Estimating prices a job. Quoting presents the offer, takes the acceptance, and carries the accepted scope into the contract and the invoice.
That is a document and workflow problem, and it is where Australian builders lose money quietly. A quote can be priced perfectly and still fail: the exclusions were unstated, the allowance silently carried margin that belonged in the contract price, or two trade quotes were compared on totals when they described different scopes.
Key Takeaways
- A quote binds on acceptance; an estimate does not. A tender is a priced bid submitted to a principal, so mislabelling the document is where exposure starts (business.gov.au).
- An allowance does not carry your margin. HIA states the prime cost and provisional sum allowance "does not include the builder's margin", which must be in the contract price before signing (HIA, 14 April 2025).
- No state lets you agree around the deposit cap. NSW caps a residential deposit at 10 per cent of the contract price (Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) s 8); South Australia allows a maximum $1,000 below $20,000 and 5 per cent above (Consumer and Business Services SA).
- The lowest trade quote is usually not the lowest cost — a low package often leads only until the exclusions list shows what it left out (Datagrid).
Quote, Estimate or Tender
An estimate is an internal, indicative costing. Our guide to how estimating software prices a job covers it; where quantities come from is covered by construction takeoff software.
A quote is a fixed-price offer to a client for a defined scope. It binds on acceptance and states what is included, what is excluded, what is an allowance, the price, how long it holds, and what is payable to proceed. A tender is a priced bid to a principal under a formal process. A proposal is a quote with presentation added: a sales document, not a legal instrument.
What quoting software adds is not pricing. It is the client-facing document, acceptance with a record of who accepted and when, revision control, and conversion of the accepted scope into a job without a second entry.
What Has to Be on the Quote
The federal business portal publishes the minimum content list, and it reads as a document specification.
A written quote should carry your business name, ABN and contact details; the customer's name and contacts; a clear description of the work; itemised and total costs including GST if applicable; any variations and revisions discussed; payment terms; preferred payment method; work start and finish dates; a quote expiry date; and space for the customer's signature and date (business.gov.au).
Two entries are routinely skipped. The revisions line means the revision history belongs on the document, not in the email thread. The expiry line means the quote says what happens when it lapses, not just a date.
Scope, Inclusions and Exclusions
The exclusion list is margin protection, not small print.
A clean residential quote groups the work trade by trade in language a non-builder reads. Build Margin's published example summarises a renovation as site preparation, demolition, carpentry, electrical, plumbing and finishes, with overhead and margin lifted out as a single line (Build Margin, checked October 2026). Then state what is not covered — cartage, rock excavation, asbestos, make-good, re-pricing after a plan revision. An exclusion you did not write is an argument you will have later.
Allowances, Provisional Sums and Margin
An allowance is not a fixed price, and it must read as one.
A prime cost item is something not selected at contract but chosen later by the owner, such as tapware or white goods. A provisional sum covers a mixture of items and labour, such as excavation, driveways or a pool (HIA).
The margin rule is the part that matters. The allowance in the contract schedule "does not include the builder's margin", and the builder "must ensure that the margin for prime cost and provisional sum items is included in the overall contract price before signing the contract". HIA's worked example applies a 30 per cent margin to an $8,720 allowance, adding $2,616 to the contract price.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Actual cost equals the allowance | No adjustment to the contract price |
| Actual cost exceeds the allowance | Claim the actual cost plus a margin of 20 per cent on the excess where the contract is silent, with evidence of cost |
| Actual cost is less than the allowance | Credit the difference back in the next progress claim |
| Is it a variation? | No. The adjustment goes into the progress claim for that work; the owner does not need to approve it |
Source: HIA, "Prime cost and provisional sums", 14 April 2025.
HIA flags the common error: where the contract is silent, the default margin applies to the excess, not the whole actual cost. For software, the question is narrow: does it flag a line as provisional through to the client-facing document, and hold the margin separately so the allowance is not silently carrying it?
Pricing, GST and Validity
A lump sum is one fixed price for a defined scope — the residential default. A schedule of rates prices units and re-measures quantity as work proceeds, suiting maintenance where the extent is unknown at quote time. Cost plus charges actual cost plus an agreed margin, and is restricted by statute in Victoria (Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) s 13).
A quote is not a tax invoice. The ATO requires one within 28 days of a customer request unless the sale is $82.50 including GST or less (ATO). Business-to-business quotes need not specify GST; consumer-facing prices must (LawPath). Show the total excluding GST, the GST amount and the total including GST.
No Australian jurisdiction legislates a quote expiry; the state Acts regulate the price through the contract, so a builder can generally reprice until the contract is signed (Buildstreet). Practice is 14 to 30 days, with 14 days preferred for larger jobs where materials are moving (TradieBuddy). Treat that as convention, not law.
Acceptance, Deposit and Payment
The deposit is where Australian law puts a hard ceiling on what you can ask for.
A Commonwealth signature requirement is met electronically where the method identifies the person and indicates their intention, and is as reliable as appropriate for the purpose (Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth) s 10, compilation in force 5 December 2025). Between private parties the consent limb applies, which is why online acceptance works where both sides have agreed to it. Build Margin records "their name, the time and the address it came from"; Buildxact ships digital acceptance as a named feature (Buildxact Help Center, checked October 2026). If the platform cannot tell you which revision was accepted, the audit trail is decorative.
| Jurisdiction | Deposit cap on residential work | Source |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | 10 per cent of the contract price | Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) s 8 |
| Victoria | 10 per cent under $20,000; 5 per cent at $20,000 or more | Consumer Affairs Victoria |
| Queensland | 20 per cent up to $3,300; 10 per cent to $19,999; generally 5 per cent at $20,000 or more, with a limited off-site fabrication exception | QBCC |
| South Australia | $1,000 below $20,000; 5 per cent at $20,000 or more | Consumer and Business Services SA |
The cap is not negotiable, and the one that applies is the one for the site. In NSW, demanding or receiving an excess deposit carries a maximum penalty of 1,000 penalty units for a corporation (s 8). A quote should say on its face that acceptance is not the contract: in NSW a written contract is required over $5,000 including GST (NSW Government, updated 29 April 2026).
