What should a quotation for interior work include?

Six sections: a two-line scope summary; line items priced from the BOQ (description, unit, quantity, rate, amount); explicit exclusions stating what the price does not cover; a stage-wise payment schedule; validity period and GST treatment; and a sign-off block for client approval. The line items build trust; the exclusions and payment schedule prevent disputes.

Should an interior quotation be lump-sum or item-wise?

Item-wise, priced from a BOQ. A lump sum hides your assumptions, invites arbitrary negotiation, and gives you no baseline when scope changes. Item-wise rates let the client see what they're paying for, and every variation and running bill later reconciles against the same lines.

How long should an interior work quotation be valid?

Typically 15-30 days. Material prices — plywood, laminates, tiles, hardware — move month to month, so an open-ended quote quietly transfers rate risk onto you. State the validity on the quote and re-issue with current rates if the client returns after it lapses.

What is the difference between a quotation and a BOQ?

The BOQ is the priced engineering document — every item of work with quantity, unit, and rate. The quotation is the commercial wrapper the client signs: it presents the BOQ's line items along with scope, exclusions, payment terms, validity, and taxes. A strong quotation is built from a BOQ; it doesn't replace one.

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Quotation format for interior work: what to include, a sample, and why most quotes stall

An interior-work quotation isn't a price on a letterhead — it's the document that decides whether the client signs, and whether the project makes money after they do. The format that wins has six sections: a two-line scope, BOQ-style line items, explicit exclusions, a stage-wise payment schedule, validity and GST, and a clean sign-off. Most quotes in this industry carry only two of those six — and the two that get skipped (exclusions and the payment schedule) are exactly the ones that prevent disputes later. Here's the working format, a sample, and how to send quotes that close.

By Vivek Manickam · Updated 2026-07-02

Search “quotation format for interior work” and you’ll find letterhead templates: logo on top, a price at the bottom, “thanking you” at the end. That’s not the part that wins jobs. A quotation is the commercial document a client signs — and the difference between one that closes cleanly and one that stalls (or closes and then bleeds) is structure, not stationery.

The six sections of a quotation that wins

Scope summary — two lines. Site, area, what’s delivered. “Design + execution of a 2,400 sqft office interior at OMR: civil, false ceiling, partitions, modular furniture, electrical.” The client should understand the whole job before seeing a single number.
Line items, priced from the BOQ. Description, unit, quantity, rate, amount — the same six-column discipline as a BOQ, because it should be your BOQ, presented commercially. Item-wise pricing is what makes a client trust the total: they can inspect it, compare it, and approve it without feeling they’re signing a blind cheque.
Exclusions — what the price does NOT cover. Client-supplied items, statutory approvals and deposits, AC and fire-fighting works, civil repairs beyond scope. This is the section most quotes skip, and it’s where most fit-out disputes are born. Every explicit exclusion is an argument you won’t have at handover.
Payment schedule — tied to stages, not dates. An advance on approval, then slabs against progress: for example 30% advance · 40% on material delivery · 20% on completion of works · 10% at handover. Cash follows work — the same logic that later runs your RA bills.
Validity + GST. 15–30 days validity (material rates move; an open-ended quote is an open-ended risk), and GST stated plainly so the client compares like with like.
Sign-off. A signature or e-approval block. A quotation the client can approve in one step closes measurably faster than one that ends with “kindly revert.”

A sample skeleton you can copy

Quotation — Office interior fit-out, [Client], [Site] Scope: Design + execution of 2,400 sqft office interior — civil, ceiling, partitions, furniture, electrical.

# Item Unit Qty Rate (₹) Amount (₹)
1 Gypsum partition wall sqm 48 1,450 69,600
2 Vitrified tile flooring sqm 120 1,180 1,41,600
3 Grid false ceiling sqm 120 950 1,14,000
4 Modular workstations nos 24 18,500 4,44,000
Subtotal (works) 7,69,200

Exclusions: statutory approvals & deposits; AC, fire-fighting and IT cabling; client-supplied appliances. Payment: 30% advance · 40% on material delivery · 20% on completion · 10% at handover. Validity: 21 days. GST: 18% extra on the above. Approval: signature / e-approval below.

#	Item	Unit	Qty	Rate (₹)	Amount (₹)
1	Gypsum partition wall	sqm	48	1,450	69,600
2	Vitrified tile flooring	sqm	120	1,180	1,41,600
3	Grid false ceiling	sqm	120	950	1,14,000
4	Modular workstations	nos	24	18,500	4,44,000
	Subtotal (works)				7,69,200

(The line items and subtotal are the same worked example as our BOQ guide — because that’s the point: one priced baseline, presented twice.)

Why most quotations stall — or win the job and lose money

Lump-sum pricing. “Complete interior works: ₹7,69,200” invites one response: “make it 7.” Line items move the negotiation to scope, where you can trade intelligently, instead of to a single number, where you can only discount.
No exclusions. The client assumed the price included the AC works. You assumed it didn’t. Whoever wrote nothing down pays.
No payment schedule. Without stage-wise slabs you end up financing the project and negotiating every payment from a position of half-finished work.
No expiry. Plywood moved 8% since you quoted; the client returns in month three holding your old rates.
The re-keying drift. The estimator’s BOQ says one thing; the quote that went out says another, because someone retyped it and “adjusted.” Now the document the client signed doesn’t match your costing — and you won’t find out until the running bills stop reconciling.

That last one is the quiet killer, and it’s structural: the BOQ, the quotation, the variations, and the bills live in different files. Boqos exists for exactly this — the client-facing proposal is generated from the priced BOQ lines (with e-approval built in), variations update the same lines, and billing reconciles to what was actually signed. One baseline, quote to cash — so the quotation you win with is the number you actually make money on.

The short version

Format the quotation as six sections: two-line scope, BOQ-priced line items, explicit exclusions, stage-wise payment schedule, validity + GST, one-step sign-off. Price item-wise from a real BOQ, write down what’s not included, make cash follow stages, and let the quote expire. The template is the easy part — the discipline of keeping the quotation, the BOQ, and the bills on one baseline is what turns a signed quote into a profitable project.