What a quote to measure must contain

The customer reads a quote to measure to decide on a piece that is not made yet. The workshop reads it to make that piece, and the office reads it again when the invoice goes out. If they read it differently, the difference shows at installation, with the customer watching. A good quote to measure, written by hand or in made to measure quote software, is short. It leaves nothing to memory and reads the same a month later as on the day it was sent.

What a quote to measure must contain starts with who and where: the customer’s name and contact, the address of the site, the date of the quote and how long it is valid. The site address changes the job. A worktop delivered to a third floor without a lift is a different job from one delivered to a ground-floor shop, and the quote should say which one it is.

Each item is then described the way it will be made. "Kitchen worktop, complete" leaves out what the workshop needs. The line gives the length, the depth and the thickness, the material by name and colour, the edges that are polished and those that are not, the cut-outs for the sink and the hob with their sizes, and the quantity. Each item has its own line, so a customer who changes one piece does not reopen the whole quote.

A simple drawing or a photo on the line settles most arguments before they start. It shows which side the sink is on, whether the upstand runs along the long edge or the short one, and whether the window opens inward, more clearly than any sentence. When the line carries its drawing, the customer, the workshop and the installer look at the same picture.

The figures a quote must show

The price should come from rules, whatever the mood of the day. A workshop that prices from the size and the options, with the same rules for every quote, gives the same price to two customers who ask for the same thing. It also gives the office a quote it can explain. Behind the price, the office should see the cost and the margin of the line, so a quote that is too cheap is noticed before it is sent. The customer sees only the price.

Weight is worth writing down for heavy pieces. A stone top or a steel gate has to be carried, loaded and fitted, and the people who do it want to know what is coming. When the weight follows from the size and the material, it costs nothing to show, and it saves a second trip with two more people.

Payment terms belong on the quote too: how much is paid when the order is confirmed, how much at delivery, and when the rest is due. A deposit recorded against the order later settles the invoice by itself, so the customer is never asked to pay the same amount twice.

Taxes should be easy to read: the price before tax, each tax with its rate, and the total, in the customer’s currency. A customer who has to work out the tax on a calculator calls back.

Write down exclusions and trade terms

What is not included deserves a line of its own. Delivery, installation, removing the old piece, preparing the wall or the floor: each is either on the quote with its price, or written as excluded. A customer who reads "installation not included" before signing does not discover it on the day the van arrives.

Every trade has its own terms, and they belong on the quote in plain words. Prices in metal trades move with steel, so the quote says how many days they hold. Tempered glass cannot be cut again once it is tempered, so the glass quote says so. Building materials are delivered to site by appointment and unloaded by the customer. Terms set once for the trade, in each of the languages the workshop uses, appear on every quote without being typed again.

The accepted quote stays on record

Customers change their minds, and that is normal. When the customer changes a size, the changed item becomes a new configuration and the one that was quoted is kept. If the customer later says they asked for something else, the workshop can show what was quoted and when.

Acceptance should be easy and leave a trace. A customer who receives a link can open the quote, read it and accept it by typing their name, without an account or a signature on paper. The workshop sees when the quote was opened and when it was accepted. From there, the accepted quote becomes the order in one step, with every line, size and drawing as they were.

The quote should also reach the customer in their language. A workshop that works in French can send a quote in Arabic or English to a customer who reads it more easily, with the same items, prices and terms, and the same drawing.

This is how sahmrev Workshop handles quotes to measure: a configurator per product with your own rules, a drawing on the line, the weight, the cost and margin for the office, the trade’s terms, and online acceptance by name. It includes everything in sahmrev Commerce, so the quote becomes the order, the delivery and the invoice without being typed again. The stone workshop page shows a worktop quoted to measure, and the Workshop page lists what the product includes.