Win the Job Without Quoting Away Your Profit

You walk the job on Tuesday and mean to write the quote that night. By Friday, it is still a page of notes in the truck.

The homeowner waiting on your price asked two other contractors too.

A clear quote sent promptly gives the homeowner something concrete to compare with other offers.

The homeowner gets the quote by email as a PDF, with each item on its own line, followed by HST, the deposit, and your terms. The final quote adds the date its price holds until.

A homeowner comparing bids sees what your price includes, line by line.

On the Own Website Plan, the quote carries your company name, logo, and colours. On the Pay When Paid Plan, it carries the shared website's name, the same name the homeowner priced the job under.

This sample is a real Darteno quote for a 600 square foot driveway with steps, in Markham, priced on the interlock driveway estimator.

For an insurance job, the Growth Engine also builds a separate claim quote for the adjuster from the same estimate. See insurance claim quoting.

An online estimate is a quick, preliminary price from the answers the homeowner enters on your website. It shows them the likely cost before they call, and it commits you to nothing.

The quote and the updated quote are budgets the homeowner plans with. The final quote is your company's formal offer, with the scope of work, the price, the deposit, your terms, and the date the price holds until. The homeowner signs the final quote, not the estimate.

Between them, you check what the homeowner can't judge, at a home visit, and through a permit or an engineer's assessment when the work needs one. See the quote at each stage.

See how online contractor estimates work.

Winning a $15,000 job sounds good. But what happens after materials, labour, travel, and the other costs you need to cover?

Check the calculation formula once, before any quote goes out. You decide what margin makes the work worthwhile.

The quote price comes from your online estimator's formula, built from your rates for each material and task. Adjust those rates until each job leaves the margin you need.

You set the formula, so every quote carries the margin you chose.

When the homeowner asks for a quote or books a visit, the Growth Engine sends the quote on its own, built from every estimate they ran at your approved rates. Nobody on your team retypes the job or prices it by hand.

Depending on the trade and the work, a job gets up to 3 quotes:

1. Quote. Sent the moment the homeowner asks, priced from their own answers. Each item only a check can settle, such as the soil or a wall's structure, shows its price range under the total.
2. Updated quote. For work that needs a permit or an engineer's assessment. After your home visit, you enter what the visit found, and the Growth Engine sends the new price, with a note on what the permit review or assessment can still change.
3. Final quote. Your written offer, with the confirmed scope and price, no price ranges, and the date its price holds until. It follows the home visit, or the permit and assessment when the work needs them. The homeowner signs this one.

Simple, repeat work often needs no visit, and the final quote can follow the first quote directly. The homeowner's original answers stay on their customer record next to what you entered, so you can see what changed.

You approve the rates once, and every quote at every stage is priced from them.

The homeowner got your quote on Tuesday night. Three days later, nothing.

Maybe the homeowner forgot, is comparing prices, or has one question before they book.

The Growth Engine follows up on every open quote for you, so the homeowner hears from you again and your team only handles the replies. See how quote follow-up works.

No quote goes quiet because your crew got busy.

The homeowner asks to drop the back steps, or your visit turns up rotted deck framing. The scope changes, and the price changes with it.

Before the homeowner signs, you enter the new scope, and the Growth Engine sends the quote again under the same quote number. Every earlier version stays on the customer record, so you see what changed and which version the homeowner signed.

After the homeowner signs, a discount, a credit, or a refund is a change order on the quote, on its own line with its reason. Every invoice updates to the new balance, so the next one asks for the right amount. You send a refund from your bank account.

The quote, the invoices, and the customer record all show the price the homeowner agreed to.

On the Pay When Paid Plan, the fee follows what your customer pays, so each discount, credit, and refund lowers it. See the fee rules.

The homeowner signs the final quote's acceptance line. You record the signature in the Growth Engine app.

Each open quote ends in one of 3 choices:

• Advance: the homeowner signed. You enter the crew size and number of days the job needs, and the job's payment record opens.
• Nurture: the timing isn't right yet. The customer stays on file, so you can reach them again next season.
• Suppress: the job isn't a fit, and the contact receives no further marketing messages from you.

When you nurture or suppress a quote, you pick the reason, such as price, timing, or another contractor. The Growth Engine app shows how often each reason comes up, so you see whether to change your price or your follow-up.

A job moves to payment only once you record the signature.

You remain responsible for what you promise the customer and what you charge.

• A quote PDF sent the moment the homeowner asks, built from their own estimate
• An updated quote after the visit and a final quote to sign, when the work needs them
• Your rates, notes, and terms on every quote
• Every quote version kept on the customer record
• Reminders on every open quote, on your schedule
• Change orders on their own lines, carried to every invoice
• The signature recorded from your phone, opening the job's payment record
• The reason behind every lost quote

The signed final quote becomes the starting point for the invoice, with the same line items, each change order, and any deposit already paid. Nobody retypes it.

The quote records the work you sold and its price. Job costing, crew scheduling, and project management stay in the tools you use for them today.

Book a one-hour review. I review how you price and quote today, which jobs need a site visit, and what your quote template needs to carry.