Free Construction Estimate Template

This construction estimate template is a one-page Excel sheet for pricing a job after the site visit: your company details, the customer and site, a written scope of work, 20 priced lines, two tax lines, and a place for the customer to sign. Line amounts, subtotal, taxes and total calculate themselves in the Excel version. Free to download, no signup.

When you need a written estimate

Any time the price is more than you would settle with a handshake. A written estimate tells the customer what they are paying for and, just as important, what they are not. When the job runs long or the customer remembers the conversation differently, the scope line and the exclusions are what you point to.

What's in the template

• Your header. Company, address and phone, licence number, and tax registration number, on the left. Estimate number, date, valid-until date and the name of who prepared it, on the right.
• Customer and site. Customer name, phone or email, and the site address, which is often not the billing address.
• Scope of work. One line to describe the job in plain words before the numbers start.
• 20 line items. Item, description, quantity, unit (m², linear ft, hour, lot) and unit price. In Excel, the amount column multiplies quantity by unit price and stays blank until you enter a quantity.
• Subtotal and two tax lines. Tax 1 is labelled GST or HST, Tax 2 is PST or QST for provinces that charge a second tax. The rate cells are empty on purpose: type your rate, with or without the % sign. If your province has one tax, leave Tax 2 blank and it stays at zero.
• Terms and signatures. Payment terms, exclusions, a line saying that work outside the scope is priced by signed change order, then signature and date lines for the customer and for you.

How to fill it in without losing money

1. Number every estimate. When a customer calls back in three months, "estimate 112" finds the right version. "The deck quote" does not.
2. Write the scope before the prices. If you cannot describe the job in two sentences, the line items will have gaps.
3. Use real units. "Drywall: 1 lot" invites an argument when the customer adds a room. "Drywall: 85 m²" makes the extra room an obvious extra.
4. Fill in the exclusions. Permits, disposal, rock, hidden rot, colour changes, work by other trades. Most disputes on a finished job come from something nobody wrote down either way.
5. Set a valid-until date. Material prices move. An estimate with no end date can come back a year later with the customer expecting the old price.
6. Check your tax rates and registration. Which taxes you charge, and at what rate, depends on your province and on where the work is done. Confirm with your accountant or the tax authority; the sheet only does the arithmetic.
7. Get the signature before you order material. A signed estimate is the customer's go-ahead. An unsigned one is a price they might still be shopping around.

What to keep on file

Keep the signed copy, any version the customer saw before it, and your own worksheet behind the prices. When the job is done, the estimate becomes the base of the invoice, and every change after signature goes on a change order that refers back to this estimate number.

Where Excel stops working

For a handful of estimates a month, this sheet is enough. It starts to cost you when you retype the same line items on every job, lose track of which estimates are still waiting for an answer, and copy numbers again into an invoice at the end.

JobSnap estimates do the same job from your phone. Saved items from your cost library come with their unit and price, the default tax rate and validity period fill in on their own, and the PDF goes out with your logo. Each estimate carries a status (draft, sent, accepted, declined, completed), and an accepted one turns into an invoice without retyping. Because the estimate is linked to the job, you can compare what you quoted with the hours your crew logged through time tracking.