Free Contractor Estimate Template & PDF Generator

How to write a contractor estimate

1. Add your business details

   Company name, address, phone, email, license number and logo. Saved in your browser and reused on every estimate, invoice, receipt and change order you make here.

2. Enter the customer and the job address

   Name and contact details, plus the site address if it differs from where the customer lives. The job address is what the permit, the warranty and any lien attach to.

3. Set the estimate number, date and valid-until date

   The number is prefilled and increments after each download. The valid-until date defaults to 30 days out; shorten it when material prices are moving.

4. Build the scope as line items

   One line per task or material group with quantity, unit and rate. Use the details line for the specifics that prevent arguments later: product grade, square footage, who supplies what.

5. Add optional add-ons

   Tick Optional on any upgrade you want to offer. It prints in its own table under the total, priced, so the customer chooses between versions of yes instead of yes or no.

6. Set tax, deposit and payment terms

   Sales tax per your state, the deposit as a percent or flat amount, the payment methods you accept, and the terms text, which is prefilled with a scope-change and deposit clause you can edit.

7. Download, send, and convert when accepted

   Download the PDF and text or email it while the walkthrough is fresh. When the customer signs, untick Optional on any add-on they chose and press Convert to invoice.

What to include on a contractor estimate

What is the difference between an estimate, a quote and a bid?

In everyday use: an estimate is your informed approximation and is expected to move if the scope does; a quote is a fixed price for a defined scope, good for a stated period; a bid is a formal price submitted in competition, usually against someone else's plans and specifications, and usually on their form. Those are conventions, not law. What actually binds you is what the paper says about the price, the scope and what is allowed to change either one.

Customers hear "estimate" and assume the number is soft; contractors write "estimate" and assume they can adjust it later. Both are wrong often enough to cause trouble. My rule is to call it an estimate, state that the price is firm for the scope described, and say exactly what changes it: hidden conditions found after work starts, changes the owner asks for, and material prices after the valid-until date. Then the word on the top of the page does not matter, because the terms under it do the work.

One more reason to write it carefully: in many states the estimate the customer signs is the contract. California, for example, requires a home improvement contract and any changes to it to be in writing and signed by the parties before work starts (Business and Professions Code §7159), and prescribes specific notices that have to appear in it. Your state's licensing board will tell you what yours requires. Write the estimate as if it will be read aloud in small claims, because sometimes it is.

What should a contractor estimate include?

Your details and license number, the customer and job address, an estimate number, date and valid-until date, an itemized scope with quantities and rates, exclusions, allowances, assumptions, optional add-ons priced separately, subtotal, tax and total, a deposit and payment schedule, and an acceptance block with a change-order sentence. The two parts contractors most often leave out are exclusions and the payment schedule, and they are the two you most often need.

The itemized scope is where the estimate earns its keep. A single line reading "Bathroom remodel: $14,800" invites every question an itemized scope already answered: is the tile included, who is buying the vanity, does that cover the permit. Ten lines with quantities take another fifteen minutes and save an hour of phone calls, or a week of dispute. The seven-step process for building the number itself, including takeoffs, labor hours and overhead, is in how to write an estimate for a construction job; this page is about the document that carries it.

Load the general contractor example from Start from an example to see the shape: a composite deck rebuild with demolition, framing, decking and railing on separate labor and material lines, two optional add-ons priced under the total, a 25% deposit and the exclusions written into the notes.

How do I write scope and exclusions that hold up?

Write quantities and grades, not adjectives. "Install approximately 110 sq ft of porcelain floor tile, customer-selected, allowance $4.00/sq ft, over new cement backer board" holds up. "Tile bathroom floor" does not, because it leaves open what tile, how much, who buys it and what is under it. Every line on this template has a details line for exactly this; use it for the product grade, the square footage, the model number and who supplies what.

Exclusions are the scope's negative space, and they are the cheapest insurance you will ever write. Put them in the notes or in a line of their own. The ones I use most often on residential work:

• Repair of hidden conditions (rot, mold, out-of-code wiring or plumbing) found after demolition; priced by change order.
• Electrical circuits, plumbing runs or structural work not specifically listed.
• Permit and inspection fees, billed at cost as a pass-through.
• Painting, patching or finish work outside the rooms named.
• Removal or disposal of hazardous materials (asbestos, lead paint), which needs licensed abatement.
• Moving furniture, protecting contents, or clearing the space before work starts.
• Landscaping, hardscape or lawn repair after access by equipment.

Assumptions belong next to the exclusions: that water and power are available on site, that the customer will have the room cleared, that access is available during stated hours, that the customer pulls the permit or that you do. Each one is a cost you are otherwise absorbing silently. Allowances close the last gap: where the customer has not chosen the tile or the fixtures, state a per-unit allowance so the upgrade later is a change order with a number on it instead of a grudge.

How do optional add-ons help close the job?

An estimate with one number gets a yes or a no. An estimate with a base scope and two or three priced options gets a conversation about which yes, and in my experience that conversation closes more often and at a higher ticket. The customer feels in control of the price instead of negotiating against it, and the add-ons you would have mentioned on site anyway now have numbers next to them.

On this template, tick Optional on a line and it moves out of the total into its own table on the PDF, titled "Optional add-ons (not included in total)", each one priced. The base total stays honest, which matters: padding the base scope to leave room for a discount is a game customers have learned, while a clean base plus clear options is a choice they can make without calling you.

