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I've had positive comments about this in the past with clients who like to see the workings out to some degree as it reassures them that you have actually put thought into the quote. And for the more savvy clients they can recognise that things will be done properly.
I always try and lay the quotes out clearly and with a summary at the end so those who don't want the detail can skip to the juicy bit.
I Find it gives the customer some idea of whats involved and they can clearly see the costs at each stage.
How much scope do you find this gives you to get more funds from the client if the project runs on or if the material estimate increases as the project developes?
If they won't tell me or don't have one I tend to respectfully decline.
If they do tell me, I take it as a sign that they trust me to work to the agreed specification rather than the last penny they have.
I do tend to introduce a contingency sum to cover the "unforseen", if nothing occurs which falls into this category then the client obviously isn't charged but if it does they are prepared.
I used to do long detailed quotes which took a lot of my time and tended to encourage prospective customers to discuss detail, which they could then use to barter with my competitors, without placing an order.
That's just my view and I appreciate there are many other options.
HTH
Bernard
1) You are not going to lose money on something you have missed
2) You are going to have the answers to the potential clients questions
3) If the client say he/she wants a fixed price you will know weather you are going to be safe on the price
4) You will look far more professional that the 'wet finger in the air' crowd
5) If you don't win the job you still have a lot of useful info that will make the next quote easier
6) You may still get a recommendation due to your professional approach
From your experiance weigh up the rough value and profit in your head and then decide how much you want to put into it.
At my present and previous firm we use a software pakage called LiberRate. It's designed specifically for landscaping/maintenance.
It breaks the costing into 4 major parts, Materials, Labour, Plant and sub-contract.
You enter the details into these sections for each element of work and it will produce a bill of quantities.
You can enter mark up rate for each part, plus and a mak up for overheads.
The final bill will be marked up and ready to present to the client.
As each element is separated it will also produce reports on the jobs, from item details, listing all the elements in a job to collated materials, making ordering easier.
It also has libraries for your jobs, elements or individual materials, which means you can shortcut them into a new quote quickly.
It's not the cheapest software but very useful. There is a free trial available and Sam Hassell who developed the software is very helpful. He also has a spreadsheet on his site to calculate you labour costs. It's similar to Philip's but designed to include more overheads such as accountants, MD's etc.
Dont get me wrong personally id love to give estimates then id never squeeze my profit margins.
personally i give quotations as labour, materials, vat at least customers can see where there money is going. but tell me do you give your labour price as whole for the job or per sqr mtr with a total?
i can never get the balance right....i suppose i tailor them to whoever im quoting.
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