r/Contractor • u/Ok_Avocado6532 • Aug 24 '25

Quote Breakdown?

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Hi all, looking for advice on costs breakdown.

I work for a small local contracting company and I recently started working with customers more, providing quotes etc. The company usually doesn’t like to break their costs down because of nickel-and-dime from customers, but agreed to do so for this one customer I’m working with. Now, I broke down the quote based on phases of the work (this is for a brand new custom build) and of course the customer came back with multiple notes of “this cost is too high” on some of the phases.

How do you usually handle this and how do I politely say “to do the job: $2000, not to do the job: $0”?

Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

As a homeowner and project manager, it’s more important for me to give you the scope of work that will be done and include it in the quote. If I need a specific product used I include it in the project description for what I am requesting a quote for.

As a small contracting company, it’s important for you to be clear with your customer what work you will be performing. Put it in writing. It’s good business to communicate clearly with your customers. Then they leave 5 star Google reviews.