Electrician quote template

Quote, quotation or estimate — the difference matters

The three words get used interchangeably on site and they do not mean the same thing. A quote (or quotation — same thing) is a firm offer: this described work, for this price. An estimate is your best informed guess, given on the understanding that the final figure may differ.

The practical consequence is simple. A quote is an offer; when the customer accepts it, you have a contract on the terms you wrote down. If you put “quote” at the top and a customer accepts, expect to be held to the number. So if the job genuinely cannot be priced firmly — an old rewire where nobody knows what is behind the plaster — either call it an estimate and say so plainly, or quote firmly for the part you can see and price the unknowns as a separate, agreed variation. The terms box in this template does the second version.

This is general commercial guidance rather than legal advice, and contracts with consumers carry extra protections beyond it. If a job is large enough that the answer matters, get the wording checked.

What belongs on an electrician’s quote

A quote is not a statutory document the way a VAT invoice is, so there is no HMRC list to satisfy. What it has to do is remove ambiguity. Every quote should carry:

• Your details and the customer’s. Business name, address, phone, email; who the quote is for and the address of the work if it differs.
• A quote number and a date. Numbering quotes in their own series (QUO-2026-088) makes it trivially easy to find the one the customer is phoning about.
• A valid-until date. Thirty days is the standard.
• A scope description that a stranger could follow.“Full rewire, 3-bed semi” plus the itemised lines beneath it.
• Labour and materials, priced separately. More on why below.
• What is excluded. Making good, decorating, scaffold, asbestos, builder work — the things customers assume are included until they are not.
• Payment terms. Deposit, stage payments, balance on completion, and how long they have to pay.
• How to accept. Reply by email, or sign and return.

Price labour and materials separately, even on domestic work

It is tempting to give a householder one number. Resist it, for three reasons.

First, it makes variations survivable. When the customer asks for four more sockets, you have a labour rate and a materials line to extend rather than a negotiation from scratch. Second, it makes your quote easier to compare honestly against a cheaper one — a rival who is £400 lighter is usually £400 lighter on accessories, and an itemised quote is how that becomes visible. Third, if the job turns out to be under the Construction Industry Scheme, the split is the difference between a correct deduction and an expensive one: CIS is calculated on labour only, after taking off materials you paid for, plant hire and VAT (GOV.UK: CIS deductions). Getting into the habit at quote stage means the invoice is already right.

Day rate or fixed price is a separate decision. Fixed price wins domestic work because the customer knows their exposure; day rate protects you on unpredictable work. The template supports both — put the number of days in the quantity column with your day rate as the unit price, or a single line with a fixed figure.

VAT on a quote

You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months exceeds £90,000, or when you expect to exceed it in the next 30 days (GOV.UK: when to register). Until then you must not add VAT to a quote or show a VAT line — GOV.UK’s VAT Notice 700/21 confirms that only VAT-registered businesses can issue VAT invoices. Leave the VAT toggle off and the template quotes clean.

Once you are registered, how you present it depends on the customer. Householders think in the total they will pay, so lead with the VAT-inclusive figure and show the breakdown beneath. Businesses reclaim VAT, so they think in net figures — quote excluding VAT and show VAT separately, exactly as the template does. Whichever you choose, say which it is on the document. “£3,200” that turns into £3,840 on the invoice is the fastest way to lose a customer you had already won.

Some domestic energy-saving installations qualify for the reduced 5% rate rather than 20%. The VAT column in the template is per line, so you can mix rates on one quote — but check the current rules for the specific installation before you rely on it.

Quoting a contractor rather than a householder

If you are quoting a main contractor for construction work, two things will change by the time you invoice. A CIS deduction of 20% or 30% will come off the labour element, and if you are both VAT registered the domestic reverse charge probably applies, which means you will not charge the VAT at all — the contractor accounts for it (GOV.UK: domestic reverse charge).

Neither belongs in the quoted price: you are quoting for the work, not for what is withheld from the payment. But flag both in the terms so nobody is surprised, keep labour and materials separate so the deduction lands on the right figure, and use the CIS invoice template when it comes to billing.

Terms that stop scope creep

Most disputes on domestic electrical work are not about price, they are about what the price included. Four sentences in the terms box do most of the heavy lifting:

1. Scope lock.“This quotation covers the work described above only.”
2. Unknowns.“Anything found once floors and walls are opened up will be priced separately and agreed in writing before we proceed.”
3. Assumptions. Access, occupancy, existing earthing arrangements, whether making good is included.
4. Validity.“Valid for 30 days from the quote date.”

Add how you want to be paid and how long they have — if you agree nothing, a commercial payment is treated as late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice (GOV.UK: late commercial payments), which is rarely the arrangement you actually wanted.

Turning an accepted quote into an invoice

Once the customer accepts, keep the accepted version. When the job is done, the invoice should mirror it line for line, with variations added as their own clearly labelled lines. That is the whole reason to itemise at quote stage: an invoice that matches the quote gets paid, and an invoice that does not gets a phone call.

The electrician invoice template uses the same layout, so you can carry the lines straight across. Doing it by hand once is fine. Doing it forty times a year is the point at which it stops being free.