Your contractor estimate, ready to price.
Your notes from the site visit become a clean estimate draft. You set every price, read it over and send it.
How a contractor estimate draft works
- Take notes the way you do.
- Set every price yourself.
- Read it over, then send it.
- Build it around your site notes.
- Copy the way you write estimates.
- Keep it running.
Texts you can copy.
Yours to use, even if you never hire us.
Estimate for [customer name] [job address] · [date] The work: [what you'll do, in plain words] Materials: [list] · $[your price] Labor: [hours or flat rate] · $[your price] Not included: [what's left out] Total: $[your total] This price holds for [number] days. Reply YES and I'll send you start dates. [your name] · [Business] · [phone]
Hi [Name], it's [your name] at [Business]. Here's the estimate for [the job] we looked at on [day]. It covers [the main work]. Take a look, and if anything's unclear, text me and I'll walk you through it.
Hi [Name], I'm putting your estimate together for [the job]. Before I price it, can you tell me [one detail, like the brand you want or the size of the room]? That way the number is right the first time.
Hi [Name], since you'd like to add [the new work], I've updated the estimate for [the job]. The new total is $[your new total], and everything else stays the same. Reply YES and I'll keep [start date] for you.
Live in 30 days.
- KickoffYou name one approver.
- 5 business daysYou give us access.
- 48 hoursYour approver gets back to us.
- 30 daysLive, or we work free until it is.
Questions.
Enough that the customer can say yes without calling you. Put your business name and number, their name and the job address, what you'll do in plain words, materials and labor with a price for each, what isn't included, the total, and how long the price holds. Then say how to accept, like replying YES.
Write it from your notes while the job is still fresh, and use the same layout every time. That's most of how to write an estimate without losing an evening to it. With a draft already built from your site notes, your part is checking the work, filling in your prices and sending it.
Not quite, though people mix them up. An estimate is your best guess at the cost, and it can move if the job changes. A quote is a fixed price for set work. The steps for how to write a quote for a job are the same, so say clearly at the top which one you're sending.
No. You set every price, because you know your costs, your crew and what the job really takes. The draft lays out the work and the materials from your notes and leaves the price lines empty for you. Nothing goes to a customer until you or someone on your team has priced it, read it over and sent it.
We work around the tools you already use, and we look at your setup together on the fit call. We don't sell estimating software, and we don't promise a sync with any of it. If your setup won't work for this, you'll hear that on the call, before you agree to anything.
