There’s a strong correlation between how fast a quote goes out and whether the job is won. Customers who ask four trades for a quote on a Tuesday aren’t waiting until Friday evening to pick. They’re picking the person whose quote lands on Tuesday afternoon, looks sharp, and answers their questions before they have to ask.
That doesn’t mean rushed. It means having the right setup so a professional, complete quote takes a minute to build. Here’s the anatomy of a good one and how to send it that fast.
The seven things every tradesperson’s quote needs
- Your business name, logo, address and contact details. These should appear on every quote you send. If the customer has to scroll through an email body to find your phone number, you’ve already lost a point.
- A clear job title and date. “Full 3-bed rewire — 14 Elm Road — quoted 16 April 2026” is instantly more reassuring than “Quote 0012”.
- Itemised line items. Labour, materials, travel, contingencies — as separate lines with prices. A £2,400 “electrical works” line looks pulled out of the air. The same amount broken into six priced lines looks like a professional who’s costed the job.
- Clear VAT treatment. If you’re VAT-registered, show VAT as its own line. If you’re not, say so explicitly (“not VAT-registered”). Ambiguity on VAT kills trust.
- Validity period. “This quote is valid for 30 days” protects you if material prices shift, and it gently nudges the customer to commit.
- Payment terms. When and how you expect to be paid — deposit, on completion, stage payments, card accepted, etc.
- A way to accept with one tap. An email with a PDF attached and a phone number at the bottom is the 2010 version of this. In 2026, the customer should be able to tap an “Accept” button in the email and be done.
Why “under 60 seconds” is realistic
The fast version isn’t fast because you type quickly. It’s fast because you’ve set up three things once:
- Your business profile. Logo, address, VAT number, phone, email — entered once, appear on every quote.
- Customer records. When the customer calls, you add them once: name, job address, phone, email. Next time you quote for them, they’re already there.
- Kit Bundles. The 10 or 15 jobs you do most often — “Standard boiler service”, “EICR 3-bed”, “Consumer unit swap”, “Extension first fix electrics” — saved as pre-priced bundles of line items you can add with one tap.
With those three in place, a new quote is: open app → tap +, pick customer, add bundle, tweak two lines, tap send. That’s under a minute.
The bit where most tradespeople lose time
It’s not typing — it’s re-entering the same information. If you’re typing your business address, logo and payment terms into a Word template every time, you’ll never be fast. Build the profile once. Save the bundles once. After that, every new quote is just the bits that are actually different about this job.
What Yoley does
Yoley is built around exactly this workflow. Set up your business once in onboarding; add customers as you win work; build Kit Bundles for the jobs you do regularly. Once you’ve done that, a new quote takes under 30 seconds on an iPhone — including the send. Customers get a branded email with a tap-to-accept link; when they accept, you get a push notification and the quote is ready to convert into a booked job.
And it’s free. No “starter plan” that caps your quotes; no £29/month subscription required to unlock branding.