Six essential details for a complete workshop quotation

With the rising prices of spare parts and increasing customer demands, both providing an accurate estimate and controlling costs are becoming increasingly important. To this end, here is the most critical information you should include when preparing a complete workshop quotation for your customers:

Specify the creation and due date of the estimate in the workshop

The creation date is helpful for the customer and yourself because it makes it easier to organise your work.

Equally important is the expiry date, which serves as a guarantee. The price of spare parts can change quickly, so it is best to provide a realistic estimate that reflects the market situation.

A clear description of the work to be carried out

To hand out an accurate quote, you should prepare a document that clearly explains the operations that will be part of the work. In this way, the customer (alone or with your help) can quickly understand what work you will carry out on his vehicle.

Timetables

Using the original manufacturer’s timetables is recommended to ensure the legitimacy and accuracy of the data. Although it necessarily forces one to meet deadlines, when this data is present, it serves as an essential reference point because no one can question it.

Communicating the above allows the customer to make projections and thus have an order of the extent of the time you will spend on his vehicle.

A complete workshop quotation should include labour costs

It is crucial to indicate the different labour rates for each operation to provide a clear and precise document. This will also suggest to the customer the complexity of the work.

In your estimate, when presenting labour costs, feel free to give them in grid form to visually break down the different rates required for the work. This will help make the final document clearer.

Prices: single and total

To make the workshop estimate easier to read and understand, you should indicate the prices broken down by line (operation, part, etc.). This breakdown shows in figures the impact of time and labour costs.

The overall price, needless to say, serves as a reference point on the document and gives the customer the final information they need.

Workshop estimate: when possible, it is better to specify the part numbers used

Try to include references for the spare parts used: this will increase your customer’s confidence, who will have all the information they need in case of checks and searches.

If you prefer to leave a part number out, it may be sufficient to indicate the make and name of said spare part.

Conclusions

With all the information and details in the workshop estimate, you can ensure that your customers know everything they need. In addition, their satisfaction will be even more significant because there will be no grey areas. Finally, you will have better cost control and administrative traceability.