Guide

How to make a job quote template in Word or Google Docs with AI

17 October 2026Shaun, 20+ years in UK construction

What a UK trade quote should include, prompts to draft a Word or Google Docs template, and a worked example. You still set every price.

A quote template is a document you open again, with the headings already there. The customer, the address, and the price change. The headings do not. Word and Google Docs both do this. A chat tool can draft the sentences under those headings from notes you type. You still decide the price.

Shaun, 20+ years in UK construction, writes the number down before the document gets a sentence. We search the AI world every week so you don't have to. The quoting guide is the five-minute version, for an email from site notes. This page is the file you keep and reuse.

What a good quote includes

Eight lines. If one is missing, the argument later is usually about that line.

Scope. The work, in the order it happens, in words the customer can follow. Rooms, tasks, and what finished means for this job.

Exclusions. What this price does not cover. Making good, decoration, skips, parking, and anything you cannot see yet are the usual ones. If you would not do it for free, it belongs here.

Materials. Who buys them, and whether the cost sits inside the total or on top. Name the items you are supplying. If the customer is supplying the tiles, the boiler, or the boards, say so.

Labour. Either inside the total, or on its own line with what the labour covers. Do not list a labour price and then add it again inside the total.

VAT status. Say whether you are VAT registered, and whether this price includes VAT, has VAT on top, or has no VAT because you are not registered. The words have to match how you invoice. GOV.UK sets out what an invoice must include (opens in a new tab), including VAT where it applies. GOV.UK's VAT rates page (opens in a new tab) lists the standard rate at 20%. Use the rate you actually charge. If both you and a contractor customer are VAT registered, the VAT reverse charge guide is the separate check.

Payment terms. When a deposit is due, if you take one, and when the rest is due. Name the moment: before you buy materials, on completion, or a number of days after the invoice. Use the pattern you actually run.

Validity. The date this price stands until. After that date, the next quote uses the prices you have updated. Write a date you are willing to honour.

Deposit. The amount, or the word none. If you take one, say what it is for, such as materials you have to buy before the start.

Put your trading name, phone number, the date of the quote, the customer, and the site address at the top. A quote with no name on it is a scrap of paper.

Build it in Word or Google Docs

Start with a blank document. Type the headings above, and leave brackets where the job changes: [customer], [address], [total], [valid until]. That file is the master. You send a copy, with this job filled in. You keep the master with the brackets still empty.

Word, on a computer. Microsoft's page, Create a template (opens in a new tab), is the click-path. On Windows it says: File, Save As, type a name, choose Word Template as the file type, then Save. Word keeps those files in the Custom Office Templates folder. On a Mac the same page says File, Save as Template, then Microsoft Word template (.dotx). Opening the template starts a new document, so the master stays blank. You do not need macros. A plain .dotx is enough.

Google Docs. Google's help, Make a copy of a file (opens in a new tab), is the method that works on an ordinary Google account. Open the master, choose File, then Make a copy, and name the copy with the customer and the job. Fill the brackets in the copy. In the Google Docs app on a phone, the same help says you tap More beside the file, then Make a copy. The master stays in Drive. Each job is its own copy.

When you want a file the customer cannot casually edit, save a PDF. In Word that is Save As, PDF. In Google Docs it is File, Download, PDF. Send the PDF, or paste the words into your usual email, from your own address. Keep the copy. The chat thread is not the filing cabinet.

Prompts to draft the wording

Write the facts first, on paper or in a note. Then paste a prompt. The brackets are yours. If you do not know a figure yet, leave [to confirm] in the notes and tell the tool to keep that gap. Do not ask it for a fair price.

This first prompt builds the master, with the brackets still in it.

Draft a reusable quote template for a UK sole trader. UK English. Short lines. No slogans.

Rules:
- Use headings: Quote, Customer, Site, Scope, Not included, Materials, Labour, Price, VAT, Payment, Deposit, Valid until.
- Where a job detail changes, write a bracket such as [customer name], [address], [scope], [total].
- Do not invent a price, a date, a town, a guarantee, or a VAT treatment.
- Add one line: this price is for the scope above, and extra work is a separate price.
- Add my trading name and phone only where I have typed them.

