A quote request, answered in minutes

Most service jobs start with a question rather than a booking: "How much to fix this?" The firm that answers clearly and quickly usually gets the work. In this tour the office at a sample plumbing and heating firm picks up a request at eight in the morning. A customer's kitchen tap is leaking and she wants a price before she books. By five past eight the quote is written, and a few minutes later it is on its way.

Where does a quote request show up?

A quote request is a booking marked "Wants a quote". It sits in Bookings with everything else, so it cannot get lost in an inbox. The Bookings page heading describes it well: requests, quotes to write and the work booked in, all in one list.

This tour covers the first two rows and the step into the third. The afternoon tour picks up the rest.

Step by step

1. Open Bookings. At the top you see a count such as "1 wants a quote" next to "1 waiting to confirm". Those two counts are the morning's to-do list for the office.

2. Find the request. The sample request reads "Kitchen tap leaking", marked Wants a quote and asked six minutes ago. It sits above the confirmed bookings for the day, such as a radiator valve at 08:30 and a boiler service at 13:30, so it stands out.

3. Choose Write a quote. A drawer opens titled with the customer's name. You stay on the Bookings page, so you can still see the rest of the day while you price the job.

4. Write a short message to the customer. The sample says: "New mixer tap fitted with isolation valves, old tap taken away." One or two sentences that say what you will do, in the customer's words rather than trade terms, saves a phone call later. If your prices include or exclude VAT, say so here.

5. Add one line per part or piece of work. Under "What you will do", each line has a description, a quantity and a price each. The sample quote has three lines: labour to replace the kitchen mixer tap, 1 at £65; a chrome mixer tap, 1 at £48; and isolation valves, 2 at £6.50. Use "+ Add a line" for each extra item.

6. Check the total. The drawer adds the lines up as you go. Here it comes to £126. If the number looks wrong, it is almost always a quantity, so read down the Qty column before you look anywhere else.

7. Set Valid until. Pick a date after which the price no longer stands. Part prices move and your diary fills, so an open-ended quote is a risk. A quote that passes this date shows later as Past its date, which tells you to send a new one rather than honour an old price.

8. Save it. The quote is saved as not sent. The drawer confirms it with the booking reference and a note: saved as not sent; send it from Quotes. Nothing has reached the customer yet.

9. Send it from Quotes. Open Quotes, where the new quote waits under Not sent with its number, Q-0219 in the sample. Read it once more, then press Send quote. It moves to Sent and waits under "Waiting for the customer" until you record the answer.

Why is writing a quote separate from sending it?

Because the person writing a quote is often interrupted. The phone rings, an engineer calls in from a job, a customer walks in. If a half-written quote could go out the moment you pressed save, customers would sometimes receive one line at £0. Keeping "save" and "send" apart means the quote only leaves when somebody has decided it is finished. It also lets one person write and another check, which helps when a new member of the office is learning your prices.

How do you price a small plumbing job well?

Start with labour at an hourly rate that covers more than wages. It has to pay for the van, fuel, insurance, tools, the office and the time spent travelling and quoting, none of which the customer sees. Then add parts at a price that includes a margin for the time spent buying and collecting them, and for the occasional return. The markup vs margin guide explains why a 25% markup on a part is not a 25% margin. The pricing guide covers setting a rate you can defend.

Tips for quotes that get accepted

• Reply the same morning. A clear price within the hour often beats a cheaper one that arrives tomorrow.
• Itemise, but do not overdo it. Labour and each main part on their own lines is enough. Ten lines of fittings makes a small job look expensive.
• Name the part. "Mixer tap, chrome" tells the customer what they are getting and lets them ask for a different finish.
• Keep validity short for parts-heavy jobs. Two weeks is safer than two months when supplier prices change often.
• Reuse your wording. If you write the same message for every tap replacement, keep it somewhere you can paste from.

Common mistakes

• Pressing save and assuming it has gone. It has not. Saved means not sent. Check the Not sent column before you close for the day.
• Leaving VAT unclear. A customer who thinks £126 is the full price and then sees VAT on top will not trust the next quote.
• Forgetting the valid-until date. Without it, a customer can come back months later expecting the old price.
• Quoting labour only. Parts left off the quote become an awkward conversation on the doorstep.

What to do next

Once the quote is sent, the afternoon tour, Quotes followed up and booked in, shows the customer's yes being recorded and the job booked in for a day. After the work is done, follow the job card tour to see the notes, labour and parts written up on site. For the money side once the job is finished, read how to get invoices paid faster.

The customer, prices and quote numbers in this tour are from a sample business.