Free plumbing estimate template

Put labor by the hour on one line and each fixture or part on its own. If you asked for a deposit before ordering, show it, so the balance is clear.

• your business name, phone and email
• your customer's name and the address of the job
• an estimate number, the date and how long the price holds
• each service and each part you plan to supply on its own line, with quantity and rate
• any discount, tax and deposit to start
• the total, and what the price leaves out

What an estimate has to show can differ by state, so check what applies where you work. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.

Customers ask for a plumbing quote or a bid as often as for an estimate. For a repair it is the same paper: who it is for, the lines, the total and how long the price holds. In the Word and Excel files you can change the title from Estimate to Quote or Bid, whichever word your customer used.

A bid for a bigger job, such as a water heater replacement or a repipe, usually carries more: the heater or the fixtures by size and type in plain words, what is being removed, and what the price leaves out, for example closing up and painting a wall you had to open. Put those on their own lines or in the notes.

Some people say quote for a fixed price and estimate for a best guess. Whichever word is on top, write on the paper whether the price is fixed or may change once you can see the pipe.

Plumbing calls run from a ten-minute fix to a full day under a house. The paper has to show what the visit was for and where the time and the parts went.

Service call

The trip and the diagnosis. Name the problem in the customer's words, here no hot water, and the fixture or heater you looked at.

Labor by the hour

What you did and how long it took. Hours with one decimal are enough.

Each part

One line per part with its own price, so nothing hides inside labor.

Extra service

Work that is not the repair itself, like draining and flushing the tank, gets its own line. The customer sees what it added.

In the notes, write where the shutoff is if you found it, and what you would look at on the next visit.

Where plumbing paperwork goes wrong: parts folded into labor. Name each part, name the fixture or the heater it went into, and keep the service call on its own line.