Trading name:
Phone:
How I usually take payment:
VAT: [not registered / VAT extra / VAT included]

Read the draft against your notes. Delete a guarantee, a star rating, or a "fully insured" line you did not type.

When a real job is ready, this prompt fills a copy. Put the total you have decided into the prompt.

Fill this quote template for one UK job. UK English. Plain sentences.

Rules:
- Do not change any price, date, measurement, or name I have typed.
- If a bracket is still empty, leave it as [to confirm]. Do not guess.
- Keep every exclusion I listed. Do not add one I did not write.
- Put the total near the top.
- Do not add a guarantee, an insurance claim, or building regulations sign-off.

Trading name: [name]
Phone: [phone]
Date: [date]
Valid until: [date]
Customer: [name]
Site: [address]
Job: [one line]
Scope: [paste]
Not included: [paste]
Materials: [who buys what, and whether the cost is inside the total]
Labour: [inside the total, or the amount and what it covers]
Total: £[amount]
VAT: [not registered / VAT included / VAT extra, and the rate I charge]
Deposit: £[amount or none], due [when]
Balance: [when]

If the draft is too long for a phone, hand it back.

Shorten this quote so it fits on two pages. Keep every price, date, exclusion, name, and measurement exactly as written. Do not add promises. UK English.

Quote:
[paste]

If an exclusion disappears, put it back yourself.

A worked example

The figures below show how a filled template looks once you have decided your own numbers. They are not a rate for your job. The names are placeholders, not a customer.

Trading name: Example Trades Date: 17 October 2026 Valid until: 31 October 2026 Customer: Jordan Blake Site: 12 Example Street Job: Replace the basin and taps, and tile the splashback

Price: £470 VAT: not VAT registered, so no VAT is added

Scope

Isolate the water and remove the existing basin and taps.
Fit the new basin and taps the customer has chosen.
Tile the splashback to the height agreed on site.
Reconnect the waste to the existing pipe and test for leaks.

Not included

A new waste pipe if the old one will not undo.
Decorating the rest of the room.
Moving the electric shower.
The tiles. The customer is supplying them.

Materials

Basin, taps, adhesive, and grout supplied by me, included in the £470.

Labour

Included in the £470. Not added again on top.

Payment

Deposit: £150 before the basin is bought, taken off the total.
Balance: £320 on completion.

This price is for the scope above. Extra work is a separate price.

£470, £150, and £320 are there so you can see a deposit and a balance that add up to the total. Replace every one of them. Example Street is not a job, and Jordan Blake is not a customer of yours.

The fill-in prompt above is what produces this shape, once your notes are in the brackets. You still read it before it goes to anyone.

Before you send the first real one

Open the copy on your phone. If you have to pinch to read the price, the layout is too wide. A single column is enough. A logo, a coloured table, and a photograph can wait.

Then use the same check as the quoting guide. The address is this job. Every number matches what you decided. Materials and labour are not counted twice. You would not do the exclusions for free. If the pipe was seized or the wall was rotten, the quote says the price changes when that is worse than it looked.

Prices you reuse on the next job belong on a sheet, not in an old quote. The day-rate and price list guide is that sheet.

The UK Trades AI Prompt Pack is free when you sign up to the weekly email: prompts for quotes, chasing payment, tax admin, and customers. The signup is on the home page.

Common questions

Can I send the master template to the customer?

Keep the master, with the empty brackets, and send a copy that has this job filled in. Word's template file and Google Docs' Make a copy both do that. The help pages linked in the guide are the click-paths.

Should the template add VAT?

Only in the way you already invoice. If you are not VAT registered, the quote should not add VAT. GOV.UK sets out what an invoice must include, including VAT where it applies, and lists the standard rate at 20% on its VAT rates page.

Does the chat tool set the price?

No. You type the price you have decided. The tool drafts the sentences under the headings. The quoting guide is the check before you send.

Word or Google Docs?

Use the one you will open on your phone. On a computer, Word can save a .dotx template. In Google Docs, File then Make a copy gives each job its own file. The headings are the same either way.