What is a job estimate?

It's a priced document for one customer and one job, sent before the work starts. It lists the work line by line, adds any tax, gives a total and an expiry date, and has a place for the customer to sign if they accept.

What should a job estimate include?

Your business details, the customer's details, an estimate number with its issue date, what the job involves, line items with quantities or hours and rates, a tax line, the total, your terms, an expiry date and an acceptance signature.

How do I show hourly work on a job estimate?

List every role separately, with its hours, its rate per hour and the resulting amount. Put overtime in a separate section and any premium on its own line, and state that the final charge follows the hours worked.

When should a job estimate use hours, and when a fixed price?

Use hours when the time a job takes is uncertain, and a fixed price when the scope is clear and the customer wants one number. With a fixed price, list what's included and what extra time costs.

What if the job changes after the customer signs?

Leave the signed estimate as it is. Put the change on an extra line or in a revised estimate with its own number, ask the customer to sign that too, and include both on the invoice.

Job Estimate Templates for Pricing a Job Before You Start

A job estimate tells one customer what a specific job will cost before you start it, with their details, an estimate number, the hours or quantities, any tax, an expiry date and a line to accept

Create Your Estimate View All Templates

No credit card required.

Quick answer:This page lists the details these job estimate templates give a customer: client details, an estimate number and date, a job description, line items with quantities or hours and rates, a tax line where tax applies, the total, terms, an expiry date and an acceptance signature. It shows four templates with worked samples: a one-time job priced by item, an hourly crew job with overtime, a job with crew, materials and equipment plus overhead and profit, and a fixed-price quote.

Job Estimate Templates for Pricing a Job Before You Start

Key Features

Everything you need in a professional estimate template.

Client details, an estimate number and an issue date at the top of every sample

Each role's time priced on its own line: hours, hourly rate, line total

A tax line you set to your own rate, or leave at zero

A valid-until date and room for the customer's sign-off in each template

Four worked jobs, from a one-visit clean to an event setup quoted at a fixed price

What to put on a job estimate

A job estimate is written for one customer and one job, before any work starts. Whatever you do, the customer should be able to find these on it:

Your business: name, address and how to reach you.
The customer: their name, the site or address, and a contact person if it's a company.
An estimate number and date: a unique number you can quote later on the invoice, and the date you issued it.
The job: a short description of what you'll do and where.
Line items: each task, material or piece of equipment with how many (or how many hours), what each one costs and the amount for the line.
Tax: a separate line for any sales tax, showing the rate you've applied.
The total: the full estimated price, including that tax line.
Terms: what the price covers and leaves out, any deposit you're asking for, and the rate for extra hours.
Expiry: the date after which you'd need to reprice.
Acceptance: a signature, printed name and date for the customer.

Four job estimate templates, with worked samples

A one-time job priced by item: job estimate

Each line is a quantity in its own unit (square feet, rooms, windows) at a unit price, followed by scope notes, exclusions, the expiry date and acceptance lines. Its sample prices one after-hours visit to clean an agency's offices: 2,400 square feet of open floor at 0.18 each comes to 432.00, the two restrooms 170.00 at 85.00 apiece, then 120.00 for the kitchen, 144.00 for 24 windows at 6.00 and 95.00 for spot-treating carpet, 961.00 in all. It names exterior windows and moving heavy furniture as outside the price.

Files: PDF form · DOCX sample · XLSX sample

A job priced by the hour: labor estimate

Use this when the job is mostly people's time. Each role has its hours and rate, overtime hours sit in their own section, and the overtime premium is a separate percentage line. The sample is an overnight store reset. Regular hours for a crew lead, 4 laborers and a forklift operator come to 1,448.00; 2 crew-lead hours and 8 laborer hours past the eighth hour add 308.00 at the regular rates; and equipment adds 335.00: 2,091.00 before the premium. Half again on the overtime hours (the 50% premium) is 154.00, so the estimate reaches 2,245.00. The file notes that the customer pays for hours really worked, at those rates.

Files: PDF form · DOCX sample · XLSX sample

Crew, materials and equipment: job estimate with overhead and profit

For a job that needs people, supplies and rented machines, this layout gives each its own section and subtotal; percentage cells then add your overhead and profit and work out a deposit to ask for. In the sample, a weekend job to strip and refinish the floors in a warehouse's offices needs crew time of 2,224.00, materials of 817.00 and equipment of 312.00, 3,353.00 together. A 12% overhead-and-profit line (402.36) lifts it to 3,755.36, and a 30% deposit request comes to 1,126.61.

Files: PDF form · DOCX sample · XLSX sample

A fixed price for a technical job: project quote

When the customer wants one firm number, a quote states the price for the listed equipment, hours and delivery, and says what extra time costs. The sample sets up audio-visual equipment for a two-day conference: equipment for both days (1,920.00), technician and setup crew hours (1,890.00) and delivery and pickup (150.00), quoted at 3,960.00. Its terms charge extra technician hours on site at 65.00 an hour, and it leaves venue fees and recording out.

Files: PDF form · DOCX sample · XLSX sample

For small repair lists billed per task or by the hour, see the handyman estimate template, and for crew-only staffing, the labor estimate template page has the hourly layout above.

Hourly or fixed price?

Estimate by the hour when you can't be sure how long the work will take. Give your estimate of the hours and say the final charge follows the hours worked, as the labor sample does.
Quote a fixed price when the scope is clear and the customer wants certainty. Name exactly what the price includes and what extra time costs, as the project quote does.
Mix them where it fits: a fixed price for the defined part, and an hourly rate for anything beyond it.

Tax, expiry and acceptance

Tax: the samples keep sales tax on its own "if applicable" line at 0%. Put in whatever rate your work attracts, or none; check with the agency that collects sales tax where you work.
Expiry: put a date on the estimate after which the price no longer holds, so a customer who comes back months later gets a fresh price.
Acceptance: get the customer's signature, printed name and the date on the estimate before work begins, and file that signed copy.

If the job changes after you send it

Don't edit an estimate the customer has already signed. Record the change on an extra line, or in a short revised estimate with its own number, get it signed, and carry both into the invoice.

What's in the files

PDF: an empty form with the same fields, ready to print. The labor and crew-and-materials forms run to two pages; the job estimate and project quote fit on one.
DOCX and XLSX: each holds the worked sample above, for you to replace line by line.

Skip the Templates — Create Estimates Online

Why download templates when you can create professional estimates online with Billed? Customize, send, and get paid — all in one place.

Try Billed For Free

No credit card required.

What's included in this estimate template

Job	Template	How it's priced	Sample total
One-time office clean	Job estimate	Quantity × unit price per item	961.00
Overnight store reset	Labor estimate	Hours × rate by role, plus overtime premium	2,245.00
Warehouse floor refinish	Job estimate with overhead and profit	Crew, materials and equipment, plus 12%	3,755.36
Conference audio-visual setup	Project quote	One fixed price for listed items	3,960.00

When this isn't for you

If you're preparing a formal bid in response to a customer's bid package, or planning a budget for your own business rather than pricing a customer's job, a bid or budget layout fits better. Lender, insurer and medical cost forms are outside what these cover.