Quotation Format: 7 Ready Samples in Word, Excel and PDF

There is no law that fixes the layout of a quotation in India. There is, however, a set of fields that buyers, their accounts teams and your own future self will look for. Leave one out and the quotation comes back with a question, which costs you a day at the moment the buyer was ready to decide.

The seven formats below all use these fields. They differ in which ones lead: a shop quoting furniture needs quantities and rates, a web agency needs milestones, and an interior contractor needs room-wise measurements.

Use this if you are not registered under GST, or for a quick price offer where tax is not charged. It is the shortest format that still protects you: number, date, validity, items, total, terms.

If you are registered, show the buyer the full landed price. That means the HSN or SAC code, the discount applied before tax, the taxable value, and the tax split. The split depends on the place of supply: the same state as yours means CGST plus SGST, a different state means IGST. The example is intra-state and uses 18% for illustration only. Use the rate that applies to your goods or services.

Had the buyer been in another state, the two tax lines would be replaced by one: IGST at 18% on ₹2,66,100, which is ₹47,898. The total is the same. Only the split changes, which is exactly why it should be worked out from the two states and never typed from memory.

A service quotation sells an outcome, so quantities and rates matter less than scope and milestones. List what is included, tie each payment to something the customer can see, and say plainly what is out of scope. SAC codes replace HSN codes for services.

Add three lines under the table that product quotations rarely need. Not included: hosting, stock photographs, copywriting. Revisions: two rounds per milestone, further rounds at an hourly rate. Timeline: six weeks from receipt of content. These three lines prevent most service disputes.

Interior and civil quotations are measured work, so the format is room-wise with a unit against every line: running feet for kitchens, square feet for wardrobes, ceilings and paint, numbers for electrical points. State the material specification in the description, because ply grade and hardware brand are where two quotations for the same flat differ by lakhs.

Close an interior quotation with four statements: measurements are provisional and the final bill follows actual site measurement; the payment schedule by stage, for example 40% advance, 40% on material delivery and 20% on handover; what is excluded, such as civil changes, appliances and society permissions; and the warranty on workmanship. The tax classification of interior work depends on whether you supply design only or materials with labour, so confirm the code and rate with your accountant before you print it.

When a buyer asks for prices by email or on letterhead, a short letter reads better than a form. Keep it to one page and put the prices in a small table inside the letter.

Five more letters, including a request for quotation, a revised quotation and an acceptance letter, are on the quotation letter format page.

Retail counters and small traders often hand over a half-page slip that customers call a quotation bill. It works as long as three things are on it: the word Quotation or Estimate at the top so nobody mistakes it for a tax invoice, a date with a validity period, and the shop stamp. Use a pre-numbered pad so slips can be traced.

Format 2 above is a complete filled sample, so use it to check your own arithmetic. Line 1 is 5 laptops at ₹52,000, which is ₹2,60,000, less 4%, giving a taxable value of ₹2,49,600. Line 2 is 5 keyboard sets at ₹1,800, which is ₹9,000. Line 3 is setup at ₹7,500. The taxable total is ₹2,66,100. GST at 18% is ₹47,898, split into ₹23,949 of CGST and ₹23,949 of SGST because buyer and seller are in the same state. The quotation total is ₹3,13,998.

Two details in that sample are deliberate. The discount is taken off the line before tax, because a discount shown on the document reduces the taxable value. And the setup work is its own line with its own SAC code, not buried in the laptop price, so the invoice can follow the quotation line for line.

The files are blank working documents. There is no sign-up and no watermark. In the Word and Excel files our name appears only on a note you delete before sending, and the PDF carries no branding at all.

• Quotation format in Word (.docx): the GST layout from Format 2, with ten item rows, terms, bank details and an acceptance line.
• Simple quotation format in Word (.docx): the no-GST layout from Format 1.
• Quotation format in Excel (.xlsx): GST and simple sheets with live formulas for discount, CGST, SGST, IGST and round off, plus an item list that fills in rates. The Excel walkthrough explains every formula.
• Quotation format in PDF: the blank GST layout, for printing and filling by hand.

If you would rather not maintain a file at all, the online quotation maker builds the same layout in the browser and prints it to PDF.

These four documents are mixed up constantly, and the mix-up matters because only one of them is a GST document.

Each has its own format page: the estimate bill format, the proforma invoice format, and the GST invoice format and generator. If you are deciding between a quotation and a longer document, see quote vs proposal.

No validity date

Without one, the price is open-ended. Customers do return with old quotations, and the argument is not worth the order.

Discount taken off the total after tax

It produces a different figure from the invoice, where the discount reduces the taxable value. Discount each line before tax.

Wrong tax type for an out-of-state buyer

CGST and SGST on an inter-state quotation is the most common correction accounts teams send back. Check the place of supply first.

Descriptions that assume too much

Size, grade, brand, finish and what is excluded. If the buyer could read the line two ways, they will read it the cheaper way.

No revision number

When a quotation changes three times, both sides need to know which version was accepted. Add R1, R2, R3 to the number.

Sending it and waiting

A quotation is the start of a conversation. Put a follow-up date in your diary the moment you send it.

A good format gets the quotation read. A follow-up gets it answered. Most quotations that are lost were never refused: they went quiet, and nobody called. The working method is in our guide to following up B2B quotations.

When quotations become daily work, a file per customer stops scaling. In HelloGrowthCRM the quotation is built from your item list with the quote builder, sent on WhatsApp or email, and tracked with quote tracking until it is won or lost. Paid plans start at ₹899 per user per month and there is a free plan. See India pricing.