It is half nine at night, laptop half open on your knee, and you have got that itch that there is a quote out there you never heard back on. The bathroom in Mill Lane? The consumer unit for the woman with the two dogs? You scroll back through your texts, then WhatsApp, then email, and find three quotes you had genuinely forgotten. One is six weeks old.
That is the real cost of not tracking quotes. Every one of those was a drive, twenty minutes of measuring and an hour at the kitchen table pricing it up. You have already done the work. Then it goes out and disappears, and the only reason you lose the job is that nobody followed it up. Not price. Not skill. Admin.
One list, one place, no exceptions
It does not matter whether your list is a notebook in the van, a whiteboard in the garage, a spreadsheet or a job management app. What matters is that there is one of them, and every quote goes on it the moment it leaves your phone. Two half-lists is the same as no list. Pick what you will actually keep up — a cheap A4 pad with seven columns ruled on it beats an app you never open.
What every line needs on it
Seven bits. Any less and you cannot chase properly. Any more and you stop filling it in.
| Date sent | Customer | Job | Price | Sent by | Chase on | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Aug | D. Whitmore, 14 Mill Ln | Bathroom refit | £2,340 inc VAT | 08 Aug | Chased once | |
| 06 Aug | S. Doyle, Beech Rd | CU change + certs | £680 inc VAT | 11 Aug | Won | |
| 07 Aug | Kenner Motors | Yard lighting | £1,150 + VAT | 13 Aug | Sent |
Two details that save arguments later. Write whether the price includes VAT on the line itself, in the words you used to the customer. And give each quote a number — Q-041, Q-042 — so you can say "quote forty-one" on the phone instead of describing the job again.
Keep the status words down to six
Sent. Chased once. Chased twice. Won. Lost. Dead. That is it. The moment you invent "maybe", you have created a bin where quotes sit forever. Everything must land on Won, Lost or Dead eventually.
The exact words to send
Chasing feels like begging. It is not — you are asking someone to decide so you can plan your diary. Copy these and change the names.
When you send the quote — this one does the most work, because it sets up every chase after it:
"Hi Dave, quote attached for the bathroom at 14 Mill Lane — £2,340 including VAT, held for 30 days. I've pencilled you in for the week of the 8th but I can't hold that once someone else books it. A yes or a no either way is fine, just let me know. Thanks, Mark."
First chase, three or four days later:
"Hi Dave, just checking the quote landed OK — they do sometimes go to junk. No rush on deciding, I only want to know you've got it. Mark"
Second chase, around ten days:
"Hi Dave, still happy to do the bathroom for £2,340. My September is filling up — if you want it done this side of the month I'd need to know by Friday. If you've gone with someone else that's completely fine, just say and I'll stop bothering you. Mark"
The closing one, around a month:
"Hi Dave, I'm going to close the file on this one so it stops sitting on my list. If you want to pick it up later give me a shout and I'll re-price it. All the best, Mark"
If you ring instead and they answer:
"Hi Dave, it's Mark — the plumber who came out about the bathroom. I'm not chasing an answer, I'm just tidying my diary for next month. Are you still thinking about it, or shall I take it off my list?"
"Shall I take it off my list" gets a straight answer, because nobody wants to be taken off a list. And when someone says they have gone elsewhere, ask: "No problem at all — was it price or timing? It genuinely helps me price the next one." Write the answer in one word next to the quote. After twenty of those you will know something about your pricing that no course will teach you.
The Friday ten minutes
Same time every week. Kettle on, list out, ten minutes.
- Every quote you sent this week is on the list, with a chase date
- Anything with a chase date this week — send the message or move the date, never just leave it
- Anything sent over 30 days ago with no answer — send the closing message and mark it Dead
- Anything won — into the diary, and take the deposit if you take one
- Anything lost — one word for why
- Count the live ones and add up what they are worth. That number is your next few weeks of work
That last line is the bit people skip and it is the most useful. If you have £900 of live quotes out in August, you already know September is quiet — and you have three weeks to do something about it rather than finding out on the day.
When this will not fix it
Be honest about which problem you actually have. If you are only sending two quotes a month, tracking them better will not fill your diary — you have a getting-found problem, and the log will just help you watch the same drought in more detail. And if you are losing nearly everything you price, the list tells you that faster but not why. That is a pricing conversation, and the "price or timing" answers are where to start.
Some things sit outside this entirely. Larger commercial work comes with terms, retentions and payment schedules that need proper wording — for anything with a signed contract attached, a solicitor is worth the fee. How long you must keep records, and how VAT sits on a quote if you are registered or heading for the threshold, is one for your accountant. And where a quote carries a certification commitment — Gas Safe, Part P notification, MCS — check the scope you have written matches what you are registered to sign off. That is the line that causes trouble later.
