Email a Quote With the Price in the Body and the PDF as the Record

What goes in the email body, and what goes in the attachment

To send a quote by email, put five things in the body of the message: the total, what it includes, the deposit, the date the quote expires, and one clear way to accept. Attach the full itemized quote as a one-page PDF, or include a link to an online version with an accept button.

The common mistake is writing "Please find attached our quote" and nothing else. Your client is probably reading on a phone, between other things. A PDF on a phone means a tap, a load, a pinch-zoom, and a scroll to find the number they actually care about. Some of them never open it. Others open it, see the total, and close it without knowing what to do next.

Think of it this way: the email is the pitch, the attachment is the record. The body should let someone decide yes or no without opening anything. The attachment is there so both of you have the line items, the exclusions, and the terms in writing.

The subject line does real work too. "Quote" alone gets lost. Put the job, the address or project name, the price and the deadline in it, so the client can find it in three weeks when they search their inbox: Quote #1042, cedar deck at 14 Elm St, $8,400, valid to Nov 12.

Send it from your normal business email, to one person, not a list. If two people decide (a couple, a practice manager and a doctor), address both by name in the To line so nobody has to forward it.

A worked example: Dana's $8,400 deck quote

Dana is a contractor. She walked a client's yard on Tuesday and is sending the quote on Thursday, October 29, 2026. Here is what is on the attached PDF:

And here is the email body. Notice that every number a client needs to decide is in the message, not only in the PDF:

Hi Mark,

Thanks for walking the yard with me Tuesday. Here is the quote for the new deck.

Total: $8,400, including materials, permit, and haul-away of the old deck.
Deposit to book: $2,520 (30%), balance of $5,880 when the job is done.
Start: week of November 30, if booked by November 12.
Valid until: Thursday, November 12, 2026.

Not included: staining, lighting, or any rot found in the house ledger board. If we find rot, I will stop and price it with you before doing anything.

To go ahead, just reply "approved" and I will send the deposit link. The full itemized quote is attached (one page).

Dana

The "not included" line is the one most people leave out of the email, and it is the one that prevents the argument in week two. The deposit link can be a simple payment link, which works like a checkout page in a URL; just know that you, not the client, pay the processing fee on it. When the job is done, the same line items carry straight over to the invoice, which is why it helps to follow the same structure as a well-laid-out small business invoice.

PDF attachment or an online quote with an accept button

Both work. The choice comes down to how many quotes you send and whether you need to know they were seen.

A PDF attachment costs nothing. Make it in Google Docs or Word, export to PDF, attach, send. It is fine if you send a handful of quotes a month. Keep it to a single file and well under Gmail's 25 MB attachment limit. If you want to show photos of the site or past work, link to a shared folder instead of attaching twenty images, because larger files get turned into Drive links anyway and some clients' inboxes will choke on them.

The weakness of a PDF is the acceptance. The client replies "sounds good" or, worse, prints it, signs it, photographs it, and texts you the photo. You end up with your yes scattered across email, text and voicemail, and you cannot tell whether they ever opened the quote.

An online quote with an accept button is a link to a page showing the quote. The client taps Accept, sometimes types their name, and you get a timestamped record. Most invoicing and job tools have this, including QuickBooks, FreshBooks and many trade-specific apps. If you already use one for invoicing, use its quote feature rather than adding another tool. Fynl does this too, with the quote, contract and deposit invoice in the same place as the client record, for $49 a month; it is worth it if you are also replacing a separate CRM and booking tool, not for quotes alone.

A simple rule: if you send more than about two quotes a week, or if clients regularly say "I never got it," the accept link pays for itself in time saved chasing. Below that, a PDF and a clear email body is enough.

A reply that says yes can be a contract, so write the email like one

Here is what most guides skip. Under the federal E-SIGN Act, a contract cannot be denied legal effect just because it was formed electronically. In practice that means a client replying "approved" to your email can be a valid acceptance of your quote. That works in your favor, but it also means the email body is part of the deal.

So three things belong in the email, not only in the PDF:

• An expiry date. Without one, your offer stays open for a "reasonable time," which nobody agrees on. Lumber goes up, your calendar fills, and a client accepts a five-month-old price. Fourteen to thirty days is typical for trades and services.
• The scope boundary. What is not included, and what happens if you find something unexpected. One sentence is enough.
• Payment terms. Deposit amount and when the balance is due. If you plan to charge for late payment, say so now; adding it at invoice time is how disputes start. See how to set a late fee that is actually worth charging.

For bigger jobs, use the quote to get the yes and a separate contract to set the full terms, signed before the deposit. Some trades have their own rules: California, for example, requires auto repair shops to give a written estimate and get the customer's authorization before work starts, and again before going over it. Check your state's licensing board if you are in a regulated trade. This is general information, not legal advice.

Then follow up on a schedule rather than when you remember. Dana's quote goes out Thursday, October 29 and expires Thursday, November 12. She checks it arrived on Monday, November 2, answers questions or offers a call on Thursday, November 5, and sends a short "this expires Thursday" note on Tuesday, November 10. The deadline gives her a reason to follow up that does not feel like nagging.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• 15 U.S. Code § 7001, Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (Cornell LII)
• Gmail Help: Attachment size limits
• California Bureau of Automotive Repair