• Offer two or three, not eight. Lighting on the new deck, the privacy screen, the upgraded railing. A long list reads as upselling; a short one reads as expertise.
• Price them at full margin. Add-ons are the easiest work you will sell all year; do not discount them to make them attractive. They are attractive because the crew is already on site.
• Name the benefit in the description. "Low-voltage stair and post lighting, so the deck is usable after dark" sells; "Lighting package" does not.
• Untick Optional when they say yes. That moves the line into the total and carries it into the invoice when you convert.

How long is an estimate valid, and how much deposit should I ask for?

Give it a date. This template defaults the valid-until date to 30 days from the estimate date, which is what I use; when lumber or copper is moving week to week I shorten it to 14 and say why in the notes. Without a date, the customer who calls back in October expects the price you gave in June, and you either eat the difference or start the relationship with an argument. With a date, re-pricing is a courtesy, not a betrayal.

The deposit does two jobs: it covers the materials you are about to buy on their behalf, and it tests whether the customer is real before you block a week of the calendar. Size it to the risk on that job, then check the law. California's home improvement contract rules require the contract to state that the down payment may not exceed $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, and several other states cap deposits on home-improvement work too. The contractor deposit guide lists the caps we verified, the amounts that make sense by job type, and the script for asking without losing the job.

On this template the deposit is a percent or a flat amount in the totals section, and it prints as "Deposit due to schedule" under the total. When you convert the estimate to an invoice, that deposit is carried across as a payment received, so the first invoice already shows the right balance. If you would rather bill the deposit as its own document, the invoice generator does that in one line.

How does the customer accept the estimate?

By signing the acceptance block, which prints on every estimate from this page: Accepted by, Signature, Date. A signed, dated estimate with the deposit paid is the cleanest start a job can have. A text that says "looks good, go ahead" is also a record, and better than nothing, but it does not carry your terms with it the way a signature under them does.

Electronic acceptance is fine. The federal E-SIGN Act (15 U.S.C. §7001) says a signature, contract or record may not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form, or because an electronic signature was used to form the contract. A photo of the signed PDF texted back to you, a typed name on a form, a signature drawn on a phone screen: all electronic, all valid as far as federal law is concerned. Keep the message with its timestamp.

One federal rule to know if you sign at the kitchen table: the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives the buyer the right to cancel certain sales made at their home (and at temporary locations like a hotel room or fairground) for a full refund until midnight of the third business day after the sale. It does not apply to sales under $25 at the home, to purchases made because the customer asked you to come out and repair or maintain their personal property, or to sales made to meet an emergency, among other exceptions, and the FTC lists them on its site. Whether it reaches a given remodel contract is a question for your attorney; knowing the rule exists is enough to keep you from starting demolition the same afternoon you get a signature in the living room.

After acceptance, the estimate governs the job and everything that departs from it gets written down. Hidden conditions, owner changes and upgrades all go on a signed change order before the extra work starts; California requires changes to a home improvement contract to be written and signed before the work covered by the change begins, and it is good practice everywhere. And if the customer goes quiet instead of signing, the day-by-day text cadence in why customers ghost after an estimate is how I get an answer without pestering.

Why does a 30% markup not give me a 30% margin?

Because markup is a percentage of your cost and margin is a percentage of the price. Add 30% markup to $10,000 of cost and you charge $13,000. Your profit is $3,000, and $3,000 is 23.1% of $13,000, not 30%. Every contractor who "runs a 30% margin" by adding 30% to cost is short about seven points on every job, and it never shows up as a disaster. It shows up as a busy year with no money at the end of it.

To hit a target margin, the markup you need is markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). For a 30% margin: 0.30 ÷ 0.70 = 0.429, so a 42.9% markup. For 40%: 0.40 ÷ 0.60, a 66.7% markup. Going the other way, margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup). The markup and margin calculator does the conversion both ways and shows what a given markup actually earns you on a given cost; the estimate-writing guide walks through where overhead goes so the markup is profit and not a truck payment in disguise.

The rates you type into this template should already have that math baked in. If you are not sure what your hourly rate needs to be to cover wages, overhead and the hours you cannot bill, the hourly rate calculator starts from your real numbers rather than from what the guy down the road charges.

How do I turn an accepted estimate into an invoice?

Press Convert to invoice. It builds an invoice from the estimate: your business block, the customer, the job name and every included line item carry across, the deposit becomes a payment received so the balance is right, the terms are set to due on receipt, and the invoice number comes from your invoice counter. Optional add-ons the customer did not choose are left behind; untick Optional on the ones they did choose before you convert so they come along. You land on the invoice page with the document loaded and a one-line notice that it came from the estimate.

For a small job that is the whole billing cycle: estimate, signature, deposit, work, convert, invoice, paid. For a larger job, convert once for the first progress invoice, then edit the line items to match each draw and keep entering payments received as they arrive. The invoice page covers deposit, progress and final invoices in detail.

FAQ

• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7159 — Home improvement contracts (written and signed before work; down-payment statement; change orders)
• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7030.5 — License number on contracts, bids and advertising
• 15 U.S.C. §7001 — E-SIGN Act, general rule of validity
• FTC — Buyer's Remorse: The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule May Help
• Texas Comptroller — Real Property Repair and Remodeling (Pub. 94-116)
• Washington Department of Revenue — Construction guide: Custom construction