This article first appeared on Invoala.
A free quotation is a priced, itemised offer you send to a customer before the work starts — and "free" almost always refers to the tool or template you used to produce it, not to your own labour. If you searched for a free quotation because you need to send one today, the short answer is: write down the scope, the price, what's included and excluded, how long the price holds, and your payment terms, then send it as a PDF the customer can accept in writing. Everything below is the detail behind that.
What a quotation actually has to contain
A quote is a commitment document. It says "this is what I'll do, for this much, under these conditions." If any of those four parts is missing, expect a dispute later.
- Your details — business or trading name, address, and a contact method the customer can reply to.
- Customer details — the person or company who is actually paying. Not always the person who asked.
- A quote number and date — so you can reference it later ("per quote 0417").
- Itemised scope — each deliverable or task on its own line, with quantity and unit price. "Website build — $2,400" is worse than three lines breaking out design, build and deployment.
- What's excluded — hosting, stock imagery, third-party fees, extra revision rounds beyond the agreed number. Exclusions prevent most scope arguments.
- Total, and whether tax is included or added — be explicit. "Tax added at the rate applicable in your jurisdiction" is safer than guessing a rate (see below).
- Validity period — how long the price holds.
- Payment terms — deposit amount if any, when the balance is due, and accepted payment methods.
- A signature or acceptance line — a quote the customer can accept in writing is far easier to turn into an invoice than a verbal "sounds good."
Photo by Aaron Lefler on Unsplash
Quotation versus estimate: the distinction that matters
People use "free quote" and "free estimate" interchangeably in conversation, but the documents carry different weight. An estimate is a rough figure given when the scope isn't fully known yet — "somewhere in the region of…". A quotation is a fixed offer for a defined scope.
Why it matters: an estimate is generally understood to be non-binding, while a quoted price for a quoted scope is usually expected to hold. If your costs move after you've quoted, you either absorb it or go back to the customer and re-quote — which is awkward and can cost you the job.
Practical rule: if you can define the scope well enough to name a number you're willing to stand behind, send a quotation. If you genuinely can't, send an estimate clearly labelled as one, and state what would change the price.
The legal effect of each depends on your country, your contract wording and whether you're dealing with a consumer or a business, so check your local rules rather than relying on the labels alone.
How much to charge for freelance work when you have no rate
This is the question hiding behind most quote searches. Two approaches, and you can use both:
Bottom-up. Add up what you need: personal income target, plus business costs (software, insurance, equipment, accounting), plus a set-aside for tax and slow months. Divide by the billable hours you can realistically sell in a year — not 40 hours a week, because quoting, admin and chasing payment eat time you can't bill. That number is your floor hourly rate.
Market-check. Look up what people doing comparable work in your region and field charge, and where your experience sits against them. Rates move, so check current sources rather than a figure you remember from a few years ago.
For a fixed-price quote, estimate hours per task and multiply by your rate, then add a buffer for revision rounds — commonly one round is included and further rounds are charged. Write that into the exclusions so the buffer isn't a guess you have to defend.
Example: quoting a logo and brand sheet job
Say a client wants a logo plus a one-page brand sheet. You estimate 6 hours of design, 4 hours of revisions, and 1 hour of file preparation and handover — 11 hours. At $65/hour, that's $715. You round the quote to $750 to cover the admin time.
You itemise it:
| Item | Qty | Unit | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logo concepts and refinement | 6 hrs | $65 | $390 |
| Two revision rounds | 4 hrs | $65 | $260 |
| Brand sheet and file handover | 1 hr | $65 | $65 |
| Subtotal | $715 | ||
| Rounding / admin | $35 | ||
| Total (before tax) | $750 |
Then the tax line. If your jurisdiction applies, say, an 8% sales tax on design services, the quote shows subtotal $750, tax $60, total $810. If it's 20%, it's $750 + $150 = $900. Do not bake a guessed tax figure into your price and call it the total — show the rate and check the current rate with your tax authority, because rates and whether your service is taxable at all depend on where you and the client are.
Finally, terms: 50% deposit to start, balance on delivery, quote valid 21 days, price includes two revision rounds and excludes stock fonts and third-party licensing.
That's a complete, defensible free quotation. The "free" part is that producing the PDF cost you nothing.
How Invoala helps you send one
Invoala is a free invoice generator with no sign-up and no watermark — you fill a form and download an A4-accurate PDF. For quotations specifically:
- Open the free estimates and quotes tool and enter your line items — descriptions, quantities, unit prices — exactly like the table above.
- Add your validity period, payment terms and any exclusions in the notes field so the customer sees the conditions on the same page as the price.
- Download the PDF. No account, no watermark, no charge. The layout is A4-accurate, so it prints and emails the way it looks on screen.
- When the customer accepts, you don't retype anything — you can carry the same line items into an invoice using the free invoice generator.
- Once invoices are out, the payment tracking page shows what's paid, due or overdue, and automated reminders handle follow-ups on unpaid ones.
If you'd rather build a reusable quote from a starting point, there are free downloadable invoice templates you can adapt, and a step-by-step guide to creating an invoice for when the quote is accepted and it's time to bill. Freelancers working project to project may find the freelancer invoicing notes useful for terms and deposits. Pricing is free forever with an optional upgrade — nothing about sending a quote requires paying.
Sending, following up, and turning a quote into money
Send the quote as a PDF attached to an email, and put the key terms in the email body too, in case the attachment doesn't open. Ask for written acceptance — a reply saying "approved, go ahead" is enough in most situations, though what counts as a binding acceptance depends on your jurisdiction.
If you hear nothing, follow up once after a few days with a short, non-pushy nudge and a note that the price is valid until the stated date. Most quotes that go quiet aren't rejections; they're a customer who got busy.
Once accepted, invoice promptly and reference the quote number. Keep quotes and invoices numbered in the same sequence so you can trace a payment back to the offer that produced it — that single habit prevents most end-of-quarter confusion.
Originally published at Free Quotation: How to Make One (and What to Put In It). More guides at Invoala.
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