For most trade quotes, 14 to 30 days. Use the short end when materials are a large share of the price and your supplier changes prices often, as with steel, copper, timber and imported fittings. Use the long end for labour-heavy work where the materials barely move. Go longer only when the customer genuinely needs the time and you have priced the risk of holding the price. Write the period on the quote as a number of days from the date it was sent, say what happens once it runs out, and decide in advance what you will do when someone accepts late, because sooner or later someone will.
What the period protects
A quote validity period protects two things. The first is your costs. A price set on this month's supplier list, this month's fuel and your current wages is only right for as long as those stay put. The second is your diary. A quote that says you can start in a fortnight was true on the day you wrote it, and may not be true six weeks later.
Keep the two separate on the quote. The price can be valid for 30 days while the start date is confirmed at acceptance. Customers understand both, as long as they are told.
Choosing the period with your own numbers
You can set a period from three facts you already have.
- How much of the price moves. Add up the share of a typical quote that is materials whose price changes during the year. If it is under a fifth, your costs are mostly labour, and a longer period carries little risk. If it is over a third, every week of validity is a week of exposure.
- How often your suppliers change prices. Look at your supplier invoices for the last year. Monthly rises call for a short period; one review a year allows a long one.
- How long your customers take to decide. Look at your last twenty accepted quotes and count the days between sending and acceptance. The number that matters is not the average; it is the point by which most of them had said yes.
The period should be long enough to cover most of your customers' decision time, or it will cost you jobs, and short enough that your costs are unlikely to move within it. When those two point in different directions, the answer is a shorter period with a clear way to re-confirm, rather than a long one you regret.
Wording that works
Plain, with a number, counted from a date the customer can see: "This quote is valid for 30 days from the date it was sent. After that we will confirm the price before booking the work." Add a separate sentence on timing if it matters: "Start date is confirmed when the quote is accepted."
Avoid "subject to change without notice", which makes the customer wonder what the quote is worth at all. Avoid validity hidden in a terms document they never open. It belongs in the note, near the total.
A worked example
Nightjar Roofing is a fictional roofing business that replaces old tiled and metal roofs. A typical re-roof is quoted at $18,400, of which $8,280, or 45 per cent, is metal sheeting, flashings and fixings. The supplier reviews prices about every three months.
Of Nightjar's last twenty accepted re-roof quotes, fifteen were accepted within three weeks. The other five took four to eight weeks, mostly while customers waited on finance or an insurer. A 30-day period covers the fifteen. For the slow five, Nightjar's note says the labour price holds for 90 days and the materials are re-confirmed at acceptance if the 30 days have passed.
One of the slow customers accepts on day 52. In the meantime the supplier has lifted sheeting and flashings by 6 per cent. On $8,280 that is $496.80. Nightjar rings the customer the same morning, explains the supplier rise, and sends a new quote at $18,900 with a short note showing the change. The customer had read the validity sentence, expected the call, and accepts the new figure that evening.
If the supplier had not moved, Nightjar would have rung to say the original price stood. That call costs nothing and is remembered.
When the acceptance arrives late
Decide your policy now, while no customer is waiting on it. A workable one: when an acceptance arrives after the period, check your costs that day. If nothing has moved, confirm in writing that you are honouring the price. If costs have moved, ring the customer, explain, and send a fresh quote. Never start the work at the old price while quietly resenting it, and never let the customer find out about a new price on the invoice.
This matters more when customers accept on a link. In Quote Desk the accept link works until the customer answers, so a quote can be accepted after its period ends, and the sentence in your note is what tells them the price needs confirming; the accept link page explains what they see. On the paid plans, the three reminders go 2, 5 and 10 days after you switch them on, so if you switch them on when you send, all three land inside a 14-day period and none of them nudges a customer towards an expired price.
Long decisions
Some customers need longer for good reasons: strata approval, an insurer's assessment, finance, a partner overseas. Do not stretch your validity to suit every case. Use the split from the example instead: hold the labour price for a longer period and re-confirm the materials, or quote with your normal period and offer to re-confirm the price in writing when they are ready. The materials guide covers keeping your material prices current in the meantime.
Mistakes to avoid
- No validity period at all, leaving the customer free to accept a year-old price.
- One period for every job, whether it is labour-heavy or mostly steel.
- Counting the period from a date the customer cannot see, such as when you started drafting.
- Mixing up price validity and start date, so a customer who accepts on time expects a start you can no longer offer.
- Honouring expired prices out of awkwardness, then wondering where the margin went.
What to do this week
- Count the days to acceptance on your last twenty accepted quotes.
- Work out the share of a typical quote that is price-sensitive materials.
- Pick a period for each kind of job and write the sentence into your note template.
- Write down your late-acceptance policy in two lines.
- Separate the start date sentence from the price validity sentence on every quote.