How to Write a Quotation: what it must carry, and the process from enquiry to signed quote without re-keying anything

How to write a quotation: state who is quoting and who is being quoted, describe exactly what will be supplied, price it per line with VAT shown correctly, say how long the price holds and what starts the work, and give the customer one clear way to accept. Then build the process so nothing is typed twice.

Most small businesses in South Africa get the document roughly right and the process badly wrong. The quote is typed in a word processor from the last quote, the customer accepts it in a WhatsApp message, the invoice is typed again from the quote, and the follow-up depends on somebody remembering. This post covers both halves: what a quotation has to carry, with the two rules that are actually law, and the process from enquiry to signed quote that stops the re-keying. The invoice half of the story is already covered in how to automate invoicing; this is the front half.

What is the difference between a quotation, an estimate and an invoice?

A quotation is a fixed offer to supply specified goods or services at a stated price, open for acceptance for a stated period. An estimate is an approximation of what the work is likely to cost, and it carries its own rules under the Consumer Protection Act when the work is repair or maintenance. An invoice is the demand for payment once the supply has happened, and if you are a VAT vendor it has to meet SARS's tax invoice particulars to count.

The practical difference is what the customer can hold you to. A quotation is the price. An estimate is a ceiling you can only exceed by going back to the customer first. The words matter, so use the right one on the document.

What must a quotation contain?

There is no statute that lists the contents of a quotation the way the VAT Act lists the contents of a tax invoice. What follows is the working list, with the two items that are law marked as such.

1. Who is quoting. Your registered business name, registration number, physical address and contact details. If you are a VAT vendor, your VAT number.
2. Who is being quoted. The customer's legal name, not the name of the person who phoned, and the address the goods or services will be delivered to.
3. A quote number and a date. One number per quote, never reused. The accepted quote becomes the reference on the invoice and on every follow-up.
4. What exactly is being supplied. One line per item or stage, with quantity, unit and unit price. "Website" is not a line item. "Five-page website, copy supplied by client, two rounds of revisions" is.
5. The price, with VAT handled correctly. This one is law. SARS's VAT 404 Guide for Vendors opens its list of important principles with this: "All prices charged, advertised or quoted by a vendor must include VAT at the applicable rate (currently 15% for standard-rated supplies)." If you are a vendor, the quoted total is the VAT-inclusive total, and the VAT amount is shown. If you are not registered, say so on the quote in plain words, so the customer does not assume 15% is still to come off or to be added.
6. What is excluded. Travel, third-party fees, licences, anything the customer supplies. The excluded list is where disputes come from, so write it.
7. How long the price holds. A validity period, stated as a date rather than "30 days", so nobody has to count.
8. Payment terms and what starts the work. The deposit, the milestones, the due date on the balance. If nothing starts until the deposit clears, say that.
9. How to accept. A signature block, and ideally an electronic one. An ordinary electronic signature is valid for a quotation under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act; the detail is in are electronic signatures legal in South Africa.

The estimate rule in the Consumer Protection Act, and who it applies to

Section 15 of the Consumer Protection Act, headed "Pre-authorisation of repair or maintenance services", applies to transactions above a threshold the Minister may prescribe, where a service provider supplies a repair or maintenance service, or supplies or installs replacement parts, in property belonging to the consumer. Read from the Act itself, the section says a service provider "must not charge a consumer for the supply of any goods or services contemplated in subsection (1), unless" either an estimate was given and "the consumer has subsequently authorised the work", or the consumer, in writing or another recorded form, declined the estimate and authorised the work, or "pre-authorised any charges up to a specified maximum".

Two more lines from the same section matter to anyone who quotes on repair work. The provider "must not charge a consumer for preparing an estimate", including any diagnostic work, disassembly or reassembly needed to prepare it, unless the price for preparing the estimate was disclosed and approved first. And once an estimate has been given, the provider "may not charge the consumer a price for that service, or those goods and services, that exceeds the estimate", unless the consumer was told of the additional charges and authorised the work to continue.

For businesses that sell to other businesses, section 5 of the Act sets a limit: it does not apply to a transaction "in terms of which the consumer is a juristic person whose asset value or annual turnover, at the time of the transaction, equals or exceeds the threshold value determined by the Minister". A small business customer below that threshold is a consumer under the Act; a large one is not. The discipline still travels well: put the estimate in writing, record the authorisation, and go back before exceeding it. That is a good quoting process whether or not the law compels it.

Section 23, on the disclosure of price, adds one more rule with a useful exception. A supplier "must not require a consumer to pay a price for any goods or services" that is "higher than the displayed price for those goods or services", and if two prices are displayed, no higher than the lower one. The section does not apply where "a supplier has provided an estimate pertaining to that transaction". The Act treats a written estimate as the price disclosure, which is a second reason to write one.

