🧾 Freelance quoting checklist

Pricing is preparation, not a guess made quickly to avoid an awkward pause. Everything here happens before the quote is sent, not after it's queried.

17 items

1. The actual scope written down before pricing anything"Redesign the website" prices completely differently from "redesign these eleven pages, twice, with two rounds of changes."
2. Your real cost per hour worked out, including the unbillable timeAdmin, quoting, chasing payment and the gaps between jobs all come out of the billable hours. Price for that or price for nothing.
3. The client's budget or range asked for directlyAsking first isn't rude — it saves both sides from a quote that's wildly off in either direction.
4. A similar job's actual hours checked against the last oneNot the estimate you gave last time — how long it actually took, including the bit that always overruns.
5. Revisions included in the price, with a number attached
6. How many rounds are included
7. What a round beyond that costs
8. A rate for anything outside the agreed scope, decided before it's neededDeciding this mid-project, under pressure, is how scope creep turns free.
9. A deposit for a new client, commonly a third up frontIt filters out the client who was never going to pay, which is the expensive failure, not the small one.
10. Payment terms stated in days, not left implied
11. What happens if the client cancels partway throughKill fees or a minimum charge for work already done — decide it now, not while arguing about it later.
12. The quote written down, not just said on a callA verbal number has a way of becoming a different number by the time the invoice arrives.
13. Expenses and materials itemised or explicitly includedTravel, software, printing — say which side of the invoice they land on before either of you assumes.
14. A deadline for the quote itself, so it can't be held indefinitely"This price is valid for thirty days" stops a client sitting on your quote while shopping it around for months.
15. Your own availability checked before you promise a dateA quote with a date you can't actually hit costs you the relationship it was meant to win.
16. The quote sent as a document, not buried in an email bodySomething they can forward to whoever signs it off, rather than a paragraph that gets paraphrased badly on the way.
17. A follow-up planned if you hear nothing backOne week is normal, not pushy. Silence usually means busy, not no.