How to write a quotation a customer can say yes to

To write a quotation, put your business details and a quotation number at the top, then the customer's details, then one line per item or service with its quantity, unit price, any discount and the tax rate, then the totals, a validity date and your payment terms. Send it as a PDF so the figures cannot shift between your screen and theirs.

The difference between a quote that gets accepted quickly and one that stalls is rarely the price. It is whether the customer can approve it without writing back to ask what something means.

• Describe the outcome, not the activity. "Monthly website maintenance: updates, backups, 2 hours of changes" is approvable; "Support" is not.
• Use the unit the customer thinks in. Months for a retainer, hours for consultancy, pieces for goods.
• Keep optional extras on their own lines and say they are optional in the description, so the customer can drop one without asking you to reissue the quote.
• Give a discount its own percentage rather than lowering the unit price. Your list price stays visible, and the next quote does not start from the discounted figure.
• If the work depends on something the customer provides — content, access, approvals — say so in the notes. It is the most common reason a quoted timeline slips.

Check the percentages separately with the discount calculator and the VAT calculator if a figure looks off — and see what a discount really costs before offering one by reflex.

A quotation without an end date leaves a price open forever. Pick a period that matches how fast your own costs move — 30 days is a common default for services, and shorter is sensible when material or exchange-rate prices change week to week — and state it as a date rather than "valid for 30 days", which leaves the customer counting.

Payment terms belong on the quote, not only on the later invoice. A customer who accepted "50% on acceptance" has agreed to it; one who first sees it on the invoice has not.

• No validity date, so an old price is accepted months later.
• Tax folded into the prices, so a registered buyer cannot see what they can reclaim.
• One vague line for the whole job, which invites a request to break it down.
• No quotation number, which makes "the second version" ambiguous once there are two.
• A Word file instead of a PDF, so the layout — and sometimes the numbers — look different on their screen.

The Quotation Generator lays out every part above: numbering, issue and valid-until dates (30 days by default), your reference, line items with unit, quantity, price, discount and VAT, and payment terms and notes. It prints or downloads a PDF in English, Arabic or both, with no account needed.

With a free account a quotation is saved and moves through Draft, Sent, Accepted, Rejected and Expired, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice without retyping — see invoice vs quotation for what changes between the two. If the customer is asked to sign the accepted quote, electronic vs digital signature explains which kind of signature that needs.