an email with numbers in it. This one is drawn to be accepted: it says what it covers, what it costs, how long it holds, and it has two lines at the foot for the client to sign and date, because a signed quote is the beginning of a job and an unsigned one is a conversation.

The layout is the invoice's, which is on purpose: a client who accepts your quote gets an invoice that looks like it, and the two sit together in their folder. Your business block first, with the logo. Then the quote number, the date and the date it is valid until. Then who it is for. Then the lines, what you will do, how many, at what rate, with the amounts worked out, and the subtotal, tax and total in the corner. Then your note and your terms, and the acceptance lines.

One decision worth explaining: the totals cannot be typed by hand, only the lines can. Type a quantity and a rate and everything else follows. A quote whose total does not match its lines is the kind of thing a client notices, and it costs more than the arithmetic. Twelve lines fit on the sheet; a job that needs more than twelve is two quotes, or a phase.

Six color themes, one of them light ink for the office printer. Five currencies with the symbol and the number format that go with each. The acceptance lines are a switch, for the quotes that are accepted by email instead.

Most quotes go out as a PDF, but if you print one, plain copier paper is fine and the sheet keeps a half-inch margin. The free version is the same design with the sample business on it and a small credit line at the foot. The paid version takes your logo, your details and your lines, drops the credit line, and comes back in Letter and A4 from one purchase, with a link that works for a year.