Glossary
Quoting words, explained
Plain definitions of the words that come up when a trade prices a job, writes the quote and waits for a yes. Each term has a short page of its own.
A
- ABN
- An Australian Business Number, the 11-digit number that identifies your business to the ATO, to suppliers and to the businesses that pay you.
C
- Call-out fee
- A fixed charge for coming out to a job, covering the travel and the first look before any repair or installation is priced or started.
D
- Day rate
- A set price for one person, crew or machine for a full working day, used instead of an hourly rate on work that fills whole days.
- Defects liability period
- A period set by the contract, starting at completion, during which the contractor must return and fix defects in the work at its own cost.
- Deposit
- Part of the quoted price that the customer pays on acceptance, before work starts, usually to fund materials and hold a start date.
E
- Estimate versus quote
- An estimate is an informed guess at what a job will cost; a quote is a firm price for described work that the customer can accept as it stands.
- Exclusions
- The things a quote says it does not cover, written down so the customer cannot reasonably assume they are part of the price.
F
- Fixed price
- A price agreed before work starts that does not change with the hours the job takes, only with changes to the work itself.
- Follow-up
- A short message to a customer who has a quote and has not answered yet, asking whether they saw it and if they have questions.
G
- GST
- The Goods and Services Tax, a 10 per cent tax on most goods and services sold in Australia, charged by businesses registered for it.
L
M
- Margin
- The part of the selling price left over after the costs of the job are paid, usually stated as a percentage of that price.
- Markup
- The amount added to the cost of materials or labour to arrive at the selling price, usually stated as a percentage of that cost.
- Minimum charge
- The smallest amount a business bills for any visit or job, however little work turns out to be needed once the trade is there.
P
- Practical completion
- The stage at which a job is finished apart from minor defects or omissions, so the client can use it and final payments fall due.
- Prime cost item
- An allowance in a quote for supplying an item the customer has not chosen yet, such as tapware or an oven, with installation priced separately.
- Progress payment
- A part payment made when an agreed stage of a longer job is complete, so neither side carries the whole cost until the end.
- Provisional sum
- An allowance in a quote for work whose extent cannot be known yet, adjusted to the actual cost once that work has been done.
- Purchase order
- A numbered approval a business client issues for a job and a price, which your invoice has to quote before their accounts team will pay it.
Q
- Quote acceptance
- The customer's clear yes to a quote exactly as written, which turns your offer to do the work into an agreement to do it.
- Quote validity
- How long the price in a quote stands for the customer to accept it, stated on the quote as a period such as 14 or 30 days.
R
- Retention
- A share of each progress payment that the client keeps back as security until the work is finished and any defects are fixed.
S
- Schedule of rates
- A list of agreed prices for units of work, such as per hour, per item or per metre, used to price each job as it comes in.
- Scope of works
- The written description of exactly what a quote covers: the tasks, the quantities, who supplies what, the finish, and where the job starts and stops.
- Site visit
- A trip to the job before quoting it, to measure, check access and conditions, and see the work rather than rely on a description.
T
- Tax invoice
- An invoice set out the way the ATO requires, so that a customer registered for GST can claim back the GST included in your price.
- Travel charge
- A charge for the time and distance needed to reach a job outside your usual area, priced per kilometre, per hour of travel or as a zone fee.
V
- Variation
- A change to the agreed work after the customer has accepted the quote, priced and agreed in writing before the changed work goes ahead.
W
- Warranty
- A promise about how long work or a product should last and what happens if it fails, given by you, by a manufacturer or by law.
Send the next one from the ute.
Free is five quotes a month with no card. If you send more than that, Starter is $39 a month. Either way the set-up is typing in your price list.