From the site visit to the follow-up: the full method for pricing a job and wording it so it gets accepted.
NINO guide · updated 25 September 2026
Most bad quotes start with a bad visit. Five questions cover nearly everything, and all of them are asked before you leave the customer's house.
It is not always what they ask for. "I want the tap changed" can mean "my worktop has been wet for two months". Solving the right problem is what separates a job from a complaint.
Age of the installation, materials, access, condition of everything around it. Take photos. One photo taken on the visit beats half an hour of memory a fortnight later.
Old pipework that shears when you loosen it, a chase that opens up wider than expected, a board with no spare way. You do not have to cover everything — you have to write down what might happen and what it costs if it does.
If the customer buys the materials, you carry less margin and less guarantee. Decide on the visit and put it in writing.
The timescale changes the price. A job for tomorrow morning does not cost the same as a job for three weeks' time.
There are two ways to get a price wrong: guess it, or copy the bloke down the road. The third way, the one that works, is to add up four things and leave none of them out.
Labour. Hours actually worked, at your hourly rate. And your hourly rate is not what you would like to earn: it is what you need to bill to cover your wage, the van, tools, insurance, accountancy and the days with no work.
Materials. Real cost, with the margin you work to. If the merchant can move the price before the job starts, shorten how long the quote is valid rather than swallowing the difference.
Travel. Time on the road and fuel, on its own line. Two 30-mile call-outs eat a whole morning.
Contingency. Something for what the visit could not show you. On an old bathroom that is not pessimism, it is experience.
A half-day job: 4 hours at your rate, plus materials with margin, plus one call-out, plus a bit of slack for the unexpected. If the answer looks expensive, the problem is usually not the price — it is the hourly rate, which nearly everyone sets too low.
A customer getting three quotes is not comparing technical ability — they cannot judge it. They are comparing clarity. The clearest quote wins at the same price.
One line per task. "Replace basin trap — 1 no." Not "sundry works".
Split labour and materials. The customer can see where the money goes and stops feeling they are paying for thin air.
Say what is not included. Making good, decorating, waste removal, permits. This is the section that prevents the last-day argument.
Put the terms in. Validity, timescale, payment, guarantee. Four lines.
No typos, no private shorthand. "S&F comb blr 30kW TBC" makes sense to you. To the customer it is noise, and noise breeds doubt.
Send it the same day. Ideally before you leave site. On an urgent job the first quote in usually wins, not the cheapest.
Send a PDF, not a message. A WhatsApp full of numbers gets lost in the thread. A PDF with your name at the top stays on the customer's phone, and it is what they show their partner or the management company.
Follow up after a week. "Morning — are you still interested in quote QUO-2026-0042?" One line. It is the highest-return thing in the whole process, and almost nobody does it.
If it is a no, ask why. Two or three answers tell you more about your pricing than a year of guessing.
A quote is a proposal: it does not oblige anyone to pay and it is not an accounting document. A pro forma has the same content once the job is agreed, and is often what the customer uses to release a payment — also not an accounting document. An invoice is the document that records the sale, with its own rules; for your own situation check with your accountant or on gov.uk.
NINO produces professional quotes and pro forma documents as PDFs. Invoicing stays with your usual accounting software.
If you want the skeleton ready to copy, it is here: quote template for tradespeople.
The same day as the visit, and ideally before you leave site. On an urgent job the first quote to arrive usually wins, and it is rarely the cheapest one.
Yes, and on its own line. Buried in the price it just makes the job look expensive. Stated openly, the customer understands they are paying for your travel time — and it is the line that causes most friction when it only appears on the final bill.
Start from what you need to turn over in a year to cover your wage, the van, tools, insurance, accountancy and the days with no work, then divide by the hours you can actually bill. It is almost always a higher number than the one people use out of habit.
Take work out rather than money off. Drop a line, let them supply the materials, or shorten the guarantee. Cutting the price without changing the scope teaches the customer that your first number was not the real one.
NINO is a tool for self-employed tradespeople: you build the quote on site, the customer gets a professional PDF over WhatsApp, and customers, appointments and documents stay in one place. You can start free, with no card.
See also: all guides · NINO in your city.