Quoting for trade jobs: a process that wins work and survives the job

Two quotes decide most trade jobs: the one that arrived first and the one that arrived at all. Plenty of trade quotes are never followed up, and some are never sent: promised on site, drafted in the head on the drive home, and lost to the next call-out. This article is about a quoting process for trade jobs that gets the quote out the same day, holds up when the job changes, and follows itself up.

Why speed beats polish

A homeowner with a dead hot water system rings three plumbers. The first quote frames the job. Its price becomes the reference the other two are compared against, and if it looks professional and lands within hours, many customers never seriously read the other two.

Same-day quoting is not about working nights. It is about the enquiry arriving somewhere structured, a list rather than a voicemail, so quoting is a ten minute task off a screen instead of an act of memory. The intake side of that is covered in a client intake form that gets what you need the first time: every question the form asks on day one is an email you do not send on day three.

What a quote has to hold

A price on its own is not a quote. It is an opening position for a later argument. A quote that survives the job records five things.

Scope, in nouns. What is being supplied and installed, by item. "Supply and install 315L heat pump hot water system, remove and dispose of existing unit" survives. "Fix hot water" does not.

Exclusions. The two or three things the price does not cover: switchboard upgrades found on site, asbestos, anything behind a wall. Exclusions written before the job are professional. Raised during the job, they sound like an excuse.

The money. The price with tax shown the way your market requires it, whether GST, VAT or sales tax, the deposit if you take one, and payment terms in days. Deposit limits and contract rules for home building work are set locally and differ between states, provinces and countries, so check yours with your regulator before you settle your standard terms.

An expiry date. Thirty days is common. A quote without one is an offer you are still bound to after material prices have moved.

A status. Sent, accepted, declined, expired. The status is for you, not the customer, and it is the difference between a quote book and a pile of PDFs.

Variations: the part everyone skips

The job changes on site. The wall is double brick, the customer adds a second point, the existing wiring fails inspection. On small jobs the habit is to absorb it or mention it verbally. Both habits cost money: the first directly, the second when the invoice surprises the customer and the relationship sours over $400.

The fix is a variations list connected to the job: the date, what changed, the price difference, and whether the customer agreed before the work was done. On a renovation this list is the difference between a profitable job and a mystery. Builders live by it, and the longer argument is in the builder's variations register, but a two-line variation record earns its keep on a bathroom as much as on a duplex.

The follow-up that recovers quiet quotes

Quotes rarely decline. They go quiet. A follow-up at day three to five recovers some of them, partly because most competitors never make it. The routine only happens if something brings up the quotes that need it.

In Diract a quote can follow itself up. Send it with Email quote, and in Quote settings set Follow up after (days): the customer is emailed once if they have not answered by then. Remind before expiry (days) emails them before the quote lapses. Both stop once the customer answers.

On a bigger job, make the call as well. It is short: any questions, anything to adjust, and when were you hoping to have it done. That last question converts, because it moves the conversation from price to scheduling.

Running it in Diract

Quotes is one of the tools a matched trade starts with. Fill the price book once, then build each quote from it with Add from price book, or add a line by hand with its Qty (the hours or the number of units), Unit and Price. Offer choices and optional extras on the same quote.

Send it with Email quote, Text quote or Share link. The customer opens the link with no account, picks their options, signs to accept or declines. If you set a Deposit (%), they pay it by card once they accept, into your own Stripe account. An accepted quote becomes a job with Create job and an invoice with Create invoice, so nothing is typed twice. The full steps are in the Quotes docs, and the job flow either side of the quote is in job tracking for a trade business.

Conclusion

The quoting process for trade jobs that wins is unglamorous: same-day, itemised, with exclusions and an expiry, tracked by status, and followed up at day three. None of it needs a developer. It needs the quotes in a list instead of a sent folder.

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Questions

Should the quote be a fixed price or an estimate?

Fixed price where you can scope the work, with written exclusions carrying the risk of the unknown. Estimates suit genuinely open-ended work, but customers compare a competitor's fixed price against your estimate as if both were fixed.

How fast is fast enough?

Same day for emergency and small works, within two business days for renovations. Past a week, assume the reference price has been set by someone else.

What if I quote on site from the truck?

Then the job of the system is capture, not drafting. The quote goes into Quotes with its status the same day, even if the customer already has the number verbally. Build it from the price book on your phone and text it before you leave the driveway. An unrecorded quote cannot be followed up.

This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. Current as at 19 September 2026. The product changes often, so check the screen before relying on a detail here.