What is a Construction Quote?
A construction quote is a builder's priced offer to carry out described work, on stated terms, until a stated date. It is an offer rather than a contract, and it becomes binding when the client accepts it.
It is also called a building quote, a builder's quote or a construction quotation, and on smaller residential jobs simply a quote. They describe the same document. What separates a good one from a number on a page is that it says what is not included, keeps anything that cannot be priced yet out of the fixed price, and states how long the price holds.
Construction Quote Sample
Here is a good example of a construction quote, covering a Level 3 office fit-out with a fixed price of $372,820 and a total payable of $474,672.
What's in This Construction Quote Template
A building quote needs the priced works, the amounts that can still move, the exclusions, and how long the price holds. This template covers all of it across eight sheets.
The tax label and rate are set once at Setup and read by every formula: GST at 10% for Australia, 15% for New Zealand, VAT at 20% for the United Kingdom. Quantity times rate is always calculated, never typed.
How to Write a Construction Quote Using This Excel Template
Price the work first, then write the exclusions, then check what proportion of your number is still provisional before you send it.
- Set the tax label and rate at Setup, since every formula in the workbook reads them.
- Enter the client, project, quotation number, the documents priced at their revisions, and the contract you intend to sign under.
- Set the validity date, because the supplier quotes behind your price expire too.
- Price the works section by section, with a unit, a quantity and a rate on every line.
- Put anything that cannot be priced yet on the provisional sheet rather than burying it in the fixed price.
- Write the exclusions before you send the number, not after somebody asks.
- Set the qualifications: access assumed, hours assumed, what the price is based on, and what happens if the documents change.
- Read the provisional percentage on the summary, and say it out loud at the presentation.
- Log every variation as it arises, including the ones the client rejects.
- Leave superseded lines in place rather than deleting them, since the history of the price is part of the record.
A builder who quotes a number without the exclusions has transferred risk they never priced. That is the difference between a quote that holds and one that gets argued about.
Quoting Materials, Labour and Provisional Sums
Three kinds of cost sit in a construction quote, and they behave differently once the job starts.
Fixed lines are checkable. Vinyl plank flooring at 420 m² and a rate per square metre can be tested by anyone. "Flooring, $32,760" cannot.
Keeping provisional sums and prime cost items out of the fixed price is the honest way to present a number, and it produces the figure that matters most at the presentation: what percentage of the price can still move. If a third of your quote is provisional, the client should hear it from you rather than find out later.
Exclusions and Qualifications: What Defines the Price
Anything not written into the quote or listed as a provisional sum is not in the price. That is not a technicality. It is the whole basis on which the number was built.
Exclusions name what is out:
- Asbestos and hazardous materials, including survey, removal and disposal.
- Structural certification, where an engineer's design and certification is assumed to come from the client.
- Statutory approvals, development and building approval fees, and any long service levy.
- Out-of-hours work, where the price assumes normal working hours.
- Latent conditions below the slab.
- Furniture, loose fittings and equipment.
- Data and communications cabling beyond rough-in.
- Escalation after the validity date.
Qualifications name the conditions the price depends on:
- The drawings and specification priced, at the revisions stated. A later revision is a variation.
- Access assumed, including hours, lifts available and laydown area.
- Existing services, assumed to be as shown on the documents provided.
- The programme assumed, including whether any shutdown or client hold points apply.
- How quantities were measured, and which items are measured on site.
Each line decides who pays for a specific surprise. A quotation with a thin exclusions list transfers risk the builder has not priced and cannot recover.
The variations register keeps this current after acceptance. Only an approved variation changes the contract sum. A variation marked instructed with a price to follow does not move it.
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Written by
Jackson Row
Jackson Row is the Growth & North American Market Lead at Mastt. With a background in risk modeling, cost forecasting, and integrated project delivery, he helps capital project owners work smarter and faster. Jackson’s work supports better tools, better data, and better outcomes across the construction industry.
Quote the job without carrying risk you never priced. This FREE construction quote template keeps provisional sums out of the fixed price and shows the client exactly what can still move.
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