The process: from enquiry to signed quote without re-keying anything

The document is the easy half. The reason quoting eats time is that the same facts are typed three or four times between the first message and the first invoice. Here is the sequence, in the same dependency order as the business process automation map: capture once, reuse, route, remind, report.

1. Capture the enquiry once, as a record, not a message

The enquiry arrives on WhatsApp, a web form, a phone call or email. Wherever it arrives, the first act is to create one record with the customer's name, contact details, what they asked for and where it came from. That record is the thing the quote will be built from. If it lives only in a chat thread, every later step starts by scrolling.

Speed matters here more than most owners expect. The two studies that survive scrutiny in our speed to lead review both point the same way: the faster the first reply, the more likely the enquiry turns into a customer. The record is what makes a fast, accurate reply possible for whoever is on duty.

2. Build the quote from a price list, not from the last quote

A quote built by editing the previous customer's quote inherits the previous customer's mistakes. Keep the products, services and unit prices in one list, with VAT treatment set per item, and build every quote by selecting from it. The customer block comes from the record captured in step 1. The only thing typed is the quantity and any line that is genuinely bespoke.

3. Send it with the acceptance built in

Send the quote as a link or a document with a signature field, not as a PDF that has to be printed, signed and photographed. Acceptance in a WhatsApp message is a real acceptance, but it is not attached to the quote, and six months later nobody can find it. An electronic signature on the quote itself is the evidence, and it timestamps the moment the price was accepted, which matters for the validity date.

4. Let the reminder come from the quote

An unaccepted quote should chase itself. Two days before the validity date, a message goes to the customer from the quote record. If the customer opens the quote and does not sign, that is a different message from one who never opened it. None of this needs a person to remember, because the quote knows its own dates.

5. The accepted quote becomes the invoice, untouched

The moment the signature lands, the accepted quote converts into the invoice or the deposit invoice, with the same lines, the same VAT treatment and the quote number as the reference. Nothing is retyped, which is why the invoice cannot disagree with the quote. From there the invoice follow-up process takes over, and the VAT timing rules in invoicing for small business apply.

6. Report on the quotes, not just the invoices

Once quotes are records, you can count them: how many went out this month, how many were signed, how long the average one sat before acceptance, which items get removed before signing. Those four numbers tell you more about the business than the sales total does, and none of them exist while quotes are documents in a folder.

How the work gets reduced

The reduction is specific. The customer's details are typed once, at the enquiry, and reused on the quote, the invoice and every reminder. The price list is maintained once and reused on every quote. The VAT treatment is set once per item and never recalculated by hand. The acceptance lives on the quote rather than in a chat. The reminder is generated from the validity date rather than from memory. The invoice is generated from the accepted quote rather than from a template. Six pieces of re-keying gone, and the errors that ride on re-keying with them.

This is the workflow NexPay and NexSign exist for inside the NexBDM platform: quote, signature and invoice on one record. It is also achievable with a spreadsheet, a signature tool and discipline. The order is what matters, not the vendor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a quotation legally binding in South Africa?

A quotation is an offer. Once the customer accepts it within the validity period, on the terms stated, a contract exists on those terms. That is why the validity date, the exclusions and the acceptance method should all be written on the document itself.

Must a quotation include VAT?

If you are a registered VAT vendor, yes. SARS's VAT 404 guide states that all prices charged, advertised or quoted by a vendor must include VAT at the applicable rate. If you are not registered, say so on the quote so the customer does not expect VAT either way.

What is the difference between a quotation and an estimate?

A quotation is a fixed price for defined work. An estimate is an approximation, and under section 15 of the Consumer Protection Act a repair or maintenance provider who gave an estimate may not charge more than it without first informing the consumer and getting authorisation to continue.

Can a customer accept a quotation by electronic signature?

Yes. An ordinary electronic signature is valid for a quotation under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. Only a short list of documents, such as wills and long-term property leases, are excluded from electronic signing.

How long should a quotation be valid for?

There is no legal rule. Choose a period that protects you against supplier price changes and write it as a date on the quote. A quote that has passed its validity date is not an open offer, and the reminder before that date is the cheapest sales activity you have.

The short version

A quotation carries nine things, two of which are law: quoted prices from a VAT vendor include VAT, and an estimate on repair work caps what you can charge unless the customer authorises more. The process that makes quoting cheap captures the enquiry once, builds from a price list, carries the signature on the document, reminds from the validity date, and turns the accepted quote into the invoice without a keystroke. If you want to see how many times the same customer's details are typed between the first message and the first invoice in your business, that is what a Business Autopsy counts, and a discovery call is where it starts.

Sources, read directly on 16 September 2026: Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, sections 15 and 23, from the Government Gazette copy published on gov.za; South African Revenue Service, VAT 404 Guide for Vendors, Issue 15, "Important principles", principle 1; South African Revenue Service, Value-Added Tax page, confirming the rate maintained at 15% from 1 May 2025. Every quoted phrase is the authority's own wording. No figure in this post is ours.