What follows the deposit belongs in the contract, not the quote: progress payments against completed work, and in Victoria a legislated stage schedule setting what falls due at base, frame, lock-up and fixing (Consumer Affairs Victoria). Raise progress claims against those stages, not against the quote.
From Signed Quote to Invoice and Budget
The accepted quote should become the contract schedule, then the job budget, then the first progress claim, without anyone retyping a number. The failure mode is a quote built in one tool, a contract assembled by hand, and a budget re-keyed into a third: every retype is a chance for the won number to drift from the estimated one, invisibly, until the job runs at a margin nobody can explain.
Issue a new version rather than editing the document underneath a client who has read it. Build Margin blocks sending where the estimate has moved since the quote was drafted — the right behaviour to ask for. How that handover sits in the wider stack is covered in our construction management software guide.
Trade Quotes: Making Them Comparable
The lowest trade quote is routinely not the lowest cost, because the scopes differ.
Datagrid puts the mechanism plainly: "A low concrete package can appear to lead until the exclusions list reveals that rebar was excluded entirely while other bidders carried it" (Datagrid). CivilInfo describes it from the other side: three quotations can carry the same project name and price three outcomes, so sorting the totals "would compare different scopes" (CivilInfo).
Comparability is engineered before the quotes arrive. Practitioner guidance treats a defined request for quotation and a structured scope matrix as the inputs that make bids comparable at all (Archdesk). Require from each trade: the drawing revision priced; scope marked item by item as included, excluded or unclear; whether a line is an allowance and how the excess is priced; a validity date; and licence and insurance details. Plug the gaps to see what the missing work costs, then compare adjusted totals (Bidmere).
Our Adelaide trade-quote desk does this as a service: one drawing set, approached to up to three vetted trades per package, chased and returned as a single side-by-side comparison on the same scope and revision. Preparing the set so every trade prices the same thing is covered in our guide to uploading DWG plans for Adelaide trade quotes.
Quoting-Capable Tools in Australia
The Australian set splits by access model rather than feature list, and part of it publishes nothing at all.
| Tool | Best for | Published AU pricing | Price basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildxact | Residential builders and renovators | Foundation $199/mo, Pro $399/mo, Master $599/mo ex GST, unlimited users; annual $169/$339/$509 | Per account |
| Build Margin | AU residential, estimate-to-quote | Starter $99, Standard $299, Pro $499 AUD per month | Per account |
| Tradify | Tradie quoting and job management | Lite $48, Pro $52, Plus $62 AUD per user per month ex GST | Per user |
| Fergus | Trades crews | Essentials from $53, Professional from $77 per month; timesheet users from $26 | Per account plus timesheet users |
| NextMinute | Residential trade teams of 3+ | From AU$199/mo for 3-9 users, month-to-month | Per crew band |
| Jobdeck | Australian trades, flat band pricing | $39 / $79 / $149 / $249 AUD per month including GST | Per crew band |
| JobRunner | Trade businesses | Free; $49.99 / $99.99 / $199.99 AUD per month including GST | Per account |
| AllQuote | Trade and commercial contractors | Takeoff A$99, Team A$149, Business A$349 per month including GST | Per account |
| simPRO | Field service and commercial trades | Quote only; no AUD price list published | Not published |
| Buildertrend | Custom and volume residential builders | Quote only; no published price | Not published |
All pricing checked October 2026 against each vendor's own page. Buildxact, Build Margin, Tradify and Fergus quote excluding GST; Jobdeck, JobRunner and AllQuote are GST-inclusive. Confirm the basis, contract term and GST treatment before comparing headlines.
What matters more than price is what each tool does with the acceptance. Several cheaper tradie-focused products produce a good-looking quote and stop at the invoice — not fine if the won numbers are supposed to become the budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a quote and an estimate?
A quote is a fixed-price offer for a defined scope that becomes a legally binding contract once accepted. An estimate is indicative and not binding, provided it is clearly labelled as one. Our guide to how estimating software prices a job covers the document behind it.
How long should a building quote be valid for?
No Australian state legislates a period. Practice is 14 to 30 days, with 14 days preferred where material prices are volatile.
How much deposit can I ask for?
It depends on the jurisdiction and cannot be varied by agreement: NSW 10 per cent of the contract price, Victoria 10 per cent under $20,000 and 5 per cent above, Queensland generally 5 per cent for work of $20,000 or more, and South Australia $1,000 below $20,000 and 5 per cent above.
Do I need to show GST on a quote?
A quote is not a tax invoice, and business-to-business quotes need not specify GST. Consumer-facing prices must show it. Show the total excluding GST, the GST amount and the total including GST.
Why are trade quotes not comparable on price alone?
Because they price different scopes and often different drawing revisions. A low package frequently achieves its number by excluding work others carried, so sorting by total compares different jobs.
Where This Leaves the Category
The quote is where scope, margin, tax and the terms of acceptance all meet, and it is the last point at which any of them can be changed cheaply. Everything downstream — the contract, the budget, the progress claims — inherits whatever the quote got wrong.
Choose on three things: whether the quote is generated from the estimate rather than re-keyed, whether acceptance returns with a revision and a timestamp attached, and whether the accepted numbers flow into the job without a second entry.
If the trade side of the quote is what costs you time, our Adelaide trade-quote desk takes one drawing set and returns comparable trade quotes on the same scope: start on the builder enablement page, or send a set through get started.